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3/16/2019

What is Language? A Writer's Perspective.

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Thoughts from Starbucks:
​On the purpose of Language, the Story, and My experience with a Beta-reader


Recently, I had a conversation with one of the employees at the local Starbucks in which I often visit (caffeine addiction, so...). In the conversation, I found that she is a writer as well. It was a brief encounter, but it was still enough to spark thoughts into my mind——thoughts primarily on the essence of the story itself.

Language has one function: Communication.

All language is designed to do this one thing.

I remember my Intro to Composition 2 class during my second semester of college. The professor began his class by writing the word “SIGN” in big, bold, letters on the board. At the age I was, I was not prepared for the simplicity in which this word would begin to imply, and it was not until much later that the lecture would “click.”

He said: “A word, is a sign.”

It is such a bare——such a plain definition of the concept, yet it is the greatest definition I have yet to encounter. It is because words are signs.

A word represents a concept: Abstract or concrete, moving or stationary, true or false.

This applies to the story, as well. A story, at its most basic——most cellular level——is a variety of words which, when placed in particular combination, convey an idea. This idea, in terms of stories, creates the illusion of the world, or a world.
The writer of fiction, then, is alike the magician; the storyteller is an illusionist and a weaver of words. The job of the storyteller is to combine these words into the right order to make the reader (or listener) care about non-existent people, in a non-existent reality, doing non-existent things.

On my way home from the coffee shop, I considered this; I considered how these things could make me a better writer, then, I thought about my beta-reader.
Having a beta-reader has been, for me, the ultimate example of the importance of using words to create the illusion mentioned above——and using words correctly. The thing is this: I never realized just how blind I was——just how little I knew about writing the story——just how blind I was because I knew the story in its entirety.

So, what do I mean?

I mean that I know what I mean. I know the story; I know what the story is supposed to say. My reader, on the other hand, does not. This, then, means that the reader only knows the story through the information I give her. There have been many times when my beta-reader has come back and said something like “So [CHARACTER] is really...” or “So [THIS] is [THAT]?”

Conversely, these times fill my pulse with anxiety as I think “Oh no! What have I done to make her think that?”

What the reader thinks about your story, whether true or false, is not their fault. They only understand what has been communicated to them; they only comprehend the ideas that the writer’s words have conveyed to them.

I have learned, through many semi-anxiety-attacks as a writer, just how crucial it is to watch my words. When I edit, I ask myself “Does that word mean ___?” and “What am I trying to convey? What am I trying to tell the reader?”
Through my experiences with the beta-reader, I am learning to be a bit more discerning with my diction.

​That said, I am glad that writing is, like all arts, an incremental process. I am merely learning and have far to go. That is my contemplation for the week, and I can say is this: Next time you edit, watch your words and say, “What idea am I trying to convey?” :)

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1 Comment
Brigitte Byrd link
3/19/2019 05:43:20 am

Thank you for pointing out this new post, which I think is very true and could be very helpful to writing students so that they understand the importance of words, their meaning, "le mot juste" really. And of course, they would see that writing is a craft as the writer needs to develop skills to "play" and fashion clear sentences and structure stories/essays/poems. Why not sharing this link with our writing communiy on your other blog?

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    William F. Burk

    Award-winning author of fantasy, flash fiction, and poetry.  Author of "The Heart of Hearts," a debut fantasy novel. Always writing, forever and ever.

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