Always Start with Love

When I was a freshman in high school, I had an awakening. Before the awakening, I was often bored but never felt pain. After the awakening, I was often in pain but never felt bored. That’s because my head began spawning endless ideas. But where did the ideas come from? Where do all good ideas come from?! They all come from love, without exception. Love is the origin point of all good ideas. Love is the original vertex for all good graphs. The first real attempt at a book, the first chapter I ever wrote, on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011, was a chapter about two brothers, in snowy Siberia, who return home one day to find that their village has been burned and all the children at the orphanage have been murdered by evil imperial soldiers. It was a chapter full of fire and a thirst for justice, but amid the burning wreckage of the orphans’ huts, one of the dying, smoking orphans asked the brothers something like, “Why do bad things happen?”

There was also the woman who ran the orphanage. She was as good as could be, and she was raped and lay dying when the brothers found her. She was a cliché, but not a bad one. Everything about the story was cliché, but nothing about it was wrong except the way it was presented, and nothing at all about it was morally wrong.

We learn a lot about a person based on their first-ever scene. It revealed much of my 15-year-old brain. My worldview. What my subconscious had contemplated. What I thought would look cool on paper. This was back when I thought all books needed to be super sad, like all those boring-ass, sad-ass books I was forced to read in school. 15-year-old me might have said, “If it’s not sad, then it’s not true.” Sometimes, I thought pessimism was a strength. Now I know it’s not.

It took about 3 months to write. Night after night. Staying up later than any teenager should. I remember the story completely. In this first-ever book I wrote (first in a series), the main character started an adventure that would see him lose everything and everyone but gain terrible power. He would then enact justice. Then he would save the world. He would then return home, arriving at night, in a lonesome forest somehow bright like a theatre stage. Then he would attempt suicide in the place where his story began, but the rope would snap and he’d fall into the snow. Then Nature, or God, or Himself, or An Entity, would appear in the form of a white wolf that had dark, universally wise eyes. The wolf would look at him in silence. Then it would walk away. The hero, still on the cold ground, would watch him leave and maybe begin to understand the wolf’s message. It wasn’t until now, more than 13 years later, that I can write the wolf’s message in words: “Continue. The universe says to continue. It is all I know. I see you know too.”

In this scene, the hero learned that he was destined to continue his fight, continue life. He learned it at one of three points, or maybe at all three points together: 1, When the rope snapped. 2, When he saw the wolf. 3, Or he knew it all along but was rejecting it.

At the time, I didn’t know what the wolf meant. I could only feel its fair, calm, wise expression. An animal that usually represents hunger and, when alone, lonely desperation, had come to represent godlike compassion, relentlessness, and wisdom. (Maybe I was desperately lonely and needed to bring those qualities into myself.)

The dying child asked, “Why do bad things happen?”

The wise fighter answered, “I don’t know. All I know is that we must continue and stop the bad things from happening.”

In the place where the questions began, the answers began. Where love was lost, the lost found love. The hero’s journey came full circle. At the time, I did not see any of these meanings. I didn’t know what the wolf’s visit meant. I could only watch it happen. But I knew that it was right to happen. It felt correct. It felt interesting. It felt fun. I would not have called it “morally good,” but I would have known to call it, “evocative, beautiful, and interesting.” Now, I know it’s morally good. The wolf is fighting for good and love, and he will keep working forever, if that is how long it must take.

When I was a freshman in high school, I did not have experience, nor wisdom, nor extraordinary power. I had two things: Love and Intuition. I know the love came first, but I think the intuition is what guided me down a road toward unlocking my love. I know that love was the only fuel that carried me, because the pride, like paint, faded with time, and the wrath, like ice cream, melted, and the lust, like something else, exploded. I started writing because I was more bored than I had ever been before or since, but I continued writing because my intuition told me that it was “good” and “right.” But why? And what does “good and right” mean? Now I know it means “love.” Love is good and right. I was bored because I needed some love. Stories were a path that had given me Love before, so it was more logical than I realized.

Part 2: Starting Stories

Not every thought begins as an emotion. 1+2=3. I didn’t feel the one or two, and I didn’t feel the three. But every “deep” thought begins as emotion. There’s a little girl suffering out there somewhere, and there is much darkness between here and her. The darkness won’t negotiate. The darkness can only be beaten back. Grass doesn’t negotiate; If we want it short, we have to cut it. Trolls don’t negotiate; We must overpower them.

Love is push. There is no pull. Now we know physics.

Love is the source of all real power. Acquire love by making it from within. Then the never-ending push will flow out of our fists. Once the strongest evils are defeated, then the lesser ones will bow to reason and search for true love, true art, on their own.

The only emotion that can start good stories is Love. The only emotion that can continue good stories is Love. The only emotion that can finish good stories is Love. Understand? Love, Love, Love.

Even now, I think the word “Love” is one of the most useless words to use, because even though its meaning and its emotion are clear, our thoughts are not clear. We know what Love is, but we can’t put it into words. That’s okay. Love is an endless waterfall and we always come back to it. We can always tell another story. This means we can always think. This means we can always keep fighting for good. Every good story brings us closer to saying what Love is, finally putting it into words. It’s like how pi (the math circle number “3.14”) has infinite numbers and each new number brings us closer and closer to the truth. But, to get closer to the truth, each number must be correct. Correct art has Love. Incorrect art doesn’t have Love. Incorrect art is as useless and destructive as bad math. Always tell someone if their story sucks.

I’ll say it fast. If any action is attempted without Love, then it will fail. Love is the soil, and aiming seeds anywhere but at the soil will result in death. If I say, “I’m going to try writing a computer program,” then I will fail unless I add, “because I love humanity’s destiny and I want to help.” If I say, “I’m going to try ice hockey,” then I will fail unless I add, “because I love setting a good example.” If I say, “I’m going to tell a story,” then no one will buy the story unless I add, “because Love.” It doesn’t matter what kind of story we tell. Genre doesn’t matter. Style doesn’t matter. Time doesn’t matter. Stories get their meanings from Love, and without Love stories have no meaning. There is no exception to this rule. When we try to avoid this rule, we inevitably fall flat on our asses. “Ow!” Any action we take that is not centered on Love will inevitably result in loss and pain. It’s not fun without Love. “How do I put Love into this nightmarish horror novel about bloodthirsty demons?” Find a way to make it serve good and love, or fail. Those are the only two options. “How do I put Love into this scientific blueprint?” We have two options: Love or fail.

Life shows us emotions. Emotions lead to ideas. The only ideas worth keeping are the ones that do something good for Love. Motivation’s only source is Love. Without Love, there is no motivation. Starting a book is hard, but finishing is harder. Like my first college English teacher said, writing good books is “the hardest thing a human can do.” We’ll never be able to run across the finish line. We need to drag ourselves and get help being dragged like sacks of potatoes.

Part 3: Continuing Stories

We assemble an idea in our mind. Everything we see in the world is something that we have built in our mind, because we cannot perceive anything if we don’t make our own unique interpretation of it first. We create something in our mind. It’s a process we can’t stop. We love something. Then we are hurt when it is damaged, and we are happy when it is improved. The ups and downs become the highs and lows of a story.

The best ideas for fiction stories come from two or more people loving each other. The second-best ideas for fiction stories come from the conflicts between moral values. When we combine the two, it’s good. Very good. Oh yes. Very good.

Stories would never need to be outlined or drafted if humans were perfect. We could start at the beginning and make it to the end without change. We are not perfect, so there will be changes. Try to make most changes in the head instead of on paper or in text files, because that’s where notes come from, and notes are mostly clutter.

The human mind is a mirror that reflects its environment. The human mind does not create anything. The human mind assembles, fixes, destroys, reveals, and laughs, but it never makes anything. We can’t make something from nothing. If we were born deaf and blind, then put into a dark box with no contact with the world in any way, then we would never become a storyteller, ever.

There is no “divine inspiration.” God will never give us ideas. Ideas come from nature, and nature gives nothing and takes nothing. Nature is nature. Things are things.

Since every human behavior reflects something else, we could take a line from one story to another, then another, then to all stories before and after, and we would see a zig-zag line that intersects with every other story.

Every story influences every other story in a big or small way. In every dynasty of stories, we can draw a line from the latest and connect it to the earliest, and this line would also be zig-zagging from one storyteller to the other like a laser beam bouncing off mirrors. All stories exist in the same dynasty, but some are trivially small, to the point that we can’t see the line connecting them unless we’re omniscient gods, which we’re not. All humans influence each other in big or small ways. We are all from the same dynasty of mammals. Sometimes we can see our obvious influences on each other, except when we’re worlds away and can’t see the lines between us. The lines become invisible to the naked eye, the informed eye, and the scientific eye, but the lines never become invisible to the moral eye, the lens of truth. Seeing in this way is referred to as “intuition” or “pattern recognition”. I disregard the term “extra-sensory perception” or “ESP” because there’s nothing “extra” about it; If it’s extra, then that means it’s outside, but if something is truly outside of our senses, then we can’t sense it.

Every character in every story made by every human is a reflection of nature. It is never person, place, or thing. Characters are always combinations of person-place-thing, just like our perceptions are always confusing mixtures of different elements that mix together by a logic we don’t fully understand. We are a reflection of nature. To say that stories are emotional is to say that matter is matter. Things are things. Lights are lights. Flowers are flowers. Bread is bread. Stories are emotions. When a storyteller wrestles with emotions and imagines emotions wrestling with each other, then characters are made.

The best books try to be good books by being moral books. The pursuit of moral perfection is a storyteller’s job. Some storytellers are lucky enough to pursue perfection in book form and make lots of money. The rest of us who suck at writing have to live a good story instead of writing one, by fighting the real evils instead of imagining them, and saving real people instead of made-up ones.

Everyone is a copy-cat, but we improve stories by copying from real life instead of copying from other stories. An unoriginal truth is found in a new place that it had not been before, and then the storyteller takes that truth and puts it into the story, and then the characters discover the truth, and then characters develop downward (do bad) or upward (do good) based on their reaction.

Try to have as much fun as possible. The best stories are always the funnest to write. It’s that simple. They pull us in just like they pull readers in. When we don’t understand morality, we get pulled in by the wrong things. We are all pulled by good and bad things. The good things are the easiest to rationalize and accept, while the bad things make us perform mental gymnastics to justify our poor taste. For this reason, good books are easier to write than bad books. Good stories keep us awake, while bad ones put us to sleep.

Understand what separates “real fun” from “fake fun”. Having sex with a prostitute is not real fun. Cheering for a woman who is getting a college degree is closer to real fun. “I want my daughter to have the best life possible. Is this woman experiencing something that I would want my daughter to experience?” Yes or no. Good or bad. The pursuit of good stories is the pursuit of power, and true power never accepts the unworthy.

Welcome conflict. Conflict is ugly, but it can lead to shows of love, and that is where conflict-driven stories shine beautifully. The gun is always ugly metal junk, but the hand that holds it can be more beautiful than the Mona Lisa, more loving than Jesus Christ, and more sexy than Aphrodite. The sword is always smelly, lumpy metal junk, but the person who holds it can perform morally beautiful acts with it, acts which are pure love. If the character miscalculates morals, then both they and the sword are ugly. If the character correctly calculates morals, then they are beautiful and only the sword is ugly. A destroyer is beautiful if they destroy for the right love; Never as beautiful as a preserver, but almost. Yet a preserver that can’t be a destroyer is a boat that can’t float. Prepare for war.

Part 4: Finishing Stories

Draft it 3 times then done.

Part 5: Put good in, get good out

We get ideas by consuming media. Ever wondered why stories are more fun and know themselves better than they did 100 years ago? The answer is one word: “Media.” Movies, TV, Books, Anime, Manga, Comics, etc. Exposure to media generates ideas, but only if the media is good. Bad media does not generate ideas. Bad media does not understand life. Bad media does not care. Never waste time.

Media is the most common source of ideas nowadays. Life is happening on screens more than it happens in real life. We feel like this gives us more control over the content, but it doesn’t. We think it saves time, but it only kills more time than ever before. Even though I know this, my life is still one of seclusion, but I’m trying to change that. All my big inspirations come soon after reading an amazing book or playing an amazing video game with a good story. But those inspirations wouldn’t develop if I didn’t have a solid understanding of other real people’s experiences in the real world.

Media has improved stories because it has been developed by the real world, and then it develops the real world in turn, in a never-ending spiral of Love. World War 2 happened, and then lots of people started changing their habits in an attempt to make the world more peaceful, and then Art was made to reflect this, and some of the art was good, and then the world imitated the good art, and then the world made more art. And now art, in general, has improved, even though progress never happens in a straight line. We are slowed down by bad artists, also known as “trolls.” Let’s talk about things trolls don’t understand.

Ideas sit between people. The ideas are between us, not inside us. The thing that occurs within people is the desire to love, but not in a creepy way. The desire to love and be loved is the original reason for all good stories. Love exists between people. Ideas exist between people. Without interaction, there’s nothing. This might be why “narration” is so boring, and why I wish the narrator would shut up more often. Too many narrators are either “not there” or “don’t care”. The characters should do all the talking, unless the narrator can say something that increases love.

Bad stories never give good ideas. If anyone gets a good idea from a bad story, it’s because he or she was smart enough to imagine a good opposite. We all worship characters, and we hate it when bad stories worship bad characters. However, a lot of people mistake bad characters for good ones. But good or bad, we won’t pay attention if the story doesn’t feel concern for the characters. The greater the storyteller’s love for the characters, the more likely we are to pay attention to them. Every bad movie that does not worship its characters has no fans. If it has fans, the number of them is so small it doesn’t matter. Every bad movie that worships its characters has thousands of adoring fans.

Example: Twilight series. Twilight (teen vampire romance books from the 2000s) will never inspire anyone to tell a good story. Twilight has nothing but toxic relationships, weird baby-love, and an inaccurate view of what heaven would feel like. If someone does a good thing after seeing the Twilight series, then all credit goes to that person, not Twilight.

Every Twilight fan wants to be needed as much as the main character Bella is needed by her lover. Twilight offers a warped version of self-care and self-love to the audience. It’s warped because it doesn’t offer self-growth or self-empowerment. It also fails to offer romantic growth or romantic empowerment. Twilight is a legitimately illegitimate outlet for teenage feelings and teenage needs. Twilight worships its characters. Although it doesn’t teach anything valuable, it satisfies cravings, and maybe we can understand ourselves after our bizarre needs are satisfied. Maybe that’s what some of us get through cheap pornography or eating an entire pizza in ten minutes. Maybe we see no way to find ourselves until we’ve eaten ourselves to death. Needs and emotions gave rise to Twilight, and there it stands in all its filth and degeneracy. Long may it reign.

Before we get angry at Twilight’s success, let’s look at other outlets that do the exact same thing:

1. Exploitive porn.

2. Drugs.

3. Strip clubs.

4. 12-hour game-grinds.

5. Fast food.

Before we get angry at people who are trying to satisfy their cravings, let’s try to fix the stressors and pains that started the cravings. We all have bad hungers, so judging others is too often unfair and unproductive.

1. Pain makes bad hunger.

2. Bad hunger makes bad needs.

3. Bad needs make bad stories.

4. Bad stories sate, but never satisfy, bad hungers.

5. Bad stories change nothing.

On the internet, you hear the phrase, “post-nut clarity”. This is what “post-nut clarity” is talking about. When we turn off the hunger for a moment, we see the person we are. When we fix the hunger, we become the person we want to be. To fix bad hungers, we need to replace them with good hungers. Good stories help us do this.

We all worship good characters, and we love it when good stories worship characters. Every good movie that does not worship its characters has no fans. If it has fans, their number is too low to keep the money flowing. Every good movie that worships its characters has thousands of adoring fans.

Example: Original Star Wars trilogy. Star Wars (sci fi adventures from the 1970s and 1980s) have inspired many of us to tell good stories.

1. Heroic, relatable personalities.

2. We see ourselves as the heroes.

3. Magic swords.

When we get inspired by things like Star Wars, some credit goes to Star Wars, and some credit goes to us. Every Star Wars fan wants to grow stronger as much as the main character Luke Skywalker grows stronger with the Force. Star Wars offers a genuine version of self-care and self-love to the audience. It’s genuine because it offers self-growth and self-empowerment. It doesn’t offer much in the way of romance, but we can get that in other stories.

Star Wars (the original trilogy) is a legitimate outlet for everyone’s feelings and needs. Star Wars worships its characters. It teaches a few good lessons, it satisfies cravings, and maybe we can understand ourselves after our needs are satisfied. Maybe that’s what some of us get through charity or eating broccoli. Maybe we see no way to find ourselves until we’ve done something good. Needs and emotions gave rise to Star Wars, and there it stands in all its glory. Long may it reign. Let’s look at other outlets that do the exact same thing:

1. Charity.

2. Education.

3. Hard work.

4. Real fun.

5. Healthy food.

We imitate people who satisfy these cravings and impart them on us. Let’s try to stimulate the needs that made us do good. We all have good hungers, so let’s feast.

1. Love makes good hunger.

2. Good hunger makes good needs.

3. Good needs make good stories.

4. Good stories satisfy good hungers.

5. Good stories change everything.

Part 6: Don't Wait for Inspiration

If we do not have Love in our life, then eventually Love is something that will happen to us. But we can’t afford to wait that long.

Since good ideas come from doing what’s right, we can’t afford to waste time looking for inspiration in the wrong places. We’ll never be successful if we act like pussies. For years, I would tell myself, “Some day I’ll be a philanthropist and my charity will change the world,” but I wasn’t spending any time researching charities or donating my time or money. Dreams are only dreams until we make them real. Dreams don’t change the world, but actions do. Waiting is dying, and doing is living. Don’t wait for anything. The book will never even get half-finished if we don’t make “doing” a constant habit.

Writing a book, starting a company, or doing anything huge is an impossible task, and we need to become impossibly focused and motivated to do it. This can only be done with good, moral motivations.

Bury any thoughts of divine intervention, because divine intervention does not exist. There is no such thing as “divine inspiration”. We can sit at a keyboard forever and won’t get an idea. Ideas come when we watch someone cry while they try to achieve an impossible goal. Ideas come when we watch mothers suffer the loss of their children. Ideas come when we watch men work to the bone for nothing. Ideas come when we watch the world burn. Ideas come when we watch heroes putting out fires. Ideas come when we watch villains starting fires. After the ideas come, we sit down and, after living some life, we realize there is an endless stream of ideas. Too many ideas to choose from. Pick whichever one sounds the most fun.

Don’t get stuck writing notes. I used to write hundreds of pages of stray notes for all my stories. It was mostly a waste of time. I never made progress until I gave the task my full attention and tried to write chapters from beginning to end. Approximately 90% of the story is found while outlining, drafting, meditating on it. Maybe about 10% of a story can come to us through stray ideas and random inspirations while doing other things. Like any job, nothing gets done unless we focus on the job and finish one task at a time. Doing work “here and there” won’t complete anything.

Be active when hunting for ideas. Stories do not improve passively, only actively. Stories do not improve as we get older, or wiser, or smarter. Stories only improve when we engage with them and focus on them. Our ability can improve passively, as we get older, wiser, smarter, more experienced, but only because we focused on our experiences. Our stories can only improve actively, as we use our power to focus on them. Stray ideas can build a story over a long time, but we all learn that life doesn’t last a long time. Three hours of intense focus on a story yield more improvement than three years of passive waiting. Better to live three hours as a storyteller than three years as a sheep.

Learn to be fast. Learn how to watch a bad movie in 15 minutes. Learn how to read a bad book in 15 minutes. Learn how to listen to a bad song in 10 seconds. There is no way to speed up the learning process in good stories. A truly good story wastes no time, so we don’t want to skip any of it. A bad story wastes a lot of time, so we learn to quickly filter out the useless bits. Learn to steal back time from the bad stories that want to waste time.

If inspiration isn’t hitting, then start grinding and pumping. Talk out loud. Brainstorm ideas. Chat with an artificial intelligence. Try everything safe and new. Write an outline. Re-write an outline. Re-write it again. Study a character. Walk through the character’s logic. Walk through every step of the situation. A, then B, then C. Write a draft. Write another draft. Don’t let desperation for progress cause sleep-deprivation. Don’t push too hard. But don’t be like the Zen Buddhists who believe that enlightenment comes to you while you sit alone in a quiet room, waiting for a flash of lightning. If the lightning isn’t coming, then start building up friction. Rest when exhausted. Never submit to loneliness. Let love make us fearless, realistic, and calm.

Review

1. This lesson in one sentence: Good ideas come from doing what’s right.

2. Good ideas occur between us, not inside us.

2. Do not wait for destiny. Run to it.

3. Find out which stories help the world, and which don’t. Always be judging stories against each other. Pro tip: Best animated film ever made is Spirited Away by Studio Ghibli. Compare all animated films to Spirited Away. Find a way to give power to the characters and audience like Spirited Away does.

4. Trying to be a good person always leads to more fun.

5. Trying to be a good person and having good taste in stories leads to infinite inspirations.

6. Fun is usually difficult, but never feels wrong.

7. Doing the right thing is usually difficult, but never feels wrong.

Next Lesson:

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~ Quotes ~

Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings — always darker, emptier, simpler.

~ Friedrich Nietzsche, The Joyful Wisdom (1882)

There seems to be this almost innate desire to tell stories about innovation in terms of eureka moments. For some reason, we just want to ... condense them to these moments of sudden clarity, where a light bulb pops over someone's head and they ... suddenly see the world differently. The apple falls from the tree — and they have a theory of gravity — whatever the trigger is. But when you actually go back and look at it ... in the historical record of innovation, eureka moments are the exception and not the rule. Almost always, there is a very long incubation period that goes into a breakthrough idea.

~ Steven Johnson, Where Goods Ideas Come From (2010)

Shrek: [peels an onion] No! Layers! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have… Ogres have… You get it? We both have layers!

[frustratingly heaves a sigh and then angrily walks off]

Donkey: Oh! You both have layers! You know, not everybody like onions. Cake! Everybody loves cake! Cakes have layers!

~ Shrek and Donkey, Shrek (2001)

“The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”

~ Mark Twain (disputed)

Credits

Tic tac toe heart picture from this person: https://pixabay.com/users/noname_13-2364555/

Love lightbulb picture from this person: https://pixabay.com/users/alexas_fotos-686414/

Rain hands cupping heart picture from this person: https://pixabay.com/users/hansuan_fabregas-2902307/

Lady eating planet earth picture from this person: https://pixabay.com/users/cdd20-1193381/

Girl with planet balloons picture from this person: https://pixabay.com/users/jordan_singh-4343948/

Lightbulb floating in sea of stars picture from this person: https://pixabay.com/users/cdd20-1193381/

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