Words

…he felt a loneliness he’d not known since he was a child and he felt wholly alien to the world although he loved it still.

Cormac McCarthy All The Pretty Horses

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Look at those words. They are not $100 words or $10 words or even $1 words. Those are the words you find in the discount bin, five for 10 cents. But string them together just so? And you’re Cormac McCarthy. Not quite sure you believe what you see here?

Try another…

This is it, I think, this is it, right now, the present, this empty gas station, here, this western wind, this tang of coffee on the tongue, and I am petting the puppy, I am watching the mountain. And the second I verbalize this awareness in my brain, I cease to see the mountain or feel the puppy. I am opaque, so much black asphalt. But at the same second, the second I know I’ve lost it, I also realize that the puppy is still squirming on his back under my hand. Nothing has changed for him.

Annie Dillard – Pilgrim At Tinker Creek

Again, nothing flashy. Although verbalize has an awful lot of letters, everything around it is pure simplicity. “Verbalize” is like a forgotten pretty stone all covered up in periwinkle. To me, Dillard captures the same feeling I get when I forget I’m writing. As soon as I become aware, the moment is gone.

And so we struggle to find the perfect words to convey the meaning of what we see perfectly in our minds. It is useful to peruse the writing of those you enjoy reading to see what it is you enjoy. When I read McCarthy or Dillard, there are the inevitable moments where I go, “Yes! I know exactly that feeling.” But the truth is, I don’t know exactly what they had in mind when they wrote it, just that what they wrote resonates with me.

Have you ever had someone read your work and they pick out what you consider a throw-away line or a supporting bit of narrative and label it their favorite? That’s a pretty cool thing, don’t you think?

The ability of the reader to derive so much from so few words makes it difficult to guess how your writing will be received. Let that be the reason to write the story you want to write and let the chips fall where they may. Sure, skillful editing and revision go a long way, but those things cannot fix a writer’s infidelity to himself. And there, I think, is where all readers will be able to see the same thing, but it will have nothing to do with words and everything to do with you.

So dig into your box of words and figure out how to build your own truth with them. Polish them, let the honesty shine.