Thursday, April 15, 2010

YES, Words Matter! A Writer's Manifesto

In the beginning was the word ... now there's a phrase I've always appreciated.

Words have pretty much defined my life from an early age. I was reading before I went to nursery school. I discovered the wonderfully subversive world of Dr. Seuss by first grade and never looked back. As long as I can remember, words have been a magical thing for me, something to play with and explore, something to tweak and polish and on occasion try to bend to my will. Words have been my playground for most of my time on this curious little planet. The simile, the metaphor, the adjective and the occasional dangling participle, boon companions all.

Fellow writers, can I get an amen? Thank you. Now let us turn to page 1968 of the hymnal and sing in the manner of St. Barry of Bee Gees: It's only words, and words are all I have to take your heart away.

But these are dark times, brothers and sisters. The word is under attack. Folks are saying words are no longer important, that it's all about the image. The iPhone, the iPad, the Web site, all are focusing more on the image than the word. Pretty pictures for pretty posers, that's all we need. No need to concern ourselves with actual communication.

There is a movement afoot in the land, brothers and sisters, a movement of dark forces. This movement is called search engine optimization or SEO. Its purpose is to get a web site listed well in the search engines of Google, Bing and Yahoo.

The practitioners of this dark art don't see the value of words -- unless they're so-called "keywords," simple words and phrases stuck into the page for the search engines to find. As for the actual CONTENT -- the words, the ideas, the REALITY -- of what's being said, well that's not really important.

How do I know these things? I work in an emporium where these things are done. Day in, day out, as I labor over words, sentences and paragraphs, searching for just the right turn of phrase, I'm often told it's not a big deal because "no one really reads the words anyway." One coworker even told me that a sentence he wrote didn't need to make sense, because the next sentence was clear.

Excuse me?

No, dammit. Even if no one else reads it, I do. I know. Those words must make sense. There's too much that can't be explained in Flash and Illustrator. You need the words. And dear coworker, you don't even realize it -- but you will.

Yes, I exaggerate a bit at times for humorous effect, but I'm deadly serious about this : If we lose the words, we lose our humanity. It's that important.

I've thought for a while that this blog might be better with pictures, a little visual appeal. I've gone back and forth about it for a while. But as of today, I've made a decision. If I surrender to the pictures, I am acknowledging that the words aren't strong enough.

No pictures. The words matter. They stand alone.

Grand Reopening!

Wow. Would you look at the dust in here? Jeez, how long has it been since this place was open? December? Yikes. Well, OK, we'll fix that.

Let's dust off the vacuum cleaner collection first -- hmm, there's a dilemma: Which one do we use to clean the others?

Next, plug in the jukebox, flip the switch, watch the neon blink to life. Ah, that's better. Let's start with Box of Rain tonight. Always good, just like the coffee.

Speaking of which, let's get that espresso maker cranked up. Much to talk about -- walruses (a/k/a/ Paul), cabbages and kings, etc. Much to say, much to listen to, many things to consider. Let's get started, shall we? The juke box is just getting warmed up, so in the immortal words of Sam the Sham, let's not be L7. Come and learn to dance......