Welcome back to another blog hop, with #OpenBook. Here’s this week’s prompt.
Inspired by a comment on a recent post.
It never fails to amaze me that ALL the books ever written are made up of just twenty six letters. Discuss:
You could say that any craft that only has the positioning of twenty-six things to master is fairly accessible. Especially when it’s taught to everyone from an early age. But, as in any craft, it’s how you use the tools that determines the result.
Now I might claim that my work is good, simply because it contains many of the same letter combinations as work by Shakespeare and Chaucer, Rowling and Tolkein etc. etc. Which is the same as saying that my paintings are as good as Picasso’s because they both contain blue paint.
The letters might be the same ones in all stories, yet the way they are ordered in some of them may well leave a lot to be desired.
The trick lies in using the letters in a way that’s different to how everyone else has. While producing a product that flows, makes sense and reaches a proper ending. It’s perfectly possible to use exactly the same 80,000 words as someone else has in your novel and yet end up writing a completely different story.
The object of the exercise is to make the letters combine to inspire and entertain, delight and enthral, to give the reader an experience.
The skill comes in knowing which ones to use where. To create a world on the page, one that will draw the reader in. Done well, it will make them want to stay to the end, with luck it will take them beyond, to your next creation.
To do that successfully with combinations of twenty-six letters is a powerful ability, made no less impressive when you consider that you only need ten of the twenty-six to form the vast majority of words.
In many cases, the placement of a word determines its meaning, the words around it give it life and context. Place several words together in a paragraph and you can form a thought.
Add some more and you might describe a landscape, plan the perfect crime, fall in love or set off on a ride across the Galaxy.
And therein, lies the beauty of all that we do.
Let me know what you think about this week’s subject.
I’d love to get your comments, please leave them below. While you’re here, why not take a look around? There are some freebies and lots more content, about me, my writing and everything else that I do. You can join my newsletter for a free novella and more news by clicking this link.
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I’d love to get your comments, please leave them below. While you’re here, why not take a look around? There are some freebies and lots more content, about me, my writing and everything else that I do. You can join my newsletter for a free novella and more news by clicking this link.
P.J. MacLayne
You said “In many cases, the placement of a word determines its meaning, the words around it give it life and context.” And that’s why I hold it’s more than 26 letters that make a book.
Richard Dee
Having read your post, I agree, the letters may be the same but context determines the meaning.
phil huston
I’m not sure context changes the meaning, when most words have dozens of substitutes. I think the words around it determine it’s impact, indeed the impact of the whole thought. But I hold the highest art form to be the right word, while maintaining integrity and readability. No one needs to read with a dictionary by their side, nor do they need to read pablum. The happy medium is the trick.
Richard Dee
Agreed.
Roberta Eaton Cheadle
An interesting topic this week, Richard. I enjoyed your contribution.
Richard Dee
Thank you, Robbie. I tried to avoid the route others seem to have taken.
Stevie Turner
Which words we use are all down to our levels of intelligence and education. I wish I’d been able to go to University, and then I might have learned a few more words!
Richard Dee
If only I had ever passed an English exam.
Leon Stevens
“It’s perfectly possible to use exactly the same 80,000 words as someone else has in your novel and yet end up writing a completely different story.” – Never thought of it that way!
Richard Dee
I know, when I realised it, I was quite shocked. Just by re-ordering the words, you could change everything. What power at your fingertips.