March Madness: Day 4 Reflections

#MarchMadness trundles on! Day 4 is upon us, and I'm happy with how it has been going so far.

I'm not sticking to a specific word count each day – as I did during November's #FreewriteMadness adventure – so I'm aware that I mightn't necessarily "win" this month's challenge, in terms of hitting a specific goal. My current project (a trilogy entitled A Drop in the Ocean) feels very different to November's project, Tomorrow's Chances. It contains a lot of spiritual overtones. It needs time and space to develop in its own way. My only job is to sit down, turn up, and let words flow through me. Whatever gets written that day is perfect for that particular day. This project is teaching me all about surrender, trust, and just allowing magic to happen.

I'm not comfortable with publicly sharing all of my work on this trilogy just yet. However, when I saw today's @freewritehouse prompt, sound, I was inspired to share this one piece below, as it so perfectly encapsulates what sound means to the main character of the trilogy.

______________

Though many people prefer to use telepathic communication exclusively, Aztlaan does have a spoken language. It is not necessary as a means of communication – it is simply there if people would like to use it – and many people seldom feel the need for it, which is a perfectly valid choice. Alistha, however, loves to play around with words and sound – to see how they can be used to describe her thoughts – even though she knows well that language can be a crude, ineffectual tool for communication: open to all kinds of differing interpretations, and often failing to convey exactly what it is that someone wishes to express.

Words can be beautiful. She loves to listen to poems or songs with lyrics that speak deeply to her heart. She loves literature, art and the amazing things that people can do with the spoken language, if they choose to use it. Young as she is, she has some understanding of the alchemical power of words: how they can transform people’s mindsets, and the immense healing they can bring about.

She fully recognises the limitations of verbal communication, but it fascinates her nonetheless. Whenever she needs to say something very important, she will always opt for telepathy, but if the issue is not pressing, she likes to play around with words instead. She loves to experiment with the nuances of sound and dialogue: to roll words around in her throat, eager to see how the many subtleties of volume, tone, cadence, and pitch will affect what she is saying. She supposes her cousin is right! She is decidedly more talkative than most, even by the standards of her home region, which is full of gregarious folk – but she fully embraces this aspect of her personality. It brings her great joy, and she has a lot of fun with it.

She, like many others, generally uses a combination of verbal and non-verbal communication: whichever feels right to her, and whichever she would most like to use in any given moment.

______________

Make sure you check out and support these other March Madness writers too!

@kaelci
@ireenchew
@mariannewest
@kaerpediem
@linnyplant
@balticbadger
@wakeupkitty
@juliamulcahy
@carolkean
@jeanlucsr