Words: A Short Guide To Making Your Own

Writing is like painting with words.

A long time ago, words were comprised of a succession of letters in the form of tiny images (pictograms), or visual ideas (ideograms).

People vocalized these images: they uttered them aloud. Words were spoken long before they were written. Some words – known as onomatopoeias - even captured natural sounds: bottle, gurgle, jingle, bubble, or flip-flop.

Good writing reflects these rhythms of speech.

Good writing is akin to music.

In poetry, we come closest to these musical roots of writing. No wonder all songs have poems as their lyrics.

Other writing techniques which draw on sound include alliteration, anadiplosis, assonance, consonance, parachesis, tautogram, and tongue twisters. Look them up in the glossary at the end of this booklet.

So, the first thing to do when you had written something is to read it aloud to yourself: does the music of the words sound right?