Must Be Love

What does love really mean to you? Do you ever think about exactly why you love a person? As writers if we don’t try to dig deeper and understand our emotions and what drives us to them, how can we expect our readers to feel as we do?

Here are some deep thoughts about love from leading experts…kids.

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired." Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK."  Danny - age 7

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen,"  Bobby - age 7

"Love is when mommy sees daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross." Mark - age 6

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget," Jessica - age 8

I couldn’t come up with any better examples. They pretty much nailed it. When we grow older we have a tendency to complicate issues, to take the simplest concept and twist it until it doesn’t make sense anymore. Depending on what genre you write in, this may work well for your characters but if you are writing for children or young adults, you have to remember what it was like to see these emotions with new eyes not yet jaded by age and experience.

Capturing emotions isn’t easy, you should try to show and not tell as much as possible. The problem is making sure what you show is communicating the right emotion.

But in real life it might be a good idea to say it a lot. You know…so they don’t forget.