Snap, Pop, Bang, Pow!!!

Words. As a writer I obviously love words.  I will say though that there are certain words I like more than others.  For example, I really do not like the word disintegrate but I love the word buzzard.  I hate the word racism but I love the word bubbles.  If you take what Shakespeare says, "What is in a name?," it is not the word that should matter but the fact that we associate meaning being them.  That may be true.  Shakespeare after all was a great writer.

As for me, I am not sure I believe him.  I love the word buzzard.  I don't really find buzzards all that attractive though.   In fact, I have seen turkey buzzards practically in my backyard and they are the ugliest birds I think I have ever seen.  So, if all the buzzards in the world decided to change their names to Fluffball Birds, they would still be ugly, carnivorous and scary to me.  It is actually saying the word or even reading the word and the sound it makes that then makes me smile.  That is also why I love the word bubbles.  I not only think of the round orbs of water, soap and rainbows but I think of the sound of the word itself.  If you ever want to get me to laugh just say those two words and I am giggling. 

Recently, as I was writing my prologue, I recalled learning about onomatopoeia in school (and yes, that is another funny sounding word).  That was a fun English class.  We were given the assignment of writing a poem completely with onomatopoeia words.  From that I learned that words do not only convey pictures or ideas but a well placed word or phrase can also convey sound.  I ran into this as I was writing my prologue as well.  I was trying to make the reader picture in his mind a scene where a person is on a horse being chased.  I used certain words so that they could imagine hearing the sounds of a horses hooves as they are beating hard against the ground or the rider breathing hard and fast.  It was with words that I was able to affect so many of the reader's senses.

I then noticed how much of that is done in our world...just ask Rice Crispies.  There is a reason you have three little icons called "Snap Crack and Pop" instead of them using the tag line, "Rice ovals with sound."  It is fun to say snap, crackle and pop and what kid who has eaten them has not taken their spoonful of rice crispies and held it to their ear to hear it and repeat that same line.  When I was a kid, my brother and I would watch Batman on TV and we would love when he would go to hit someone with a punch and see the word bubble come on the screen with "Pow!" or some other descriptive word.  We never heard them getting hit.  It was enough to read that and then our imaginations filled in the meaning and even the sound of the hit. 

The power of words is obvious, especially as you are writing.  So I leave you with an excerpt from my long ago English class.

Pop, Pop, Cackle, Crack
Fizz, Fizz, Slow Giz
Eek, Shriek, Yelp, Yap
Slap, Smack, Bump, Thwack
Swoosh, Swish, Squishy Fish
Snap!
And I am done with this.

As I reread those words written so long ago as a lesson for my English class I dedicate them to Mrs. Sorrows and all my other English teachers though the years who showed me that I was able to write one of the loudest poems I had ever written.