The words come from the mind, transmitted from the brain in a series of cerebral orders that travel through the neurons until the fingers respond.  They move across a keyboard or clutch a pen (or quill or crayon) as they insert the words onto a page.  And then, Voila!  There is the message!  Just a series of neurotransmissions…but it all starts with a fertile imagination and the willingness – Nay, Eagerness! – to share. In fact, it is a profound desire to create images and messages with words that propels the writer.

Topics are infinite and depend on the mood, interest or assignment of the author. There are times when one is so inspired, the urge to reach for the nearest scrap of paper and writing utensil becomes almost unbearable. More than once, I was grateful for the shorthand class I took in my senior year of high school so I could capture my thoughts at their most vibrant (although taking shorthand notes as a film reviewer while sitting in a darkened theater often took the equivalent of a Rosetta stone to translate later).

Even so, in our excitement, we rush to get our thoughts down on paper (or disk), feeling a sense of relief when they’ve been properly recorded…but one must then step away from the work and digest. The words are like a great meal that must marinate.  Publish in haste and you may regret the uncooked version.  But allow some time for the flavor to sink in, for rumination to offer alternative words or passages, and you may wind up with Cordon Bleu-calibre literature!