Sturdy Saturday

I discovered today that if you spell 'Saturday' without the letter 'a', you get the word 'Sturdy'. I think it weird that when I try to say 'Saturday' without a, it feels very awkward, but saying the word 'sturdy', it feels just fine. The same thing is true for seeing it spelled.

Little discoveries like this are what make me a writer. Or rather, they explain why I choose to be a writer. Words are fun to me. They are both solid and fluid. Words have definite meanings; you can look them up. Words can be used to explain almost everything. If there's something we can't explain, we'll create a new word or phrase to describe it. And yet, words change meanings over time (Man used to mean person, but now it means male person). If you use a word in a nonstandard way, but you do it with enough conviction, you will give that word a new meaning. Get enough people using the new meaning, and it becomes the standard and official.

I love how words are just collections of sounds. Since the human body can only make so many sounds, we end up with words that are very similar to each other in sound, but not necessarily in meaning (like Sturdy Saturday). When I tell people to let their mind wander when looking for ideas, this is how my mind wanders. I look for words with similar sounds or structures and then I wonder what kind of story could be made from it (Sturdy Saturday sounds like the story of a woman trying to keep her sanity on a weekend where everything goes wrong and then some).

Words are not a mere idea to me; they are an experience. 'Seething' is a word that feels exactly what it means. 'Seething' is an anger so intense that your teeth are clenched, you're foaming at the mouth, and cartoonish steam is spewing from your ears. Just saying the word makes you close your mouth and you get an airy sound from it. And if you're actually angry enough to use the word 'seething' you're also going to say it with conviction that fully explains what it means, even if you've never heard it before.

'Pique' is unique. It is an old-world classy to me. It's a word we often use, but rarely realize (because we think it is 'peak'). It has a peculiar structure and is used when you find something peculiar. It feels like a mashup of the words 'peculiar' and 'unique' (even though it has nothing to do with those words, their sounds are similar).

English, for as confusing and irregular as it is, does have some rules. For example, 'y' sometimes turns into 'i', when 'fly' becomes 'flies'. Similarly, 'x' can turn into 'c'. Recently, it occurred to me that 'crucial' comes from 'crux'. When that realization dawned on me, it felt like I got a hug from somebody who's been looking for me for 20 years.

I've mentioned before that writing is about sharing ideas and creating art. Whichever one you think is more important, whichever one you like to do, they both come down to words. The perfect word perfectly expresses your idea. The perfect word creates the exact color you're looking for. If you love words, you might just love writing. And if you love writing, I sincerely hope you love words.