The Art of Words
My mouth has gone as dry as sawdust. I desperately find Cinna in the crowd and lock eyes with him. I imagine the words coming from my lips.
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Words. The pure essence of life. How else do we understand each other? Stories. Fuel to an ever growing fire, your growing knowledge. Books. Words and stories strung together to create something beautiful for the enjoyment of the masses. Without words, stories or books, life would be as bland as a slice of dry toast.
Aunt Em had just come out of the house to water the cabbages when she looked up and saw Dorothy running toward her.
“My darling child!” she cried, folding the little girl in her arms and covering her face with kisses. “Where in the world did you come from?”
“From the land of Oz,” said Dorothy gravely. “And here is Toto, too. And, oh, Aunt Em! I’m so glad to be home again!”
The Wizard of Oz, L Frank Baum
Most of you sitting in this room have grown up with stories. We’ve journeyed with Dorothy to the Land of Oz, helped Little Red Riding Hood save her grandma and even watched a caterpillar turn into butterfly. Books and stories have provided us with a means of escape since the dawn of time. One of the things children look forward to is story time. Stories are as much a part of our lives as eating or sleeping whether it’s the ones we make up or the ones we are told by other people. Our brains yearn for more tales because it expands our knowledge. We are curious creatures with inquiring minds that need words and new ideas to keep ourselves from becoming lazy. Stories, either from a novel, read from a script or put into a song breathes life into our imaginations.
Even though we forget it sometimes, books are written by people. Which means that they relate to our lives. People can always relate to a book even if it is filled with fantastical creatures. Harry Potter is a book about a boy who finds out that he is a wizard, but the reason it has done so well is because people can relate to some situations in the books. The series deals with friendship, loyalty, love and standing up for what is right. We all have our own Lord Voldemorts, be it a person, object or situation; our adversities are real just like Harry’s were to him. I’m sure every one of you reading this post has read a book that you relate to so much that you become attached to the characters and if you haven’t then keep reading.
Writing’s inside your head! It’s thinking! It’s a constant storm of pictures and voices and sometimes, if you’re, very, very, lucky, insight.
A Writer's Tale, Russell T Davies
Writing is a personal thing. It involves every fibre of your being. It’s more than a basic storyline and regurgitating the Oxford English Dictionary. It’s about a passion, a love, a knowing that this is the only thing you want to do. It’s about understanding words and knowing the impact it has on people. Writing’s about having a million ideas swarming in your head and having the ability to string it into a coherent thought. Just like a painter uses paint to express themselves, a writer uses words. It’s a yearning to communicate and a need to be understood. Writers pour their hearts out onto the page, firstly for themselves and secondly for their audience. A good writer writes because they want to a great writer writes because they need to.
All endings are also beginnings. We just don’t know it at the time.
The Five People You Meet in Heaven, Mitch Albom
A good book always had a memorable ending. When you finish a well written novel you should be happy, content and a tad bit disappointed because it’s over. Figuring out how to end something is hard, which probably why I’m still writing this piece. You have to figure out the perfect way to leave you characters that make you as well as your audience happy. So, before I start to bore you with my endless drivel. I leave you with one last thought: We’re all just stories in the end, just make this a good one.
