Leaf By The Sea

There are times when you may feel distant from the rest of the world. Lost in sorrow. Lost in a private grief. You are a leaf by a sea. You are far from home.

Do not shy from sadness.It is an emotion, like any other. There are scars which cannot heal, but make us stronger, might make us stranger if we stand apart.

Pain and sorrow are as essential as any other emotion. They cannot be denied. They are demons at the door waiting to devour you, should you let them fester and grow. Take them in before they transform. They are part of us.

Knowing fear lets us better understand horror in the same way sorrow lets us better comprehend, appreciate, and savor joy. Your writing resonates the more you walk in shadow. You should not seek it out. Live is complicated and chaos and entropy eventually wheedles its way into everyone’s lives. Heroes need tragedy as well as triumph as much as villains need humanity as much as horror.

We all have different thresholds of emotion, like anything else. Focus on your strengths in your work, be they weird or mundane. There is beauty in the truth of mundanity that can make the bits of weird even stronger. Sorrow can be sprinkled in as catalysts and complications for the characters, but should rarely take center stage (though lingering in the shadows is never bad). Batman and Spider-Man are driven by the specters of the dead. Their sorrow makes them stronger, gives them the driving force to move ever forward. Though neither (regularly) dwell upon it, it is a central part of their character, elements that define and complicate them and lends gravitas and weight to their personalities. Though not always there, it casts a long shadow.

Think wisely. Write well.

Until next time, I bid you, dear reader, adieu.