The current batch of lessons in the second workshop I’m taking as part of my Betterment Through Workshops Instead of RWA Dues program focuses on brainstorming things that have personal emotional impact, the reasoning being that if you feel strongly about something, you can incorporate it effectively into different kinds of writing, rather than being limited to one genre or subgenre.
The assignment involves making a cluster diagram for each of several various emotional states. Some were easier than others. I ran out of room on one page and wrote only two things on another page.
I decided to check the forum to find out what other people were doing. The biggest difficulty they reported was with “hate.” Over and over and over, they invoked the old “hate is such a strong word” chestnut.
Seriously?
I obviously missed the day of How to Be a Girl School when we were taught it’s not nice to have negative emotions, so they’re not allowed to us (or, at least, we’re not allowed to admit we have them), because “hate” was the page I filled margin to margin. There’s enough injustice, stupidity, meanness, hypocrisy, and corruption in this world for me to fill up a wall, not to mention the not-necessarily-rational personal peeves that push me to the edge of homicidal rage.
Yes, “hate” is a strong word. It’s also appropriate and deserved a great deal of the time.
I think “love” is an even stronger word. I may throw it around carelessly in conversation like everybody else (if I neglect to devalue it in that context by designating it “lurve”), but I’m stingy with the feeling. I don’t love ice cream. I don’t love Gerard Butler. I don’t love Twitter. And I will never understand how someone can use the same word to classify their feeling for their child and their feeling for Starbucks, not during casual conversation but during an exercise asking them to delve into real emotion.
Maybe my failure to embrace everyone and everything with “love” makes me a terrible candidate to write romance and I should write hack-and-slash to indulge my dominant hateful side instead.
Then again, somebody who reaches for “freshly shaved legs” as a source of inspiration when writing about love doesn’t seem any better qualified.
Seriously? They had a hard time with hate? I think I missed that “such emotions are not appropriate for a girl” day too. Maybe that’s why I so enjoy writing serial killers. It’s a great outlet for that feeling. And if I find it a bit disturbing how well I write them, I’m chalking it up to a psychologist’s understanding of the baser instincts. Yeah… that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
You are so right. It’s why I lurk in the basement and fondle forks as I write up my next victim. Great blog post.
Huh. I could fill up a notebook on hate. Nearly started my list here but thought better of it. You don’t want spammers picking up the list of topics I’d start with. Let’s just say my TV will be OFF tomorrow.
And love is rare and precious. I think the Greeks had it right when they designated three different words for “love.” Because I love my kids in a totally different way than I love my country.
And I think a girl who truly understands the selective nature of real love is more qualified to write romance than most.
I totally didn’t get the shaved legs as inspiration memo.
Hm. I guess I’m in the minority here. I don’t like the word hate very much. I try to be sparing in the use of ‘love’ too… I think the overuse of the word devalues the emotion, so I use lurve or loff . . . depending on mood. It’s hard though. I just remember the first time I told my mom I hated her, and she said to never use that word unless you really really mean it. Made me cry (okay, mabye I was already crying, but stil…. ) That lecture stuck with me. I try not to be a hater.