The Words We Write
When I was in grade school, one of my favorite hobbies was reading Reader’s Digest. The long articles didn’t really appeal to me, but Word Power, Life’s Like That, Humor in Uniform and Quotable Quotes were like candy treats which I devoured voraciously. Looking back, I think that my young mind was not ready to deal with the more serious articles, and so I focused on the shorter sections. Those reading days, I’m sure, contributed much to my love for writing, which led me to pursue a career in feature writing. For any writer, having a vast amount of words at one’s disposal is power. And for the feature writer, quotes are so important – a necessary ingredient to a sumptuous feast of words, sentences and paragraphs. A feature writer is quick to note a quotable quote, and having at least a couple of them can transform an article from one that is interesting, to one that is both interesting and authoritative. Like many writers, I collect quotations. I have a small notebook where I copy …