Writing Prompt #11: Labels

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” - William Shakespeare

My husband and I had a very funny conversation the other day. He was talking about Fibonacci patterns in the crypto technicals.

Our conversation meandered here and there. But ultimately led to him describing a shape as a square. I asked if he meant a rectangle and this is where things got really funny.

Before I replay the conversation you should know my husband is the smartest most talented person I know. He can do carpentry, and electrical, and plumbing, and building anything from a house to a car. He knows shapes. So this conversation isn't about him being ignorant and is definitely not making fun of him. It's about my first giggle and his intention to make me belly laugh. He succeeded.

I think at this point in our conversation, we were talking about cities. I always get lost. He never gets lost. He always says cities are a square.

I said, "But what if it is a rectangle? Squares are equal on all sides. Cities aren't equal on all sides."

He said, "Square."

So I asked him to show me a 90 degree angle. He moved his hand to show a 90 degree angle. His hand was straight up and down, fingers closed. I snickered.

I said, "Ok. So what do you call an shape made of four 90 degree angles but with different length lines?"

He said, "A tall skinny square."

I took a breath to ask another question, but he beat me to the punch, "Or a short wide square."

So then I asked him what he would call a shape with three lines instead of 4.

He said, "A three legged square."

I asked, "What if the city is laid out like a wagon wheel? What would you call that?"

He waggled his eyebrows at me and said, "A curvy square."

My body shape is definitely curvy. Hence the eyebrows.

By this point I'm already laughing out loud and trying not to fall out of my chair. It was difficult to keep a straight face and not roll on the floor laughing.

So I asked, "What about a parallelogram? What would you call that?"

He said, "Fake news."

I guffawed so loudly I scared the chickens.

This little story brings me to this week's prompt: labels.

Another word for label is name. These two words are synonyms. They are spelled differently, but can have the same meaning.

It is this meaning of label I want to address.

Naming a thing helps us categorize it. My husband's squares for example. Each description I gave it asked about falls into the category of shape.

But each shape had it's own name.

Labels help us identify specificity. Shape is too broad a term. So we label the shapes bases on how many lines they have or at what angle those lines meet.

Labels can also be very restricting. The human race is learning to recognize that nearly everything has a spectrum.

Gender has a spectrum. Sexuality has a spectrum. Autism had a spectrum. Music has a spectrum. Writing has a spectrum. Color has a spectrum.

There are many shades of white, black, red, yellow, and blue.

In art red, yellow, and blue are called primary colors because you can't get them by mixing other colors together. Orange green and purple are secondary colors. White and black are called shades, not colors.

Just open any box of Crayola Crayons and you were see the spectrum of colors one can make from the primary and secondary colors.

"Hand me a green crayon," she said. He looked bewildered. He said, "Which green? Olive green? Army green? Pine green? Hunter green? Lime green? Lawn green"

You get the point. For this week's prompt I want you to think about labels. How do you label yourself? Is that label freeing or restricting?

"What kind of music do you listen to?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Yes?"

"Yes, I listen to music."

"But what kind?"

"Just music. Any kind. All kinds. No kind."

He said, "I only listen to hip hop and rap."

She shook her head, sadly. "Oh, you are missing so much."

These two people are using labels in very different ways. The woman is using music on a freeing way. Anything can be considered music. Sounds she heard, crickets or birds, or even traffic sounds like music. The man is using labels in a restricting way. He only listens to two kinds of music, which to many people sound the same. He is missing the music in a child's laugh, or the lyrics of an Irish ballad.

How do you label yourself? How do you labels others? How do you distinguish yourself from others who are similar?

I often get asked what genre I write. I usually say fiction and nonfiction. But even within these labels it is very important to some people (agents, managers, publishers, etc) to further categorize.

Nonfiction can be current events, politics reporting, entertainment reporting (TMZ), history, personal essay, social critiques. And more.

Fiction can be romance, thriller, mystery, suspense, historical romance, historical fantasy, science fiction, sword and sorcery fantasy, urban fantasy, dystopian future fiction. And of course, adult or young adult, or scholastic.

So, "fiction" or "nonfiction" is often too broad. I don't think breaking each category down and labeling is restrictive in a bad way. But it is restrictive.

There's a term for books that can't actually be narrowed down called genre-bending.

The book I'm writing is a psychological-suspense thriller, tragedy. It is also fiction. And would be categorized as a novel if I get around 80 thousand words, or a novela if it's closer to 6 thousand. 4 thousand and under would be considered a short story.

So, you see there are so many ways to label so many things.

The rules are simple:

1. Write anything on Labels

2. Write 100% original content

3. Write at least 600 words (so Rusty will drop by and beer generous)

4. Tag me @JonicaBradley

5. Join the Promptly Jonica community and submit your story or article there.

6. HAVE FUN!

Please consider running your article or story through a plagiarism checker.

Lead image license free from Unsplash.