Flavors of Love

    Yeah, yeah I thieved that title from a reality show. My creativity is a bit distracted this week so sue me. Wait a minute, I was just kidding please don't anyone sue me. You wouldn't be successful anyway unless you've miraculously become the inventor of a machine that extracts blood from turnips.

     As you can see, I've been in a weird mood post-vaca and there's a couple of different things that have struck me in odd ways during my writing that wouldn't normally pick at my curiosity. For example, can you name all the different types of affection? At first I couldn't. Now I'm not talking about physical love although that one has it's place for sure (bow-chicka-wow-wow). More specifically, I'm thinking of the different flavors of love one might feel, and as a writer, put on paper.

    True to form, I started to make a list. So far I have twenty different types of affection on my list. While working on said list, I found there were a few surprises. For example, let's ponder on the complexities of unconditional love. There is the unconditional love of a spouse. This is a very special and powerful kind of love. Then, there's the unconditional parental love or love for a child. While both are unconditional, they're very different too. Both are capable of destroying someone if they are lost. Both are a gift if freely given but one can be completely lost while the other cannot. It's exactly this kind of thing that challenges me as a writer. How to convey the power in these two types of love with words when in life there's so many other things a person uses to show this type of love. Touch, actions, words, facial expressions, it's all these things that convey that affection we feel for the people we love the most. Trust me, even sixteen years later my hubs has an expression that melts my socks every single time. Which, now that I think about it, is oddly the same one that allows me to tolerate some of his more idiotic crap on a daily basis. See what I mean? So many flavors! 

    In writing, conveying all these levels of emotion with words is supremely difficult! M has told me multiple times I spend too much time telling, hanging out in my characters heads and not showing with the words. Bad Katie, no cookie. But hey it ain't easy! (I whine to myself) What in life worth having ever is though? And it's that one thought that propels me forward.

     At the other end of the spectrum there's hate. Strangely enough, hate is easier to write for me. Yikes, what does that say about my brain? Well, since you asked I'll tell you. It just means that I have a firm gasp on how the two things work. In my life, I try very hard not to say that word simply because I don't want my children to use it flippantly. There's so much potential for nasty things attached to it. If you ever read something I've written and see that word know the ca-ca has hit the fan because I don't use it lightly. But I digress. 

    Unfortunately for love, hate is quite necessary because they're the yin and yang of life. How can that be you ask? Well, let's think it through. Say you live in a bubble and never know anything but swimming in rainbows of gooshy love and ride unicorns that poo sunshine. If that's all you know, how would you ever be able to appreciate all that mush and reciprocate it? That's my point, you wouldn't because you couldn't. That right there dear friends is the whole enchilada.

    As I create love and loss for my characters tonight, I'll reflect on this one thought which sums all this up for me as a writer.

    You have to love something before you can hate it.

- Nicholas Sparks

So spread the love people! But remember what's lurking just on the other side of it.

Till Then,

Katie