Friends

A relationship in any given person's life can be the grounds of a great story, written or simply lived out. This can go either way in terms of what is beneficial or not, but regardless, these close and personal relationships are great mediums of tapping into deep sources of our emotion and the realities of who we really are. How do we act to our enemies? How do we act to our friends. How do we treat our friends who become our enemies? That concept alone could fuel a novel series' storyline.

Still, the point is, how potent are the relationships in our lives and how much are we truly gaining from them? How much are we giving? Are they worth writing about? Can they bring forth the emotion of others to move them beyond what's written? Everyone needs to be careful about who they surround themselves with, but this goes especially for those of us who are aiming to have an impact on a larger group of people through our writing. The real questions are: do we really expect to influence people? how many? are we even doing enough to influence our own friends or draw something meaningful out of them?

Writing is fueled by passion and our deepest relations with the people we share them with. Hopes, dreams, love, and hate. It's our responsibility, not only to make an impact in them, but to have people around that can bring forth that potential for impact; relationships with real meaning, depth, and value. Hopefully that came across as intended.

Still love your friends, live for them, and seek to grow WITH them, not in spite of them. But do it with people who bring out the best in you, and embrace the negative aspects into constructive work from those who are against you. That's where the true soul will come out. I'm saying this to myself, more than anything, but also to whoever may gain something from this.