Love, Hope, and Faith

People seem to confuse these words.
Love is always a verb. It means you need to show an action. Love is getting up at 2 AM to change your baby's wet diaper even though you have to get back up at 6am to go to work. It's not a typo or whim that the KJV Bible translates the Greek word into charity in Corinthians chapter 13.

You have to know this when you are writing a love story or reading one, such at Twilight. There- I said it. Stephanie Meyers is either loved or hated, it seems. Seldom do people say they can take it or leave it. If you understand that she wrote a love story rather than trying to classify it as a fantasy, you'll be able to wirte something similar without copying her, even you have vampires in it. What is the struggle they overcome to be together? Change the basic conflict and you will have a different story. Keeping it about a clash of cultures even if you change the character into a werewolf, and it will still sound like copying.

Hope is usually an adjective, sometimes a verb. "I love him but he doesn't know I exist" is a post I commonly see on Yahoo Answers. Hope is what you want to happen. Why? What do you know about him if you gaze from afar? You need hard facts to make someone else happy. Does God approve of your actions? Is your baby comfortable? Does your guy have a hobby? If he doesn't know you exist, can you let him know? Books and real life are similar here, don't tell, show! Watch him play football even if you don't understand the game. Bring him a drink or a snack. You understand working out in the hot sun. If it's not worth the effort, do you really love him? If you want him (whether it's in your own life or a character you're writing) to treat you a certain way, is there any indication that he will do it? If there isn't, you will end up constantly trying to change him, creating conflict. If his mom cleans his room for him, he will not suddenly become a neat freak when he leaves home. Something needs to happen outside of the relationship to make him want to change, like his uniform is nasty right before the big game with the talent scouts in the stands. -Ah, the subplot-

Faith is a noun- something you have. Do you want a bigger one? Do you want two of them? This makes no sense even to dedicated Christians who commonly pray for it. Besides, God said my grace is sufficient for thee. So what exactly are we praying for? Faith is the substance of things hoped for. (Heb 11:1) Faith is the warm fuzzy feeling people are trying to describe when asked about what is their definition of love. What the prayer means is we'd like to be able to see it. We want to see our love returned, whether it from God or a potential boyfriend. Faith is what tears the heroine up when she has to choose between the rich, but authortarian boss who nevertheless pays her dying father's hospital bills (and has secretly loved ever since she saw him cry at his own mother's funeral) meets the poor poet who has claimed he is her muse and inspiration to keep going. Whew! Long sentence there.

This post is dedicated to my Composition teacher in college, Carolyn Horner, who showed us how to break down a piece into it's elements, as really I don't read love stories or fantasy either for that matter. Hope I got this one right.