I was downstairs, getting some cereal and looking at the breakfast dishes my Mom left when my brother came to take her to the airport this morning. I was thinking how we imbue (there’s a 20$ word for you) inanimate objects with feelings, thoughts and ideas. I mean, it was just a coffee cup, but it made me feel a twinge of sadness. Funny how that cup is still exactly where she left it, as if waiting for her to finish her coffee. Meanwhile, she is on the plane, flying back down to Florida, right now.
Anyway, that’s how the idea started. It got me thinking that we do the same thing when we write. After all, words are just flat letters on a flat page or computer screen. Whatever life they have, whatever feelings they have, are life and feelings that we give them. Not just in fiction writing where you have to make readers care or have an interest in reading about your characters. But, in non-fiction too where you appeal to reader’s curiousity, make them read on, hear what you have to say. Make them want to read about and consider your ideas.
So, writing is in fact like being Dr. Frankenstein – giving life to inanimate objects. Though the writing isn’t a dead thing being brought back to life it does compare as the same words and letters have been used over and over for so many generations of writers and read by so many generations of readers. Words can be a dead thing if no one gives them that spark of life.
That spark is what lifts writing off the page.