Why I Started to Write

I have been a writer nearly my whole life, but none of it would have happened if it hadn’t been for what are rather awkwardly called, “dialogue tags.” Literally, dialogue tags are the “he said, she said” of storytelling, the part no one ever says in a movie, or in real life, for that matter. But they can be magic.

I was in fourth grade when a simple assignment changed me forever. All we had to do was come up with ten different words to fill in the blank in the following sentence:

“Get out,” he ___________.”

Just in case we were too dense to understand what we were being asked to do, the teacher provided us with an example.

“Get out,” he said.

Hmmm… that’s the one I was planning to use. Okay, how about shouted?

“Get out,” he shouted.

Nine more to go. Oh, how about,

“Get out,” he sobbed.

And then I stopped, stunned by what had just happened. I hadn’t just changed the word, I had changed the story. When he shouted he was angry, but now he was sobbing—something tragic had just occurred!

“Get out,” he laughed.

Is he laughing because it’s funny? Or is it a mocking laugh, an “I-run-this-place-now-so-get-out” laugh. I wanted to know more. What was going on? Who were these people? Get out of what?

There was only one way get the answers to any of these questions: I had to write them.

And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.

If you're a writer, was there a moment like that for you? I'll bet so: maybe not with sentence structure, exactly, but maybe with a story that you wrote that had such a perfect ending that you could see the whole thing as if it were happening right in front of you. Or maybe you wrote a poem and the beautiful way the words lay upon the page inspired you to keep at it. Or maybe such strong emotions tilted your brain until you wrote down words to help your brain back upright.

Whatever the epiphany, I'll bet you it was wonderful. -- Bruce