I just sound crazy

Hi, neighbors. Long winter days and cold winter nights remind us all how good it feels to curl up with a good book, in front of a warm fire, while sipping some hot coffee. It doesn't get much better than that.

There is at least one thing better: sitting in front of a video of a fireplace, holding a computer and working with a fired up passion to put just the right words in the most entertaining order.

Creation is the best kindling to start a fire in a writer's heart. With eyes aglow and cheeks ablaze, writers spend many hours in a cold world, creating a world of their own. Actually, writers have been accused of possessing many types of mental health problems -- delusions and hallucinations topping the list.

When engaged in a long task, like writing a novel, an author gets to talking to their self -- when asked what medication they need refilled -- a writer will tell you they are talking through a scene in their book. This means they are listening to how the book will sound, when it is finished. Hey, you expect your automobile mechanic to do no less!

Some more pragmatic folks think writers are mostly a crazy bunch, anyway. Well, I disagree. The difference between someone with psychosis and an author is that an author actually writes what they feel, envision and think about.

Just think about actors. If you see an actor talking to herself, you assume she is practicing her lines. If they are pretending to swing a sword, conduct an orchestra, or doing any other type of physical activity with invisible props; you would smile and think them industrious and talented -- making something out of nothing.

When you see someone repeating the same phrase in three different accents or seven different inflections, you would think they are practicing for a speech or a discussion with their teenager.

If they are a writer, they are testing the feel of the words on the tongue and the ear. It isn't until later, when the pages are on paper, that they can see how the words look together. It is an act of creation.

You can't have a bunch of words that sound silly together. It isn't smart to have a string of long, difficult to pronounce words that slow down the reader's eyes.

I've known science fiction writers who have spent hours or days thinking of some 10-syllable name for their alien hero. If it's a name the reader can't remember, it's better to shorten it, or the reader will. No matter how well Ah-loah-mean-dire-fox- squawking, may sound to its creator, the reader with shorten the name to Ahlo, by the fifth time they have to struggle through it.

The brain doesn't like tripping over unfamiliar territory to get to where it wants to go -- the next page!

So, you want to be a writer? Sit and say the name of someone you know several times, out loud.

How does it sound the first time? How does it sound different the 15th time you say it? See how familiar words can become stumbling blocks when your mind is trying to read faster and faster, creating the props and scenery as you go.

OK, I hear you. "People don't read out loud. People read silently. How does the sound of the words matter?"

Listen to yourself read some time. Is there a voice in your head reading the story to you? Aren't you sounding out the words in your head like your third grade teacher taught you? Go try it and see how that works.

If the writer is good and tells you the main person in the book is Irish, your brain will furnish the brogue for your inner narrator as you read. Most people these days have heard enough accents and seen enough people from different cultures to add in what the story doesn't provide.

If you want a writing assignment, try this: think of a really short story or essay about a person from Missouri going on a camping trip. Use words and phrases like hiking equipment, helicopter, wooden fence, old barn, wild grapes, cottontail, bull and campfire. You can use all the descriptive words you want with these nouns, or none at all.

See how you like what you come up with. Once you have written it down, read it out loud.

Oh, be sure you explain to your family that you are a 'writer,' working on a story because you may start getting strange looks.

Until the next time, friends, remember to keep writing!