Emily Dickinson's Warning

A Word dropped careless on a Page
May stimulate an eye
When folded in perpetual seams
The Wrinkled Maker lie

Infection in the sentence breeds
We may inhale Despair
At distances of Centuries
From the Malaria -

                                       Emily Dickinson


Did you understand what she was warning us against? She is telling us that when we write our books, our articles, our essays, our short stories—whatever you want to call them—when you write them, never just “drop” a word in a sentence because you can’t think of a better one. Sure, the word may look good on paper, but the meaning that you are trying to convey to your reader now becomes tainted. Just take a few minutes to sort through the words in your mind and pick the one that fits. Writing is like a puzzle, and all your puzzle pieces are your words: don’t try to make the piece fit if that isn’t its correct place. And if you do do such a disastrous thing, then the final picture of your puzzle is messed up (for lack of a better term).
         
Word choice is extremely important, so don’t treat it casually.
         
Of course, you can have many interpretations to this poem, and I wouldn’t mind hearing it from any of you, but this was what I got from it. And I took this advice to heart. (Did you also catch Emily Dickinson’s “careless” word? It’s “malaria”.)

So remember that your words are eternal, and the people that may be reading it “centuries” later will “inhale” the “infection” in your sentences, all because you decided to have a Word dropped careless on a Page.