Penning Beyond the Ninjas

In the fourth century Euripides, a Greek playwright, promoted word power with, ”The tongue is mightier than the blade.” 

In Hamlet Act 2, scene II, Shakespeare wrote, “many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills.” Edward Bulwer-Lytton etched eternal, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” in his play Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy. 

When he played The Joker in Batman, Jack Nicholson threw a poison quill into someone’s neck. 

The powerful pen concept has seen constant use in communicating the force of language.

All writers face beasts that sap word power.  They stalk disguised in a variety of costumes. How do we conquer them?

The F words - fear, failure, frustration - will always loom and attack like Ninjas. The E words - ego, excuses, and energy level - lurk in shadows and dreams.


By using the positive E’s: eyes, ears and enthusiasm, we reach beyond Ego’s involvement in the writing.

Learning new techniques to pursue writing provides fresh perspections (perception plus perspective).

Creative Write:  Choose a piece of writing for discovery. Approach your work with colored marker pens. 


Use green to highlight nouns and active verbs. 


Try red for “be” verb repetitions: is, am, was, were. 


Also color red all adjectives and adverbs. Add a dot of green next to them.


Highlight with blue all action in the story or poem. 


Dab yellow to reveal areas where you tell the reader too much or use abstractions like love, death, fear, or rage.  


Find sensory imagery with orange: sounds, scents, tastes, textures.


Take a look at the rainbow created. What do you notice? What gets in the way of your message?  Where can you exchange words and brighten the musicality?  Will simplifying the text help?

Keep your pen moving beyond the battles. Take the risks needed to make your pen the conqueror.

Create warriors-with-a-pen and write past the Ninja swords.