“Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.”
― Stephen King, Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption
I made a realization the other night, and this is probably going to garner a few eye rolls if anyone ever reads it. “You mean, you just now figured this out?”
It was just before Thanksgiving. I was with my mother, and a great night of white wine and family tree research ended up devolving into a heated argument (read: shouting match). I left, furious. She cursed me all the way out the door (don’t worry, everything is fine; that’s just how we show affection). But I got home, and it was time to write. I was sitting there scowling at Scrivener – teeth gritted, eyes narrowed. I wasn’t typing. I wasn’t gently clicking keys. I was punching them, and the words just kept coming.
While I was still seething and seeing red, I sat down and wrote a scene I had previously drafted. It was a fight scene and the first look at my character’s dark side. Pre-argument, I’d gotten so frustrated with the scene I’d almost scrapped it. But once I was as pissed off as my main character, the words (and insults and punches) started flying.
When I was done, I was no longer angry. I had channeled it. I had a scene that needed polishing, sure. But the emotion was there. All it cost me was a spacebar.
But the knowledge I gained was invaluable:
In my first draft, yeah sure, I should be focusing on ‘good’ words.
But I should be more focused on honest words.
The kind of words that come from the soul instead of the fingertips. The kind that speak across nations and ages and boundaries. Words that make me feel something. I should be striving to put love on my pages. And hate. And fear, and grief, and sorrow and heartbreak. I’ve felt them all. Who hasn’t? I just need to get them on paper.
I can revise the language. I can cut paragraphs, erase erroneous expletives, add in a concise sentence or two… But I’ve realized something in my many years of devouring books. A beautifully written sentence cannot and will not trump an emotionally powerful one.
My goal is to make my sentences, paragraphs, chapters both beautifully written and emotionally powerful… one honest word at a time.
Who doesn’t have those memorized lines from books you never grow tired of? I do. Fight Club is filled to the brim with them. Knock it all you want, but its a book I will never tire of reading, and the only movie that I’ve watched so many times I can recite it. Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption is another brilliant book turned movie that I can never pass up.
What is your favorite line?
One Honest Word 