Writers and Words- A Life Source

Author, Annie Dillard says she has to maintain in her head a running description of the present. She needs to call to attention what passes before her. I fully understand how important this rehearsal is to a writer. I am continually in the grip of word storms. They bounce around in my head. Phrases and ideas form and reform continually as I go about this critical pre-writing phase. 

Much of this word play remains invisible until it is ready to reveal itself upon the page. Eventually these words, tumbled and reshaped, will spill onto the page and from there further refinement will be undertaken. Non writers will not appreciate this. They will not understand.   


Every day the words I hear, the words I see and the words I absorb, sing in my head. Yesterday morning while enjoying breakfast a song delivered the following words. They stayed in my head all day.


‘Let me be close to you
So, I can understand
Let me be close to you
Under your ceiling fan...’


Later in the morning I was in the supermarket when I overheard a small girl inform her mother, ‘It’s okay Mum, I’ll be happy with anything, you decide to buy me.’ What made this comment special was its pre-emptive nature for the mother had not indicated any intention to purchase items on the small child’s behalf.
 Later in the day, a commentator on the television described a footballer as being, tougher than a goat’s knee. I just instantly loved that description. I had to write it down.


While rereading my notebook I came across these words, ‘If I am a teacher who writes, it is easy for me to present as a writer who teaches.’

Every day, words present themselves. Words that allow me to tap into rich immeasurable treasure. I must invoke all my senses in this ongoing investigation of the world, for when I look at my favourite authors, I notice one thing they have in common -they are all logophiles.

 So, I will continue to document these wondrous words to which I am drawn. I will continue to let the words sing in my head before they explode across the page.

Alan j Wright




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