Joanna

Ken, good point. I don’t know much about chemistry but I know about maths. A small number like 2 is given power by its placement. Turn it into a superscript and stick it to the right of a number and it increases its power by that factor. It’s the same with words. I’ll sometimes include a tiny sentence and let it be a whole paragraph focusing attention on it and magnifying its importance. In fact a word could be a whole paragraph.

Rachel, ‘magic’ has lost its edge in this modern world, it has become far more secular in its definition. The same could be said about a word like ‘surreal’ which most people use instead of ‘unreal’ these days. Magical things seem inexplicable. They’re not but that’s not the point. The point is that we don’t want them explained. We’re happy to leave a bit of the mystery there. That’s not a bad thing.

It’s good to meet you

I think the element of ‘magic’ for me comes when you write from the source – whether that’s some place deep inside you, or a place that gives you that sense of connection, or a piece of music – it’s you drawing from your own well. If that makes any sense at all!

Joanna

9 times out of 10 I’d say that less letters = more energy.

Maybe the work we do to cut them down, to shape them, to keep them simple, to get them to ring true is what gives them the power?

(But physics was never my strong suit…)

Joanna

Hmmm… I wonder if all words carry the same energy? The more letters the more energy, perhaps? I don’t think so. I think the word ‘maybe’ can have considerably less energy that, say, the word, ‘no’ depending on how it is written.

I think that words have/are energy too and there are so many times you can see the sparks flying in their wake (in a good way) from the connection with the person who reads them.

I particularly liked the Balzac quote you included

“Power is not revealed by striking hard or often, but by striking true.”

It’s what I’d aim for in my own writing.

Thanks again

Joanna