Welcome to the SCWA–Surfside Blog Words Matter

Word Cloud for the beginning of this post

We are writers and story-tellers.

Many of our stories are truthful and some, well, perhaps some are more tall-tale than ordinary fiction. If you read the “About Us” section of this blog, you discovered that we write in different genres and we are not all at the same stage in our careers as authors.  What we do have in common is that we enjoy stringing words together to tell a story.

In this blog, the members will share our stories, our thoughts, and our ideas. Here you will find a smorgasbord of posts–fiction, non-fiction, essays, and even some poetry might slip in. Perhaps you know one or more of the authors, but you also will be introduced to writers and stories you hadn’t encountered before. Our words here are meant to amuse, or provoke thought, or present to you to some characters you have not met before.

As authors we spend time selecting the perfect words for our stories.  A gentleman with a chiseled jaw and dimpled chin is unlike another person attempting to hide a weak chin with a straggly goatee. As authors we paint with words, we tell our stories with words, and we hope to entertain you with our words. Thus to us, words are important and meaningful. Just as we put thought into our stories, we consider our words with care.

But we need to acknowledge that we are living in a time when words can be and are used in hurtful and harmful ways. Thus, we believe that words matter, which is how we came up with the title for this blog. What follows is a blog post put on my personal blog a while ago.  It might sound familiar to some readers, but it is worth considering again.

Words Matter

Just like Eliza Doolittle I am sick of words—sick of how people misuse them to prove a political point—and how something simple can get blown out of proportion because of word choice.

When I taught, I often put my hand on a student’s shoulder and then described the action with different verbs. Did I slap the shoulder, punch the shoulder, hit the shoulder, tap the shoulder, touch the shoulder?  If the verb used was hit, could the hit on the shoulder explode into a punch, or was the shoulder pummeled or beaten up? How, I asked my students, could the incident be recounted at home over the dinner table?

Words matter.

In school you might have learned about the Boston Massacre and had visions of bodies of “innocent” colonists covering the ground. Did they mention that only five men died? 

If you ever heard about the Battle of Wounded Knee, did anyone tell you that on that early morning in 1890 when most of the Lakota men had been disarmed, Army forces killed perhaps as many as 300 Lakota—200 of whom were women and children.  In the history books, it is a battle that the Native Americans lost.

Which of these events was a massacre?

Words matter.

In this time of frustration in our society, we need to think carefully about the words we write, post, repost, or tweet, and the connotation of those words.  Is the word or phrase emotionally charged?  For example, should what is happening in cities and towns across the country be called riots or protests? Which is the best description of the events we are experiencing? I will not deny, I cannot deny, that there has been looting and violence, but that does not seem to be the bulk of what is happening. Are there thugs and lowlifes among the protestors? Well, are there thugs and lowlifes serving in government jobs?

Words matter.

Why am I up on my soapbox? I am giving serious consideration to defriending someone I like on Facebook because of words. Because the posts, she chooses to post or repost are filled with words and phrases which intentionally or accidentally are designed to inflame rather soothe. And words matter.

I am not perfect. There were times in my classroom when I made a flip comment and chose words that were not appropriate.  I can apologize, but I spoke as the teacher, and the damage was done. The relationship with a student and a family was stressed, strained, and perhaps severed forever. I have no defense for my misuse of words. I can only hope that if I were in a crisis situation, I would be more careful, more cautious, more thoughtful about my word choice.  In truth I have done that as I have written this.

No two people see the world in the exact same way. Accept that your view of the world might not be the experience of another person or another group.  We need to stop assuming that if we are right that those who disagree are wrong. Maybe instead of spewing so many words, more of us need to listen—really listen and hear what is being said.

And think about the words we use, because words matter.

This post was written by Kathleen Fair, author of Princess to Prioress, the Story of Adele of Blois. Kathleen is currently working on a historical fiction novel entitled Hell Hath No Fury set in small town America in the early 1900s.