Words are Wonderful Things

by Linore Rose Burkard

Writers are wordsmiths. We play with, struggle over, muddle in, misuse and pluck words into and out of our books or articles with anything from reckless abandon—the heady steam of inspiration—to plodding, pulling-teeth frustration. 

One day's work is like rolling full steam ahead, while another's is a journey on a horse-cart as we struggle to find the right words. If we do, the magic happens, the work sings, and we leave readers happy.

As writers we know perhaps more than anyone, the power of the written word.

And yet--what a struggle we have at times to get those words written.

We may over-write, under-write*, fail to write, or fail to thoroughly edit what we've written.  

Since this is my last post for the year for Novel Rocket, I offer the following words that I've gleaned over the past months to encourage you in your writing journey, whether you are at an acme of success, rolling along on a fast track, or climbing the trenches. (Do we ever leave the trenches? Even J.K. Rowling has to face a blank page when she writes.)

Enjoy the following—and if the shoe fits, well, you know what to do.  

It is never too late—in fiction or in life—to revise. -Nancy Thayer 

Write even when you don't want to, don't much like what you are writing, and aren't writing particularly well. -Agatha Christie 

Forget about all the reasons why something may not work. You only need to find one good reason why it will. -Dr. Robert Anthony 

I don't know of one 'overnight bestseller' that didn't take a year and a half to get there. -Mark Victor Hansen

I mailed a manuscript to fifteen publishers. The fifteenth one said yes. - Max Lucado                           

You cannot cross the sea by staring at the water. -R. Tagore (You cannot write a book by staring at a blank page. Write, now. Right now.)

Nothing will come of nothing. Dare mighty things. -Shakespeare

Every writer I know has trouble writing. -Joseph Conrad

It's not over til it's over, and it's never over. Don't give up too soon, and it is always too soon to quit. -Edward W. Smith

If God didn't have real plans for us and want to use us, he'd take us to heaven. It's that simple—and that complicated. -Anonymous

The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. -Donald Kendall

Believe, when you are most unhappy, that there is something for you to do (or write) in this world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is not in vain.    -Helen Keller

Writing is like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate, in order to make the work visible. Even those pages you remove somehow remain. -Elie Wiesel 

You can't think yourself out of a writing block; you have to write yourself out of a thinking block. -John Rogers

In closing, a poem on the power of words. While the poet may have been thinking of the spoken word when she wrote this, it can apply to us who wield the pen as well.

Words are Wonderful Things 

Keep a watch on your words, my darling,

For words are wonderful things; 

They are sweet like the bees' fresh honey,

Like the bees they have terrible stings; 

They can bless like the warm, glad sunshine,

And brighten a lonely life;  

They can cut, in the strife of anger,

Like an open, two-edged knife. 

                                  Mrs. E.R. Miller

To your writing success,

Linore

*For word detectives: Under-write, a compound word, meaning not writing enough, or fully, to describe or portray a subject. NOT underwrite, as to accept liability.   

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Linore Rose Burkard writes historical romance and, as L.R.Burkard, YA/suspense. Linore teaches workshops for writers, is a mother of five, and still homeschools her youngest daughter—preferably with coffee in one hand, and an  iPad in the other. 

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