Hope

Happy Friday, everyone!

Today's word is another one that means a lot to me, one that speaks deeply to my soul, and one that I think we all cling to in one form or another.

Hope

When they opened Pandora's Box, the only thing left inside was hope, closed within so it would be preserved. Why is that? Why is hope so important to us, and why does it mean so much to writers?

Well, I'm so glad you asked.

1. If we don't have hope, we go stagnant

As living beings, without hope, there's no point in continuing on. If there's nothing to look forward to, nothing on the horizon, then why continue at all? We need hope. We've always needed hope. Even if that hope is in tomorrow, in the future you picture in your mind, or in the family by your sides -- we need it. We thrive on it. If we let it go, we stop thriving. If we stop thriving, story ceases to be. 

2. If we don't have hope, our characters have no hope

This seems logical, right? If the writer has no hope, it's hard to make a character who does have it -- or at the very least, it's hard to make a character believably have hope. So if we give up on hope ourselves, so do our characters. They follow us in more ways than we tend to realize.

This leads into my next point...

3. People don't like hopeless stories

Well, they don't like completely hopeless stories. Take The Walking Dead, for example. The situation is dire. We know that at some point every single character (yes, even Daryl) is going to die. But we have hope that they're going to survive another season. If there wasn't that hope, if the characters had no hope and completely gave up on everything, what would even be the point of watching?

4. Without hope, there would be no story

In the end, this is what it all boils down to. Without hope, there would be no story. No one would care enough to read what pointless drivel we spew out, nor would we even care to write it. Nothing would matter.

So hold to your hope. I promise you, there's always something to hope for. There's always a light shining down on this world. All you have to do is look up and find it. He's waiting for you to see.

[love]

{Rani D.}