Language and a Writer’s Responsibility

The love of language and all it can do for us is a love born from our need to communicate. Is that all it is? Is language simply a means to share concepts, to voice our wants, to record our history?

Language is an expression of who we are. It evolves over time and varies over locations. Through language we have stories and imaginings. Through language we are made greater by communal ideas. Through language we reveal so much more about ourselves.

That’s why I think writers in particular have a responsibility to use language with care and respect. This is not to say we have to always cling to correct grammar and sentence structure. However, we do need to learn the rules so we can mould language into the best means of offering understanding to our readers. Language is a precious tool.

Is it a writer’s responsibility to preserve language? To an extent. Language is an ever evolving creature. In the last twenty years we’ve seen massive changes in the way we communicate. We’ve seen the advent of emoticons, text messaging and abbreviations that have made it into the spoken word. We’ve become less formal. There is no point getting snobbish over these changes and no point holding onto the past.

I think it is a writer’s responsibility to fight complacency and laziness. I think we should utilise the best that language can offer, not the worst. It is a gift, after all.

Do you think it’s a writer’s responsibility to preserve language?

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Power of the Unsaid Word

Did you know that the majority of our communication is nonverbal? I learnt that during my years studying speech and drama. And it’s just as important to keep in mind when writing. Straight dialogue can be boring, but incorporating other forms of communication could bring your scenes to life.

Physical ways to communicate

Body language: The way a person carries themselves says a lot about that person. Someone who hunches may be disappointed or may not want to be noticed. Someone who fidgets may be nervous about something. Someone who walks with their head high may be self confident. There are countless variations.

Facial Expressions: This could include whether or not someone makes eye contact. A frown could indicate anger or suspicion or deep thought. A smile can be charming or frightening.

Hand gestures: a wave can say hello, goodbye, or go away. A tight-gripped hand shake can be a challenge or show confidence. Giving someone the finger can be a statement against authority, and a salute can show sarcasm.

Action: the way a person does something. For example, a person slamming doors is either in a hurry or angry. A person stabbing at their food could be restless, angry or bored. A character could say one thing and do the opposite.

Nonverbal elements of speech

Tone: There is a reason why emoticons came into being. Those little smileys brought tone back to text based communication and helped to avoid misunderstandings. Tone can differentiate between sarcasm, anger and joy.

Pauses: the things left unsaid. These often speak louder than the spoken word.

Grunts and sighs: These are understood in any language.

Rhythm and inflections: For example, slow speech could indicate warning, barely contained anger, a lower education.

The use of language: For example, the use of bad grammar, swearing, verbosity, formality, informality. Among other things, the use of language could say any number of things about a character.

Which nonverbal tools do you favour in your writing? Which do you shy away from? Do you think some are harder to incorporate than others?

Yikes and Other Swear Words

Swearing is so common these days that we hardly notice anymore. It’s in our homes (the colourful words coming from my neighbour’s place is proof enough of that), it’s in the school yards, it’s in the office, it’s in our movies and tv shows, and it’s in our books.

Does it have to be? No.

Stephen King justifies his use of cussing in his novels by claiming it’s a realistic trait for the type of characters he writes. That’s fair enough. However, I won’t write about those kinds of characters.

Sure, many teenagers use expletives like punctuation. It might be ‘realistic’ to write them that way, but I choose not to. Just because everyone swears, doesn’t make it right. Because I write for young adults, I feel I have a certain responsibility towards them. I don’t like to hear the f-bomb on young tongues so I won’t encourage it by writing it. Even if I wrote for adults, I still wouldn’t use those rough, raw words. The most I’ll use are words such as yikes (well, maybe not but it was the only Y word I could think of), crikies, darn.

I came across a problem when I started writing my High Seas fantasy adventure. My Main Character grows up on a ship full of rough sailors. Of course they swore, but how did I write that into the book without using the words we know today? The advantage of writing fantasy and science fiction is that we can make up words. For example, Battlestar Galactica used frak, the Firefly universe used pigeon Chinese I think.

What are your thoughts on swearing in writing? If you also have issues, what do you do to get around it?

Note: This post is part of the A-Z Challenge. To learn more about the challenge click the image on my sidebar.