Powerful Vowels

SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) has a wonderful writer’s retreat each year. One year Darcy Pattison presented a discussion on the power of words, especially the energy of vowels.

As readers and writers her ideas will shed light on how authors heighten energy in their stories. Here are a few details that may inspire you to occasionally stop and re-read for a different purpose.

**High energy vowels include long e (tree), short i (sit) and long a (say). Compare these two sentences. Decide which provides more energy into the writing.

The autumn I was seventeen, the nightmare were particularly frequent.

In the autumn of my eighteenth year, the dreams plagued me.

Darcy see the second as having a stronger sensory affect.

** Low energy words include short o (mop), short u (mug), long o (bone), short oo (book), long oo (tooth), and long u (cute). These also have a place in writing and for readers. They relax, lull, ease, a reader’s mood. Darcy suggests reading Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Here’s an excerpt:

In the great green room
There was a telephone and a red balloon
And a picture of the cow jumping over the moon
And there were three little bears sitting on chairs
And two little kittens and a pair of mittens
And a little toy house and a young mouse