The Power of Words

As someone who spends a lot of their time immersed in the world of words, sometimes I lose a grip on why I love it so much. It's not that I lose hope in words, or that I fall out of love with language, it's that I become so blind to what I'm doing and so exhausted from constant work, that sometimes I forget about the spark that ignites in me whenever I read or write.

Now, from being in this community for a long time, I know that's not particularly uncommon. And frankly, we all need breaks from things we do a lot, even if we love them. Hence reading slumps, writer's block, etc. But sometimes, after long months of being uninspired, in rare moments when the cosmos seem to bleed together and brew the perfect moment, you're reminded just of why words are so powerful.

For me this happened a few weeks ago. It was a grey day, the first chill of autumn creeping into the air. I'd been slowly chugging my way through "Big Magic" by Elizabeth Gilbert, and on this day I was possessed by an inexplicable desire to devour it. So I sat down in a free hour I had and sped through the ending of the book. Upon finishing it, my eyes were wide, my heart was pounding, and every thought of mine was refocused back to writing.

It had been a long time since I'd been so inspired. Her writing is beautiful, of course, and her metaphors are masterful, but she also has that magic that she writes about. Her words carry with them a preternatural ability to move you, to get you out of your worries and fears and onto the computer to get writing, or acting, or whatever it is you love and want to pursue.

As she urged the reader, "So please calm down now and get back to work, okay? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes," I felt electric, like I'd been struck with the brilliance and the magic of the world upon which us writers and readers operate.

But I couldn't sit and stew on this moment. I couldn't revel in the energy that coursed through me, or jump on the train of adrenaline that was making my fingers itch to write. I'd bought tickets to see Porsha Olayiwola perform "Black and Ugly As Ever," and it was time for me to leave.

So, still radiating the creativity that Gilbert had instilled, I hopped on the train and shot over to see Olayiwola's performance. And needless to say, it was incredible. As she whisked us through her life, her experiences, and the flaws in our culture, I felt that energy in me heightening. It didn't fizzle, or drain out as sometimes happens when you let it sit. Instead, it grew, multiplying and spawning something I hadn't felt in a long time.

As Olayiwola stood before a crammed club and bellowed, "I'm so black I'm not alive, just not buried yet" and "Every time I twirled my afro out, I knew I was some kind of rebellion," I felt the energy in the room crackling.

My world was flowing and ebbing, the fibers of my brain coming undone and forging themselves anew. See, it is rare moments like that where the power of words becomes so apparent, so intense that it overwhelms you, that it seems to beat in every breath in the sweaty room, seems to twine with the stars and sing in the streets. It is not every day that you feel so intensely, so powerfully about how much words mean and the command they hold. Experiences like those are fleeting, blessings in a way. And I couldn't be more grateful.

You see, I was in a slump, dawdling in an unmotivated state. I hadn't written in weeks, I was barely getting through novels. I felt like I was drowning in work, and the world was starting to look more and more bland.

But words are more powerful than that. They are sometimes wretched and cruel, but they are powerful. And when you need them most, they sweep through and remind you just why you love them so much.

So if you are in the position I was in just a few weeks ago—feeling uninspired, not good enough, lost, or dazed—then let this be my beckon to you. Re-immerse yourself in the world of words. Don't give up, don't lose yourself now.

Keep chipping away at that novel you're reading, write a little bit every day, even if you have to gut the words out of yourself. Because I promise, you'll get your moment as well. You won't be uninspired forever.

As long as you keep trying, inspiration will strike again, and you'll remember awe-inspiring power of words for whatever reason it was.

And once they do, you'll be unstoppable.

Naming Your Character

Whether we realize it or not, names in literature are incredibly important.

In real life, our names aren't our choices, and they are often arbitrary choices, or a name that meant a lot to your parents, but very rarely do they have meaning beyond that.

For the most part, this is false in literature. Sure, tons of names of characters were taken from baby name lists, but often times names give glimpses into a character, or has a deep meaning to the character in question. There are times when you'll really want to sweat your name. I'm going to talk about how to find that name with a huge meaning, or figuring out the name that foreshadows a bit plot event, but also how to find the less important names, or names that are just names.

If you want your name to be intertwined with the story, or show things about the character, then you'll have to get creative.

There are plenty of examples of names where authors picked them because they directly reference an aspect of the character of the plot, or because the names feel like the character's personality trait. As an author, you have the wonderful ability to get to know your character before naming them if you so choose.

This is done very well in Carson McCullers's, The Heart Is a Lone Hunter. Here, there's the name Antonapoulos, which greatly reflects the character's finicky or persnickety nature. Then, you also have Singer, a name which really nicely shows simplicity, and a more tranquil nature. These names were chosen because they feel like and show the characters.

So try a couple names out. See which one feels best, because a lot of times for authors the name has to feel right for the character as they're writing it. 

If a character is very complex, or intelligent, name them accordingly; picking something like Solange or Cassiopeia will reflect this complex component, and it a hell of a lot more interesting to read than Sam or Joe.

Another technique you could use is a find a word that means something that your character does. This is best exemplified by Salinger's, The Catcher in the Rye. Now, this isn't my favorite book in the world, I can tell you that much, but one thing that Salinger does brilliantly is name our main character Holden. Holden, with the word "hold" directly in it, is so perfect because the entire story what Holden is doing is holding (get it?) onto things—the past, people, concepts, innocence. This name shows us how this character will act.

Another example of this is in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. J.K. Rowling, like everything else about this series, picked her names quite appropriately. This is the novel where Dolores Umbridge is introduced. While the word isn't spelled correctly—a choice you as an author can make—umbrage means an offense or an annoyance, which perfectly foreshadows just how her character will be.

On the topic of J.K. Rowling, she also named the antagonist of the series Voldemort. While not meaningful on first glance, any of you who speak French will know this name actually tells us just what Voldemort's goal is; in just one name, J.K. Rowling foreshadowed his goal and the majority of the plot in the later half of the series. Voldemort, broken into the words "vol de mort" translates to "flight of death." This showed his desire, as well as indicated everything we later learned about Horcruxes.

So if you want your name to mean something directly, put a significant descriptor of the character in the name, or change the spelling of a word, or turn an expression from a different language into a name—these will all increase the meaning of a name and give readers a connection to the character they wouldn't have otherwise had.

The last thing I wanted to talk about isn't as common in literature, but it's still an option if you're creating a character. You can have character's go nameless. If overused, this device becomes tiring and almost pretentious, but if used sparingly, you can create a great atmosphere of ambiguity and mystery, or it can separate the reader from the characters, which is sometimes a really interesting reading experience.

Now, if you have a couple irrelevant characters who waltz into a few scenes but aren't there to stay, or play an impactful role., you can always use babynames.com. That site, or sites like it will give you a wealth of names to choose, but I wouldn't recommend doing that for your main character.

A name can be all you use to characterize someone, so assign them carefully.

Chekhov's Gun

This post deals more with the technicalities of writing, and I would consider it to describe a strategy for analyzing descriptions in the story, and truly looking at whether or not you are being superfluous in description.

Chekhov's Gun is essentially the principle that the details and memorable elements to the story must be purposeful, or have a role later in the story. In his words, "Remove everything that has no relevance to the story. If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there."

The reason I think this is worth talking about, and a genuinely good rule to follow is it enhances your story in that it is more engaging.

If every detail or element to the story ultimately has a purpose, your readers will forever be guessing at how everything will tie together, and it will cause them to scour the book's details and mentions for clues at what will happen next.

This is huge to keep people not just flipping from one page to the next, but genuinely captured by the story.

In practice, I think this is also a really fantastic way to cut down your word count in editing should you find yourself with one that's too large. It will force you to weed out that which you don't need, and leave you a story that is tight and interactive, and would likely help to clean up some of the writing or even bits of the plot.

Now, this isn't to say you shouldn't describe anything unless every word in the description has a meaning later, but it is a good way to look at symbols or objects and what role they could play. Again, describing someone's features, or building the word is vital to the story, so you can't take it out solely on the principle it's not coming back as part of the plot, but it is a cool device to use with objects or concepts that you know will be part of your plot later in the novel.