Wonderment as a Writing Tool
How enchantment can shape us as writers.
From Merriam-Webster:
A more vivid definition of wonder might be ‘surprised amazement’. I love that. It’s the kind of thing we see in children as they discover the world around them. Surprised amazement. What a joy it is to be there to witness their discoveries — their eyes grow wide, their mouths form a perfect O, and then they smile. At you. Because they want to share their wonderment. It’s too much for them to hold in.
After Rachel Carson was already famous for writing ‘Silent Spring’, making us aware of the many ways we foolishly, often unwittingly, pollute our earth, she wrote an article in Woman’s Home Companion called ‘Help Your Child to Wonder’. Its arc was her own adventures with her nephew, Roger, as they wandered the coast of Maine near her home during the summer months.
She intended to expand it into a picture book but she died before it could happen. But the story was already there so all Harper and Row, her publishers at the time, had to do was marry the text to a series of photographs suggesting her sojourns with Roger, and a beautiful book was born.
