Letters

Letters are annoying little things. They're these squiggly things you're reading right now, forming words: they're symbols, and some are pictures in their own right, and a lot of them carry multiple meanings. And that's even before we squish them all together into words. And let's not even think about sentences, let alone paragraphs, let alone an entire story.
It's kind of a hard thing to grasp at first, and it's admittedly some much more advanced stuff and way above the kind of thing I should be attempting to explain, but the arrangement of letters themselves can actually affect your writing. More than word use, letter use also has an impact: yeah, okay, laugh at me, think I'm crazy. Now look at this.

Doom, Cruel, Macabre, Death, Desiccation

Those are all bad words. Not... filthy words like what often comes out of Luna's mouth, I mean, pertaining to things we don't usually view as pleasant. Even though two of those things up there, Doom and Death, have roots in destiny and... well... death. Which isn't as bad as we make it out to be. Now look over those words. No, don't read them. Pretend they're pictures. Just look at them. Tell me what you see.
Do you see it?
Look again. No, you're right. It's right there, precisely.
The curls. The way the roundness flows together, but is cut off by the sudden sharp, straight lines. The letters themselves are slid together in such a manner they almost look like blades, don't they? And subconsciously, our minds will pick up on things like that. Just as when we read the word out, we'll hear it in our mind, we'll hear the the deep, ominous "-oom" that gives "doom" so much power and has helped lead to its association as a negative word.
I'm not really going to get into this too much further, apart from mentioning it so you're aware of it. But the structure of words, as much as the sounds that words make... has an impact. You learn learn to use this, to 'weave' the right words together in the right way to maximize emotional impact on top of the imagery you're depicting: the conscious mind won't notice it unless you're looking for it, but believe me, the subconscious of many, many people will. It becomes programmed into us, without us knowing, like so many other codes and little rules and tenets of everyday life we don't even realize we're paying attention to. How we might avoid stepping on cracks or naturally shirk the darkness or start seeing patterns in our everyday things.
Telling you how to use that?
Yeah, uh. That. That would take some practice.
But this way, at least, I'm making you aware of it. Think of it like a hidden kung fu art or something, it's something cool to know about, and to work your way towards understanding or mastering... but you gotta learn it yourself. You have to build up to that level. But you can be aware of it, and start looking for it, and start teaching yourself how words and letters interact. And one day, you'll find yourself beginning to naturally... understand. .And naturally... write with it.
So uh. Yeah. Crazy psycho letter art that really has little bearing at all on anything, but it's fun to try and wrap your mind around. I think it's fun. Shut up, Luna, I'm not insane. I'm just a little crazy. That's all.


~Scrivener Blooms