This post is for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. The question for this month is, “What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?” And I had to really stop and think about that. I think that it happened when I was a little girl, reading all the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I read all of those books more than once. I couldn’t get enough of them. I was fascinated by the Ingalls family and the life they lived. I would get lost in their family dynamics and the kind of world they lived in, traveling in buggies, riding horses, growing their own food, living in a cabin. It fascinated me and whenever I read those books, I was lost for a little bit of time with Laura and Mary, annoyed by Nellie and Willie, and warmed by Ma and Pa’s love.

I didn’t realize at that time that language has power. It wasn’t until I got older and realized what reading those words did to me that I realized the power of language, that it can evoke emotion and transport me to different places and times and introduce me to new people.

When I write now, that’s what I hope to do, especially with the novel I’ve been working on for so long. I want to make people feel things, or take them to different places, or introduce them to new people.

That’s the power of language, without even realizing it has that power.