The Love of Words and Wisdom

There’s something about words and forming them–the ability and exercise of stretching one letter out into several words and then a phrase or two or three, and parsing through the dictionary and thesaurus to weigh and measure what exact word has the right tone for its place.

There’s also the joy of creating and recording stories, of putting down the things of life in a beautiful way, and making one moment in time to last a little longer and weigh a little more in the lives of others.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking lessons on creative writing, going to workshops, or going to school for it. One must be skilled in writing to write well. At the same time, it seems that creative writing lessons are a newer phenomenon. No one in the 19th century and before took classes or went through programs to “hone their craft.” They didn’t pick up a crafting book on mystery novel writing and make a mystery novel like they were knitting a sweater. Perhaps they just read a lot. Will the world ever know?

In any case, I learned from the book of Proverbs recently how much better it is to acknowledge your place as a writer than to raise yourself up as having a lot higher skill than someone else (plus shaking with lack of confidence at the same time.) Proverbs 16:19 says, “It is better to be humble in spirit with the lowly than to divide the spoil with the proud.” This proverb comes right after the famous “Pride goes before destruction” verse. I took this verse to say, it is better to acknowledge where you are (hardly a developed craftsman of stories) than to think myself and portray myself as some masterful writer when I am not. This is a comforting place to be.