Being A Writer

An English teacher of mine once said (I lie, he said this several times) that words (as well as similes, metaphors, personification, etc) are the tools of a writer's trade, like saws and hammers and things are the tools of a carpenter's trade, and a novel is the writer's equivalent to a carpenter's wardrobe. To make the wardrobe as best as he possibly can, the carpenter needs to use exactly the right tools at exactly the right time, (he can't hammer the pieces together if he hasn't cut the pieces yet), and it's the same with being a writer. You need to use exactly the right words at exactly the right time to make your piece of writing the best as it can possibly be.

Having been a writer for a rather long time compared to my fairly young age (I used to staple pieces of paper together when I was little, draw the front cover, occasionally write, or begin to write, the first page if I could be bothered, and call them books), I do always like to pick the right words to use. Like, all the time. Which is fine, until you consider my memory. It isn't very good. So I pretty much spend my life trying to remember that one word that I wanted to use, because the synonym that means exactly the same thing doesn't fit with what I want to say - yes, it gets my meaning across, but only just. I want the word that gets my meaning across perfectly.

The time when this gets most in the way is in German lessons. I've been learning German for maybe about six years now, and am taking an A Level in it, so I'm fairly capable. But I'm just because I'm good at German doesn't mean I'm fluent - I may be able to write essays in German, but I still need that humongous German/English dictionary (and sometimes the grammar textbook) in front of me for reference. So far so good - but what about when I don't have my dictionary? And that, my friends, is where I begin to run into problems. Because whether I know that I know a word in German and have just forgotten it, or whether I've never come across the translation at all,  I am going to want that one word that fits in exactly the way I want it. And likewise with sentence structure; if I think of an English sentence that I want to say in German, that is exactly how I want to say it - but in German. So if I want to say he went into space, I want to say he went to space, not something equivalent, like he was an astronaut. It gets the same message across, and that's what you have to do when you can't remember the German word for space. But I didn't want to say er war Kosmonaut. I wanted to say that he went into space. And that is where my being a writer gets in the way of my German - mostly in my speaking, when I have to think of something to say on the spot, and also just in any situation where I don't have a dictionary in front of me.