by Cody Hodge

Created on: April 11, 2009

When you write something, you are communicating through the written word. That means that you should write just like you were speaking to me. Use emotions, use different tones, get excited, get angry, craft your words so that you as a writer can convey the same message as if you were speaking it to me. The only difference between someone speaking to me, and someone writing to me is that when you speak I can see your emotions, but when you write I have to feel your emotions.

What is that you are trying to tell me? Are you cranky? Sleepy? Fussy, are you trying to get me to do something for you? Reading a written work can be like talking to a baby if you don't take the time to fill your words with the correct emotions. Have you ever tried looking at a crying baby, and trying to figure out what it is that will make the baby stop crying? While I can tell you that I want food, and will go make myself a sandwhich, the poor baby cannot.

So when you write, I look at your work as if it was a baby, and I need to figure out what it is trying to tell me. When a baby smiles, I know that it is happy, but what is making it happy? When you tell me that you are feeling good, I know you are happy, but why are you happy? Did you get a new job, and a huge raise? Did you just happen to wake up to a brilliant sunrise, and are energized by the possibilites of a bright new day?

Don't just tell me, show me! Make me care! I read articles all the time about human rights issues, kids being abducted, people are too fat, too stupid, too lazy. I get it, we all have problems, but why should I care? I remember learning about how children worked in the coal mines because the families of the immigrants who came to America were too poor to support themselves otherwise. At first I wasn't too worried about it, I mean come on, we all work, and a lot of us for low pay and long hours.

However, if you ever read some of the articles, or books from back then, you get a totally different story. When you read about the children themselves that they just wanted to go to school, or just wanted to go outside and play. When you hear it from that point of view, you really do feel bad for these kids who were robbed of childhood just because business was desperate for cheap labor, and families were desperate for anything they could get.

Listen, when you write, make sure I can feel what you are saying. The difference between those who write, and those who write well are those that can make me feel what they are feeling. Anyone can put words on a page, but without any feeling, or emotion to it, its just words on a piece of a former tree.

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