Next to food and water, words are the most important nourishment. The ones we hear, read, and write fuel the mind and provide us with an endless treasure of ideas to tap into. Words save us from ourselves, empower us to become incredible human beings, and allow us to feel. They encourage those close to us and as writers we can impact the lives of total strangers with positive language. Words take us back to heal our past and propel us forward into our future. We find recovery in words and pass that strength onto others. They can simply improve a person's day.
Have you ever stopped to think how many words you come into contact with on a daily basis? It varies greatly depending on whether you're an entrepreneur doing business from home or you go to an office everyday surrounded by co-workers. How many are positive? Negative? I overheard a conversation in a restaurant. The girlfriend says to her boyfriend, "You're never there for me. You are such a failure." Ouch! Made me cringe. It's sometimes challenging to control the verbal input from those around you but what about your inner conversations? Wonder what that girl says to herself on a daily basis? Often we speak to ourselves worse than we'd ever allow another human being to talk to us. What affect might that have on your self esteem, your relationships, and your career?
I love the challenge of discovering ways to convey marketing messages for businesses, and illustrate settings and descibe characters in my novels. As a writer and a visually centered person I'm always observant of my surroundings. You never know when you're going to hear something you can incorporate into a book, a blog post, or your next marketing campaign. I was in a Starbucks recently and saw an advertisement talking about a well-lived day. I've altered the wording of course but the script on that sign provided ammo that I'm implementing into another project.
Right now sitting in Panera, one of my mobile offices, they were playing a training video for a group of new employees about how they got started, their values, mission statement, and what makes them so successful. "Bread is Our Passion, Soul, and Expertise." What an awesome line! I borrowed a few other spicy descriptives that sparked ideas for future endeavors.
Authors are always asked where their ideas come from. What about the endless flow of words that bring each inspiration to life? Reading personal and professional development, writing fiction and non-fiction, blogging, and just being perceptive are all avenues to learn and discover new material that we can combine with our unique experiences to become better writers with the power to transform our lives and those of others.
How are words impacting your lives? Try a day or two of observing your verbal surroundings and share what transpires and the affect it has had on your writing!
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