Writers Are the Signal Callers

Long before football season opened, players and coaches labored over the hundreds of pages that make up the team's playbook. The big play didn't begin on the field. Someone planned it. Someone wrote it down. And then, at long last, the players put all that writing into action on the playing field.

It's this way with almost everything that happens in life, from the simplest things to the most complicated. Writers call many of the signals.

Movie actors and television stars act out what someone else has first written. Singers sing notes and lyrics that are scored out on paper. Scientists record the results of their experiments on paper. Politicians are elected because they make convincing speeches, speeches that are often written by someone else. And the laws they help pass after they're elected are all written down. Even most of the world's religions are based on the written word.

Is writing calling your signals? Probably. Have ever bought anything after seeing it advertised? Somebody wrote the words that persuaded you. How did you learn about that new video game? Did you read the instructions? Somebody wrote them. Have you ever tried out for a sport? Somebody wrote the announcement about the time and place of the tryouts. Somebody wrote the words you're reading now.

Writers are people with power. They call the signals.

Melissa Reese Etheridge