That was the time when words were like magic …
A word spoken by chance
might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive
and what people wanted to happen could happen.
All you had to do was say it.
—Edward Field, Eskimo Songs and Stories
In myths from cultures all over the planet, the world comes into being—or some part of it does—through language. Let there be light, says the God of the Bible—and light comes into existence. Similarly, the Inuit of Canada tell us that once, long ago, the Earth was always in darkness. That was a time, the story goes, “when just saying a word could make something happen.” And in that time, a fox and a hare each had a magic word. The fox's word was darkness, because he wanted it to stay dark all the time so he could hunt. The hare's word was day, because in the daylight he could find grass to eat. The two argued with their magic words, back and forth—Darkness! Day! Darkness! Day!—until eventually the hare won, and day came. But, says the story, “The word of the fox was powerful too,” so when day was over, night arrived. And from then on day and night took turns, “the nighttime of the fox following the daytime of the hare.”1… following the daytime of the hare. Edward Field, Eskimo Songs and Stories (Delacorte Press), 1973, p. 7.
Such stories express a profound belief in the power of words, a belief still held by many native peoples. “Our language,” says contemporary indigenous American writer Simon Ortiz, "is the way we create the world.”2… the way we create the world. Quoted in Lois J. Einhorn, The Native American Oral Tradition (Praeger, 2000), p. 3.
Before you dismiss this view of language as primitive, consider this scene: Suppose you are having dinner with a friend. You speak. “Pass the bread, please,” you say—and the bread is put into your waiting hand. When you think about it, is that not a form of magic? All you did was make some sounds, and your wish was granted! To see language as a kind of magic is not silly or “primitive” at all; it’s to recognize a basic truth: Human language is powerful stuff.
Words can make things happen in other people and in the world. Words can make a tree bloom in someone’s mind, or persuade someone to plant one. Words can bring us new thoughts and give us imaginative experiences we otherwise would not have had. Words can take us to places we’ll never visit in real life. Words can bring a character to life—or kill one off. Words can inform, illuminate, explain, persuade, describe, and much more. Words can change the world: Think about the Declaration of Independence, or Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. There is no end to the magic that words can make.
Powerful words do things to people: They transfer the writer’s meaning precisely, they paint pictures in the reader’s imagination, they move the reader intellectually or emotionally or physically, or in all of these ways at once. Skilled writers are like magicians, capturing our minds with the power of their spells.
Perhaps now some of you are saying to yourselves, “Yes, I understand the concept that words can make magic, but when I write I sure don’t feel that my words do that!” Don’t lose heart: Remember that you have an innate “language intelligence,” which you’ve probably never had a chance to use in a conscious way. You don’t have to be born with a special gift; you can develop the one you have. You don’t have to “know already” how to use the power of words: You can learn.
To learn how to use that power requires immersing yourself in the world of words, so you can really get to know words, know everything you can about them, so you can choose the ones you need. No one is born with this intimate knowledge of words; that knowledge is something you acquire. You do that by waking up and exercising and training your word mind—the part of your brain that comes up with words, rather than thoughts or ideas or feelings.
The best way to get to know words is simply to play with them! So I invite you now to let go of your adult self, access the childlike part of yourself, and join me in some purposeful play with language. (If you need permission to play, I give it to you now!)
And if you would prefer to go immediately to sentence-construction techniques, and save learning about words for later, you’ll want to begin with Chapter 8, on parts of speech.