“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.” – James Baldwin

Love is in the air in February, and it's not just because of all the hearts and flowers. This month, we tend to focus on romantic love. But what about all the other forms of love? There's familial love, friendship love, and even self-love. All of these types of love influence our relationships, our selves, and our lives. 

As writers, we often say that we love writing. But that doesn't make it easy to meet the page every day. Like all forms of love, a love of writing is complicated, and—sometimes—messy.

If you're going through a rough patch in your relationship with writing, try to remember that all relationships have an ebb and flow. Writing is the same. Sometimes it feels effortless, and sometimes you want to break up and never want to see it again. (Wait—is that just me?)

But loving something means committing yourself to it, even when it's hard. And that's the key to exploring relationships within your story: remembering that love can be many things, but it's always complicated.