Feel What You're Saying

I find it amusing that we place a magical quality to foreign language. It is this mystical phenomenon that we are certain makes perfect sense, yet we have no clue what it means or even how to go about solving the puzzle. It's no surprise that magical incantations are rarely in English; they aren't mystical enough.

There is a catch with foreign words, though. Although they can hold tremendous power, they are meaningless if you don't know their meaning. If you say magical words, but you have no idea what they mean or what they are supposed to do, nothing is going to happen.

You can see the same thing happen in music. When people sing in a foreign language, there will be one of two outcomes: either the person knows and truly understands the lyrics, thus singing with great power and greatly affecting the audience, or they are just making melodic sounds that they learned by rote and it comes off flat and lifeless.

Oddly enough, the same is true of music sung in English. People who are singing words are flat, and people telling stories and expressing emotions connect deeply with listeners. There's no way that you can listen to Freddie Mercury sing and not feel the emotions he was giving you through his voice.

Not so oddly, the same is true of writing. It is never enough to just put down words (though it can be a good start for a draft). You need to feel something when you write. You need to express that feeling. You need to make other people feel that feeling.

This is why I always suggest writing as though you were speaking it out loud. If your writing reads like a speech, then your audience can hear it more easily, even if they are reading it silently to themselves. You need to be able to feel what you're saying. Then you will have the chance to pass that feeling on.

The Best Choice At Each Juncture

People usually have to make decisions. We reach a juncture where a choice has to be made, so we weigh our options, pick the best option we can see, and move on. It's a pretty simple task, which we and our characters often do.

What isn't done as often, though, is planning several junctures ahead. You make a decision and follow through with it, and you are happy that it was the best choice. But sometimes some terrible thing happens afterward and you suddenly find yourself looking back, wishing you had made a different choice.

The reason we usually don't do it is that it's impossible. You can't know the future. Some things are completely out of your control. As such, your decision appeared to be the wrong one, but it wasn't. You made the best choice at the juncture.

In stories, too many people try to make everything fit perfectly into a neat little bow. Even worse, a Mary Sue character will just be so flawless that nothing bad ever happens because they always make the best decision. That's boring. When you have characters who try to do good things, but get thrown a curve ball, they scamper to try to fix what has been made wrong, and that's interesting (it also sounds really sick when described that way, audience members enjoying watching other people struggle).

In life, you are the character. Shit happens. You may find a moment of weakness where you keep wishing things were different, but that's not a useful path. The only thing you can know is that if things were different, then they might not be the same. So long as you make the best choice based on everything you know, you should never feel bad for what you've done.

Build For The Sake Of Building

While visiting a friend, he introduced me to the computer game Minecraft. I was familiar with the concept of it, but had never before seen it in action.

In Minecraft, you play a character in a totally open, 3-dimensional world. You can go anywhere and break down the different materials you find and collect them. You can then use those materials to build various items. Some are tools, some are weapons and armor, and there are vastly more things to make.

The purpose of the game is nothing. You simply live in an open sandbox and make or do whatever you please.

That bothered the crap out of me. The game has tasks and tools and abilities, but they are naught. There are no objectives, no puzzles to solve, no impetus to DO.

But in seeing my friend play, it got more exciting. The sheer scope and size makes exploration alone a task. Building a sweet house or fortress is a fun and creative way to generate ideas to make it and implement them.

That's when I realized that we make our own games here. This is simply the building blocks we use for it. We build not to solve a problem, but to satisfy a curiosity.

Can I do it? How would it function? What will it actually look like?

This can also be true of writing. Sure, professional and academic writing is strictly to solve problems. Even when we write personal short works, they tend to make a point.

Try doing it differently, though. Just build for the sake of building. Don't worry about what anybody says or thinks - write it because you thought about seeing it.

Nacirema Method

There is a well-known piece of writing which studies the Nacirema tribe. It discusses the bizarre practices, rituals, and beliefs of these savage, backward people. We read this, some in shock, some in contempt of these people, not realizing that we are them.

'Nacirema' is 'American' spelled backward. All of these people's practices are our practices, just said with different words to make them sound foreign.

I think this is an excellent technique. It is also known as the "Alien Observer" technique because the author or narrator takes the role of an alien and explains what they are seeing with zero context or other understanding.

This is how you find ideas. Reframe the world. Try to understand it less, but then understand it anyway. You might come up with something cool.

Stunningly Weird

Recently, I had a conversation with a friend in which I said that I was fascinated by a not-so-common subject. I felt I needed to explain myself, which made me consider how exactly I define 'fascinating' (because defining terms is critical). That is how I came up with the phrase 'stunningly weird'.

As I see it, the quality that makes something fascinating is that it stuns me. I become transfixed on the subject and it stops all of my thoughts and actions for a period. Beyond that, though, it needs to maintain a mystery. Once I understand a subject, it becomes nothing more than a collection of facts. A subject which I can see actively, regularly, and still not understand is just plain weird to me (and a fair number of subjects in life are like that).

Practically every thing that both captivates and confounds you will seem to be fascinating. And everything that is fascinating should captivate and confound you. It's a mutual relationship, one not to argue with or fight against, but simply accept and understand.

Everybody should be fascinated by something. If you have nothing stunningly weird in your mind, the world must be a sad, boring place. And if you really do believe that, I challenge you to find one thing which amazes you. Most likely, the best place to start looking is your hobbies. If something matters enough to invest time into, even if it is just watching TV, there is something there compelling you to do it. It's probably something fascinating.

Bound

I find the word "bound" to be interesting because of its diversity of meanings. It can mean "connected to" (friends bound together), "trapped by" (wrists bound by ropes), "fated" (bound to save the world), or "jump" (leap tall buildings in a single bound).

There are even more uses for it than that, too. Just consult your local dictionary. The point is that this one word not only has multiple meanings, but very different ones. As with any word, be careful when you use it. Make sure that it can be used for the meaning you intend, and also make sure it doesn't have any other potential meanings which may make your words awkward.

You Are A Vat Of Chemicals

I continuously see commercials for body spray and make up and deodorant and perfume, countless products to make you look and smell different, always touted by claiming it will get you laid. The only thing more ridiculous than the claim are the products themselves, most of which are repulsive.

I found myself shouting to nobody in particular, "you are just turning yourself into a vat of chemicals." But, it occurred to me that we are all a vat of chemicals. Everything in the universe is a chemical (well, at least all matter is). Just because we are using chemicals that are not self-produced on ourselves isn't necessarily condemnable.

I was so ready to go on a tirade about chemicals and such, but one simple argument completely shut it down. (And that is why it is so important to argue with yourself.) And boy would I have looked the fool had I done so.

In writing, we are making a point, or at least making a claim. Generally, the main impetus that drives us to write is making that point. As such, it is a very wise idea to thoroughly consider your argument before you share it with the world. If you discover that it has a glaring error in it, you can safely revise it or throw it out.

Fortunately, the best way to study your own argument is to start writing about it. So, do not consider this as an excuse to not write. Consider it an encouragement to write thoughtfully.