Happy Valentine’s Day! Let’s talk love affairs.

Not the human kind, because those can so often be disappointing, right? No, let’s talk real love—our love affairs with our creativity. With our writing. 

I was doing a meditation this morning and the meditation teacher read a poem. It was about someone telling a wise elder all their problems and the things that made them feel, well, bad everyday. The list was long. At the end of the poem, the wise person asked, “But what do you love?”

I think of this poem when I’m having a hard day with a creative project. It’s so easy to get caught up in the bad stuff—the lack of time, the lack of flow, the shitty first drafts, the rejections, all the things. 

But there’s a reason why we’re here. There’s a reason why we are, for lack of a better analogy, bleeding all over our keyboards day after day. 

We love this work. 

I’ll admit some days that love is a little harder to remember, like when your partner forgets to take the trash out for the millionth time and you wonder what the heck you saw in them in the first place. 

But unlike a romantic relationship, it’s hard to break up with your creative self. I honestly don’t even think it’s a thing. Some people put it on ice for a while when the frustration or the discouragement becomes overwhelming, but it’s never really over. It can’t be. It will keep drawing you back in. 

It’s part of you. 

So today, let’s remember the beginning of that love story. Here’s what I love:

• • I love falling into a new story—the possibilities are endless, the pages are blank (but in a good way), the story is waiting for me to find it. 

• • I love when a new character pops into my head. A glimmer of a person, not fully formed, who I can mold to meet the needs of the story. Because you can’t do this with real people, right??

• • I love losing myself in a place I’ve created. Spending time with old friends, seeing what people are up to. Getting new information that only they can tell me. 

• • I love knowing that my imagination is so rich that it can create worlds for others to enjoy.

• • I love remembering the feeling I got the first time I wrote a story. The rush, the exhilaration of creating something. 

• • I love playing the “what if” game—taking a normal situation and turning it on its head. Reading a news story and thinking about the different ways it could’ve gone. Villains and heroes waiting for me to change the course of their plots. 

• • I love playing with words, imagining how they’re impacting someone who reads them. 

Do you know how to find your own writing love stories again? If you feel like you can’t remember, try this:

Find a space where you won’t be disturbed and grab a journal or a notebook. Light some incense, play some inspiring music. Get quiet. 

Answer these questions:

When did you first know you loved to write? What was that moment?

What did you write about?

How did it make you feel? 

What’s one small step you can take to begin again? 

The love is still there, I promise you. It just needs a little nudge to be unearthed again.