When you become a mom, there is nothing you wouldn't do for your kids. But as you soon realize, there are often situations where you feel completely helpless. That's what happened to me this February when this adorable, sweet and unique little boy, my son John, was verbally bullied at school, by not one of his classmates, but twenty. I'd love to say that his case is rare, but it's not. Thousands upon thousands of children are verbally bullied. According to Paul Coughlin of www.theprotectors.org, an anti-bullying organization, 160,000 children stay home a DAY due to fear of being bullied. And that statistic is from the 1990s. Imagine the number today.

Tomorrow I am going to post my personal story, of how my son John became the target of extreme verbal bullying, and the touching true story that followed. Please tell everyone you know who is interested in combating verbal bullying to come visit my blog tomorrow. Help me spread the word about the Power of Words. When I wrote my novel LISTEN, I never imagined that I would be living out the nightmare I wrote about. But God has a plan, because all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Help me work out the good. Spread the word about LISTEN. Come follow me on Twitter. And join me in a word revolution!

Rene

Mystery Blogger! James Scott Bell

Today is my first mystery blogger! I asked my friend and fellow novelist, James Scott Bell, to write some thoughts on the power of words. My mystery bloggers will be talking about words in their world. We'll have writers, lawyers, pastors, teachers and more. It will be fun. So here are some thoughts from Jim on the power of words inside a novel. I wonder what would happen if we thought just as carefully about how we use words in real life?

The Right Words by James Scott Bell

Mark Twain famously said that the difference between the right word, and the almost right word, is like the difference between lightning and the lightning bug. That's the power of words, and the writer needs to be merciless in the search for the right ones.

I see a lot of bland writing in unpublished manuscripts. Description that merely describes, rather than giving us tone or emotion, for example. That's a waste of space. Like this:

The wind blew in from the desert, making the grass brown. Only the oleander plants seemed to thrive, their blooms and green leaves healthy.

But now see how Janet Fitch does it in White Oleander:

The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves. We could not sleep in the hot dry nights, my mother and I.

Every detail of the weather here has tonal and thematic significance to the narrator, who is introduced in the third paragraph reacting to the weather.

Or how about this, from Raymond Chandler, in his short story "Red Wind":

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.

What's the key to finding the right words? It's part alchemy, of course. You can't buy the ability. But you can work at it by first looking to the emotions roiling inside the Lead character. Then keep writing and trying different words until there is a connection between them and those emotions.

I see too many lightning bugs on the pages of aspiring writers. Squash them! Zap them with a bug zapper! Then crack some lightning.