One for the record books–the day I was a full hour and fifteen minutes late starting on my own prompt.

A few times today (yesterday) I actually sat down to write this, but I got distracted. Pulled away, or at the very least had the feeling that if I started, I wouldn’t be able to finish.

Which is my most-used excuse for not writing fiction.

So I’m sitting here now, in the wee hours of Sunday morning with my cup of peppermint tea, waiting for the Tylenol to kick in. And now, I will close my eyes and type.

How are our words precious?

They have such power. Our voices–the way we communicate, whether by voice itself or by written word–have the power to affect so much. So many others. It’s not the words themselves, but the way we choose to use them. Our expressions, our tone, our gestures … our voice.

Writers starting out are often confused over what we refer to as authorial voice. As an editor, I can see a writer’s voice as plain as day. It’s much like we speak. Because our thoughts drive both our speech and the way we write, they come out very similar in structure.

And those inner voices … Those, if we really pay attention to them, show the real us, if only to ourselves. Can you imagine if we said everything we thought? Ha! My stream of consciousness just went haywire. If only I could type as fast as I think.

But maybe I overthink things like this because I have such a passion for words. They have the potential for such beauty and such ugliness, all of which drive the human spirit–create our experiences of others and even ourselves. They can inspire us and they can scar us. Lift us up or drive us into the pit of despair.

Words are precious.

If we could all use them both wisely and with kindness and empathy, the world could be without conflict.

And I’d be out of a job.

(Because without conflict, a story is boring. 😛 )

This extremely late and utterly rambling post is brought to you by Stream of Consciousness Saturday. Click the link to find all the entries in the comments. And join in! https://lindaghill.com/2018/10/12/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-oct-13-18/