In past years, talking about love has been fairly straightforward here at the Blood-Red Pencil blog. We mostly examined love from the standpoint of romance from assorted angles. This year, the theme of love has gotten a little more complicated, thanks to politics. Where is the love, when finding even kindness is a challenge?
Maybe we need to look at the different aspects of love and how we practice it to give us some insight - our team will do that this blogging month. For now, let's think about it in the context of our writing.
What do we do to give our book characters some love? From a Facebook prompt by Gary Chapman, I applied his five love languages to a few of my characters and gained some interesting insights. I'll write more about that this month, when I review his book, The 5 Love Languages, for #FridayReads.
How about love of place? Do you treat your fictional settings like a character, exploring the moods and nuances as though the location were a character of its own? Some authors have a real gift for that, taking you to another place even as their stories begin.
How do you love yourself as an author? Downplay your successes? Worry that you're promoting too much? Stop that! You've done the work, so don't be ashamed to go out and crow about it. Love yourself a little better.
Finally, let's think about giving the writing community some love. When was the last time you shared a book birthday, rated a book on GoodReads, or wrote a quick and concise Amazon review for a book you read and enjoyed? That kind of support shows respect and admiration, both of which are nothing more than aspects of love.
What else can we love? Chocolate of course. And always coffee. Which reminds me of something I discovered at romance novelist, Nora Roberts' Turn the Page Bookstore. What's not to love about this? You know what this is, right?
Love. One word, so many meanings. What does it say to you? Please leave us a message!
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| Dani Greer is founding member of the Blood-Red Pencil. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. |
I love my husband and my son, because they give me a reason to get out of bed in the morning. I love knitting and coffee, because they keep me from jabbing random irritating people with a fork. I love our public school, because the nearest available private school that offers ABA therapy has an annual price tag of $75,000. I love science, because it's keeping my husband alive. I love writing, because my words made Lewis Black laugh.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I love chocolate. Because.
That about covers the bases. :)
DeleteI love your loves, Audrey.
DeleteFamily, dog, writing when I'm concentrating, nice weather, potato chips, and ice cream.
ReplyDeleteHard to concentrate these days, isn't it?
DeleteI love my little farm and my critters, even the cats who are always getting into trouble. I love the local art center and the community theatre where I get to play on stage, and I love my blogging friends.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Dani, that it is good to give some author-love via reviews, and I review and host authors on my blog regularly.
I'm hoping we get some tips on reviewing books for Amazon and GoodReads. I so fail at those two places.
ReplyDeleteLove for family and friends; love for writing, fellow writers, and books; love for characters and the living, breathing people who inspire them; even love of a very different sort for antagonists -- these are among the things I love.
ReplyDeleteYes, the antagonists in books are fun - even if we love to hate them. And we can murder them - it's a loverly thought. Hahaha.
ReplyDeleteI love books, tea to drink while reading books, cats who snuggle me while I read books.
ReplyDelete