Touches

​The word “touches” came to me as the topic for this month’s essay (blog). Perhaps it’s because of the fall foliage or a recent theatre performance I attended or some left-over Halloween candy or the matter of writing.  You see, Indiana seems to come into her own in the autumn of the year. Fields and woodlands are touched with blazes of crimson and gold. Fields are in every hue from cigarette cream to deep brown. One’s sensibilities hurt with the knowledge of how short-lived the display will be, so the heart longs to embrace the scenery, preserve it, share it. 

The performance I saw was “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” a one-woman production about Ethel Waters, an American blues, jazz and gospel singer, and actress. Amid the telling of her hard-scrabble childhood, the writer of the script inserted touches of humor to alleviate the grim bleakness of her story.  An audience can’t bear too much sorrow without a bit of relief. Ethel’s humorous references about her “crazy” mother, her “no-good” husband, and her “mean-spirited” promoters made it possible for the audience to deal with the unbearably sad situation.  When the main character sang Ethel’s signature song, “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” she touched the soul, making mercy and grace real in a broken world.
 
The left-over Halloween candy in the bowl on my table gives testament to the delightful experience of excited youngsters dressed in costumes and masks.  As they move from porch to porch amid the evening shadows, their quick “Trick or Treat” refrains and exuberant “Thank Yous”  are glimpses of a by-gone era.  I watch them hurry up the street, remembering when a child’s most pressing concern was “What am I going to be this year for Halloween? “  These  are touches of innocence in an increasingly hardened society.

Let me connect these examples. Among the most important elements of a writer’s craft, is the matter of word choice.   Whether one is writing a story or a script, it is necessary to include touches that will reveal or arouse the senses, add an undercurrent or layer of meaning when developing or portraying a character, and offer a bit of  comic relief when the subject gets too grim or intense. Moreover, when selecting a word, the writer must choose the exact word to convey a mood or describe a situation. 

In our writer’s group, when we critique each other’s works, we sometimes take issue with a word choice. For instance, in describing a yard scene, which is better:—among the weeds were discarded old appliances or among the weeds were abandoned old refrigerators?  We debated the differences between “discarded” and “abandoned.”  And what is the difference between “scurry” and “hurry?”  Do tears “rain” down one’s cheeks or “run down” one’s cheeks.   One must not get too hung up about such matters, but these are the touches and nuances upon which a writer ponders.