Love in the Work of Writing
I write about love because I tell stories; and it is impossible, I believe, to tell any kind of powerful or valuable or meaningful story without writing about love. And, too, I have found that it is impossible to write a story without love. The writer must love her characters, must open her heart to them, give the whole of herself to them, in order for those characters to give themselves back to her. –Kate Dicamillo, “Characters who Love Again” Today I’m pondering love’s role in the making of literature. Love is a basic ingredient, like water in a soup. Without water, you have no soup. Before there’s any hope of writing well or of an audience appreciating your work, you must love writing itself. You must love…