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Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes
“Study the past if you would define the future.”―Confucius
Elisa’s Thought for the Week
Want to know something unique to humans … one of the only things that separates us from every other species on the planet?
Writing.
Not language, not communication, not scratching markings. The actual use of writing to share ideas, record history, store information, and preserve stories.
As far as all my research shows, there’s nothing else out there doing this.
But writing hasn’t always been what we see today.
It has evolved over time, and it will continue to evolve. It’s up to you whether you want to evolve with it.
To give you a bit of background on what I mean, let’s take a trip down memory lane to see how writing has changed throughout the years.
- As far back as 35,000 years ago (so 33000 B.C.) there were the Paleolithic styles of communication (aka cave paintings and drawings). These art panels used pictures and images to preserve and share the world around them.
- In the 7000s B.C., there are examples of Proto-writing in Eastern Europe and China. These are the first times that symbols not tied to artistic drawings represent a specific language term/word equivalent. They’re thought to be the first rough Pictograph.
- In China and the Far East, writers are brilliant and use anything in the natural world to etch their Pictographs into … including tortoise shells and bamboo reeds!
- In the 4000s B.C., Egyptians began to use Hieroglyphs that appear to be pictures, but are also based on the spoken language. Ancient Egyptian can be “read,” as many of the symbols evoke particular sounds. These are often etched into stone, ivory, and bone.
- There are some schools of thought that Hieroglyphs inspired alphabets not Sumerian Cuneiform (what can I say, Cuneiform has really good PR in linguistic history circles. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )
- In the 4000s B.C., accountants and merchants in the Middle East shared small clay spheres filled with holes and little pegs that could fit into the ball, showing 3-dimensionally how many items were being sold or bartered.
- In about 3200 B.C., we see this writing shared in more permanent “billing” ways. In Sumeria, a small clay tablet would be marked with a universal Grapheme symbol for what the goods were and 2-dimensional slash markings for how many were included in the transactions.
- Pictures and numbers are our first shared communication points, even if the words in languages were different. An oil bottle was an oil bottle, a shaft of wheat was a shaft of wheat, and 3 pieces were 3 pieces.
- Around 3000 B.C. we start to see sound-based markings coming out of Mesopotamia. Using universal symbols, spoken words were “sounded out” (they only had one or two syllables most of the time anyway) on clay tablets.
- We’ve now shifted from visual markings (Proto-writing and Pictographs) to audio-aural markings (Logograms), which means we can record more than simple transactional and visual observations … we can start to share anything that can be said.
- In around 2700-2600 B.C., writers began to move from clay tablets and inscribed on stone or metal. Many of these that have been found are funerary, meaning they were put in cemeteries and burial sites to tell who is here and what their background/story is.
- Our first examples of writing that are not numeric or sales based are basically biographies.
- At this time, close to 2600 B.C., we also see the first example of a modern written story, with the Sumerian epic Tale of Gilgamesh, a real king of Uruk in Mesopotamia (though it is thought the tale takes some liberties with truth and reality in the mythology!).
- In 1200 B.C., though The Silk Road connected the Far East to the Middle East, east Asian countries like China continue to use Pictographs and Logograms for their communication and language. To this day, many east Asian languages do not use Western alphabet systems.
- It isn’t just Northern African, Asian, and Eastern European societies that developed writing. Across the oceans, in Mesoamerica (Central and northern South American areas) we have evidence in 500 B.C. of Zapotec language writing using Logograms similar to Asian writing systems. Did they evolve this method on their own? Did Asians travel from Northern Asia through North America to Mesoamerica and share their systems? The modern world may never know …
As you can see, we’re only up to 500 B.C., and we don’t even have a fully developed Phoencian alphabet, let alone a recognized Chinese, Greek, Latin, Arabic, or Cyrillic one! Yet.
But we’ve seen how communication and recording (and thinking and interpretation) have evolved and changed.
Throw in:
- More accessible materials like ink and scrolls so “lower educated” people could write their thoughts and experiences.
- Schools and universities where students gathered to discuss and learn.
- The printing press so more people had access to these writings.
- Patrons and publishers who would pay and commission writings to be mass produced and sold.
- Newspapers that were devoted exclusively to sharing important information and news that didn’t involve a town crier screaming themselves hoarse every day.
- Typewriters that allowed writers to produce large volumes of work without cramping their hands and arms into uselessness.
- Word processors that added a digital variance to typewriters, allowing writers to record words digitally THEN print them, saving on errors and allowing for real-time revisions.
- Computers that took these digital variations and put it on a large screen separate from the recording process.
- Word processing computer programs that allowed writers to universally format different styles of writing and text without having to change out the printing press (printer) or type hammers.
- Autocorrect and Clippy jumping in on writing that is being created in these Word processing programs, and helps writers to fix errors that they recognize through a set standard of grammar rules (and what it learns as it “reads” more).
- Videos that start to add automated Closed Captioning, taking the spoken language of actors on film and sharing the closest approximation of written word on the screen.
- Word processing apps that are programmed with the ability to have a writer speak into a microphone, and the app will write the words right into the document, using speech-to-text.
Throughout all of history, writing has changed to allow more access.
Snobby assholes would clutch their pearls and cry out that this accessibility has led to a breakdown of intelligence and quality.
If you let those people start using new tools and means to share their thoughts and ideas, who is to say that what they write is thorough? Who is to say that it is accurate?
Who is to say that they are worthy?
Writing has changed again and again throughout history; and it’s going to change a lot more in years to come.
Sure, there will be some forms of writing that may cease to be interesting or useful. They will fall to the wayside, replaced by new tools and creators who have figured out how to wield them.
But it’s never been about writing or writers becoming obsolete.
It's always been about the growth and change of communication and sharing.
If you are willing to adapt, no matter what the advancements are, you’ll survive the evolution.
What You Missed on Craft Your Content …
Our articles have the same mission we do—to help you to make your own words even better!
- (From the Archives, November 2018)—If you wanna learn more about the history of writing, why not check out these deep dives into the History of the English Language (Part 1 and Part 2) from our Senior Copy Editor Joaquin Roman.
In Other Reading This Week …
Need more insights and inspiration for your writing and mindset?
Weekly Writing Tip …
A quick chance to learn from the masters.
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.”―Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark.
Untranslatable …
Exquisite words from other languages.
Kaizen (改善) [KAI-zen] (n.) – From the Japanese language, kaizen literally translates as kai (change) and zen (virtue), so together it means a change for the better. In the Western and business worlds, it has been adopted as a philosophy of process improvement (often seen in scrum workflows). But its original meaning was more of a continuous improvement through small changes. Sorta synonyms: strive, aspire, progress, evolve, steadfast.
This Week’s Writing Prompt …
We often do our best thinking when we write.
Take a look back at something historic. An event, a tool, a time period … whatever interests you. Now either: write a flash fiction story (give yourself 20 minutes) about it OR find a connection between the past and your current ideas and focuses.
This Week’s Writing Resource …
Why not use the tools at your disposal?
Detailed Google Search Tool—Did you know that only 16 companies own the majority of top search results on Google? Think publishers, interest media, and hobbyist/fandoms. This tool from ViperChill himself, Glen Allsopp, gives Google results that DON’T include the big players for more diversity of thought and results in your research.
For the Upcoming Week …
Because we all need a good chuckle to start things off right!
Deadline food, am I right?
Til next time! ~ Elisa
