According to Wikipedia, there are 6 words for love in the Greek language. Each of them deserves to be looked at as we, that being western authors, often find our perceptions of love colored by the different categories outlined by these six words.
Part 3: Philia
This word for Love found in Greek is seen as a dispassionate love between equals. Brothers-in-arms, friends at school, and teammates in a game share this kind of love or affection. Most of the members in an adventuring party from Lord of the Rings to The Wheel of Time have this amongst their members. Some individual pairings within the parties may have deeper loves, different loves, or less love, but they all have at least a Philia for one another. Is this someone who you would put over your family, in most cases, no, but over a stranger? In most cases, yes.
This bond of friends is not something that is hard to form, but it is also something that is not hard to lose. If a soccer (football) teammate gets on your best friend’s bad side, someone you have a deeo Agape love for, then it is unlikely you will take your teammate’s side unless the person you are close with is being extremely unreasonable.
You could easily right this into a story, and it has been done many times. Often teams will come together out of necessity and work well together. Perhaps, over time, these teammates develop different dynamics with the other individuals that make up the team, but when they start out it is a very lowly Philia, like “Hey, I know we need to work together, so lets get along, okay?” Your hero could have a great threat arise that entails the ruin of their village, so he has to put aside his hatred of his bully to team up with him and overcome the greater threat. This bond of friendship borne from need, could lead to a deeper more connected relationship between the two characters.
How have your characters engaged with others with Philia? Tell me about a time when your MC developed Philia with a rival. Here in the comments or mention me in a post on X @ ABTimothyAuthor
According to Wikipedia, there are 6 words for love in the Greek language. Each of them deserves to be looked at as we, that being western authors, often find our perceptions of love colored by the different categories outlined by these six words.
Part 2: Eros
Eros is where we get our word “Erotic”. The word describes a passion, usually of the sexual variety. That celebrity crush you have, it is probably a love of an Eros origin. When you are physically attracted to someone, that particular brand of love is called erotic love. Gross words, I know, but this is part of love, and love is part of literature, so bear with me, okay? Okay.
Oftentimes, in literature, this love will present itself in the classic dilemma many heroes have, “What do they need, versus, what do they want?” In many Romantic dramas, this takes shape in the lover’s triangle. The heroine is torn between the smoking hot rack of abs that she wants and the down-to-earth small town boy whom she needs. Life is full of these struggles. Do you want another cookie? Maybe. But you also need (aka what would be best for you) to put the cookie back in the jar. This can also appear in romantic subplots for fantasy novels. Take Rand, for example, when he starts his adventure in The Wheel of Time, he wants to be with Egwene, his hometown love interest. When he progresses and begins becoming what he was always meant to be (which I won’t spoil), he realizes he needs someone like a Daughter Heir (or princess) who can teach him how to be a ruler and empathize with him as he struggles to come into his full powers both politically and magically.
Physical attraction, speaking from a man’s perspective, can be a powerful motivational tool, but it is also not all there is to love. In my fantasy story, the main character, Nail, begins to fall head over heels for a girl he has only just met and, in a striking bout of maturity for a 10-year-old boy, realizes what he is feeling is merely infatuation. He wants her, but needs to learn how to develop a friendship, or Philia, first, which we will talk about next time.
When writing this kind of love, unless you write some… more gross stories, it is important not to overplay it. It is also important, however, to not underplay it either. Wanting to save a princess from a dragon because she is pretty and might kiss him on the cheek was good enough motivation for an Italian plumber, so it might be good enough for your character, too.
How have you used Eros in your stories? Let me know in the comments below or @ me on X @ABTimothyAuthor
According to Wikipedia, there are 6 words for love in the Greek language. Each of them deserves to be looked at as we, that being western authors, often find our perceptions of love colored by the different categories outlined by these six words.
Part 1: Agape
Agape is the ultimate love of the West; it is selfless and cares not for itself but for others. The word is described by St. Thomas Aquinas as “to will the good of another.” God is the epitome of this love. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, down to live a perfect life and die a perfect death for us. But death did not win that day. Nor will death ever win again unless a person allows it to win.
John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The word “loved” here is translated from the Greek word “ēgapēsen,” which finds its roots in Agape.
This love is not just a religious concept; however, this is the same love that Boromir had for the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings he did not want anything from them, he knew they were, in all reality a burden on the fellowship, but still he fought to the death in an effort to save “the little ones” from the orcs. His bravery, sacrifice, and devotion are part of what inspired the fellowship to turn away from the road to Mordor and pursue the captured hobbits.
In case you haven’t seen it in a while, here is that heroic sacrifice on YouTube.
What character in your world exemplifies Agape? I want to hear about them. There is no greater love than this: that a man might lay his life down for his friends. The masculine pronouns aside, has a character sacrificed themselves? Has someone stood their ground and allowed others to escape or died trying to prevent a capture?
Our hero has met his match. The odds are stacked against him, and he will not win the day. At last, battered and bruised, the henchman’s sword falls, and the world turns black.
Then what? What happens next is up to you, the author. Have you considered the world after death, the place beyond space? Why or why not? Tell me about your world’s afterlife, if there is one.
In my Sci-Fi world, there are individuals who have the gift to rebound from death. For each one of them, the experience is different. Some dream while they are “dead”, others remember falling through a tall cloud and slamming back into their body like they hit the ground, and others still suffer extreme pain, and it drives them mad. In my fantasy world, each individual goes to the place that they imagined they would, but it is always twisted. Each place is peaceful, but inconvenient.
Does your world have religious ideas of what the afterlife will be? Do they believe in a good place and a bad place, or is it more complicated than that? Many fantasy worlds I have read have an arbiter waiting on the other side, a kind of judge who’s job it is to weigh the lives of those recently deceased, this might find its origins in a lot of cultures, the Egyptian myth has dead people’s hearts weighed against a feather, in Greek myths the person’s soul is judged by a council of heroes, in the Christian afterlife God Himself judges and condemns or forgives those who have accepted His Son, Jesus Christ.
Death is a very serious subject and is often considered the end for many cultures and people. Recent trends in fictional media, however, suggest that this does not have to be the case. There is a genre of Japanese animation called “Isekai,” which translates to “another world”. In this genre, the hero finds themselves in another world where they must adventure. Oftentimes, they get there because they died here in our world. Maybe your fantasy is like that, when the hero dies, their journey simply begins anew in another world.
Let me hear what you have to say! I want to know what you’ve decided to work into your fantasy world.
Have you ever killed a character? Why did you do it? What purpose did it serve in the story? Was it to help grow your main character? Was the main character the one who died? In my time telling stories, death has never been meaningless. I have never had my characters kill another character, outside of select short stories, and have it have no impact. Every death has had a deep effect on the characters who witness it. Even if it’s only in my head. For example, on a pitched battlefield, it’s hard to give every dying character a meaningful send-off, but in my mind, I know who that character was, I know their name, their lover’s name, their best friend’s name, and how each one of them is affected by it.
There are cliches you should avoid: rainfall at a funeral, this can be distracting to the reader if your story has never had rain affect the story in any way before; explosively meaningful deaths, in a speculative story, especially fantasy or sci-fi, sometimes, people just die; and meaningless death.
The Sky Weeps?
No matter how important your character is, they do not have a metaphysical connection to the weather patterns. Unless you have developed some kind of really cool weather-magic system that forms a bond between the sky and the wielder of the power, in which case disregard this section. For most of us, however, when we are writing a powerful funeral scene that defines the MC’s next arc, the sky should not bend to the whim of the story. If you’ve already set up this place, this region or planet, as a rain-heavy place, go for it, but sudden and violent rainstorms can garner an eye roll from the audience.
I’ll end each section with this: these are not hard and fast rules; they have not been written in the literary laws of the Medes and Persians.
Ned Stark or Tony Stark
In A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, there is a heroic character called Ned Stark, who, I am told, was a fan favorite. Very much a man of honor, virtue, and nobility, when the time came, however, one plot thread led to another, and he found his neck on the butcher’s block. Some other authors might have had a last-minute hero jump from the crowd and prevent this in justice, but not Martin. The axe came down, and the head of Stark rolled. There was no great revolt in that moment; there was no huge battle and revolution in the name of the just man who was wrongly executed. There were, however, other major characters in attendance when he died, and his death did have a lasting impact on the story and those other characters, but it wasn’t explosive; it was smoldering.
Does Tony Stark need an introduction? I don’t think he does, but for some who may not know, he is the climactic hero of the Avenger’s Endgame movie. The character of Tony Stark, who many know as Iron Man, is one of redemption and heroic acts. The fellow had ten years of cinema and 7 (some might argue 8) movies of time to develop his massive impact. So when he stole the weapon of destiny from the villain Thanos and snapped his fingers, winning the day and sacrificing himself in the process. The explosion of worldwide story impact had been earned. Could you imagine if the first or second time we see Tony Stark on-screen, he beat a galactic-level threat with a snap of his fingers? Sure, it might mean something to long-time comic-book fans who understand what’s going on, but for the regular viewers, it would have been an explosion of meaning that would have ultimately been meaningless.
Sometimes people die, and this is the way of things. Not every hero gets to snap his fingers and resolve a decade-long plot thread, not every hero die on a tyrant’s chopping block. I think, while it is a bit crass, the Epic Rap Battles of History battle J. R. R. Tolkien vs George R. R. Martin does a fantastic job of giving a lot of literary advice if you can read, or listen, between the lines. Their battle mostly consists of disses and promotions, disses of their opponent’s writing philosophy/style and promotions of their own. Below, I have linked a clean version that should give you an idea of what I am talking about. The line “All your bad guys die and your good guys survive,” from the characterization of Martin in the video, is partly what inspired this article.
These are not hard and fast rules; they have not been written in the literary laws of the Medes and Persians.
They meant nothing?
While it is important to not overblow your character’s death, it is also important to not underplay it either. Sometimes this will come up in a hero vs villain story. The classic example of a dark lord vs a farm boy might play out something like this.
“You, at last, I’ve found you.” The young hero said as he stuck his sword’s razor-sharp tip under the monster’s chin.
“Who are you, child?” The villain asked uncaring.
“You killed my mother, you’ll die for what you did.”
“Oh, I’ve killed hundreds of mothers; you would have to be more specific, boy.”
In this exchange, we see that part of what has ruined the villain is their lack of empathy. This is juxtaposed against the hero’s memory. The hero has likely remembered every person they have had to kill to get here. If not, that could lead to some interesting dialogue between the hero and the villain. A great example of this is early on in the 3 Musketeers movie, where one of the titular musketeers, Aramis, after getting into a deadly fight with some of the cardinal’s men, prays over their bodies and closes their eyes out of respect. Death, especially for that character, never went without meaning.
These are not hard and fast rules; they have not been written in the literary laws of the Medes and Persians.
Now you!
What do you think? Have you ever written an impactful death scene? If so, tell me about it! I want to hear how you’ve tackled death. One of the next few posts here will be about what comes after. Do you have any rules you live by when discussing the afterlife? If you do, I’d love to hear about them!
Do you ever feel stuck? Did you sit down when you had every intention to write or create, and… nothing? No motivation, no desire, no will.
TOO BAD!
Keep writing! Keep pushing. Write those words, fill those blank pages.
I know how hard this is, I know you are tired, I know you just want to throw in the towel for tonight and go to bed. I don’t care what you want, I care about what you need! You need to keep writing.
In other news
Keeping a schedule is super important, but also do not feel like you have to be married to that schedule. Write when you can and write what you can, but do write.
How many of you grew up reading faerie tales? I would venture to say quite a few of you. The one that inspired me the most as I grew into the author I am today is King Arthur. Did you know the name is used in reference to the legendary warrior-king in history once? Well, at least once that we have preserved. That one reference has now inspired thousands upon thousands of great works of fiction. Imagine if, one thousand years from today, only one reference to your main character exists in a review of another work, and that reference inspires thousands of authors and storytellers for centuries to come.
The reason I bring up Arthur is because of the mythic “Knights of the Round Table.” These legendary heroes inspire ordinary men to do the extraordinary. They were just your average men of the day, within whom the great King Arthur saw such mighty potential. A potential that he called upon by elevating them to the rank of Knight. The group is known for legendary feats like finding the Holy Grail of Christ and searching for the fountain of youth. However, some of the most widely read stories are of individual knights and their stories of heroism. One such is “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, where the young Knight Gawain volunteers to answer the call of a mysterious and ominous character who invaded a party that was being held at Camelot. Through adversity and eventual failure, Gawain learns a lesson he will never forget.
What does this have to do with writing, Al? I hear you asking. Well, as writers, we can really view ourselves as these individual knights. We go on lone adventures where we attempt to win the day against evil and publish our own work all on our own. This is great. There is nothing wrong, however, with finding a round table of sorts, a legendary collection of colleagues who, while fighting their own battles, will come together and help lift you up. This group does not have to be in person, true, but it should exist. Perhaps check out your local community college and take a creative writing course, or see if they have a writing guild. Go to your local library and ask if you can start a monthly gathering of creatives and writers who wish to discuss the nitty-gritty of the trade.
Who knows, you might find a close-knit group of authors that you can form a critique party with.
At the end of the day, keep writing and keep networking. Grow! You’ve got this!
Don’t give up! I know what you might be feeling right now, because I am feeling it even as I type this. I’ve never taken this platform as a chance to journal my feelings, but in this case, it may help. Today I was lethargic. I was sitting at my computer desk for almost all of it, feeling lonely and useless. I didn’t get any writing done today, and all I did was watch Netflix. Have you had those days? Yet, here, at the end of the day, I am writing (the timezones are weird on WordPress, I am writing this on 09/12/2025 at around 10 PM, but WordPress obviously doesn’t show that date or that time). I had planned to tidy up my room a bit and go to bed, but I knew that I needed to “Keep the Beacon Lit!” I have goals, I have dreams, I have people who read my blog (or at least click on it long enough to like the post <3 you guys too!), and they deserve what I can give them.
Sometimes you have to plant yourself in front of your computer, or at a table with a scratch book, and just burn. Let the discomfort, the boredom, the anxiety, and the fear burn inside you until that fire rages out of your fingers and onto the page. I want to be playing Tetris right now, but I need to write! I want to be playing Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 right now, but I need to write! So, burn with me! Creatives, lovers, dreamers, fighters! Face the boredom, face the monotony of life, and laugh as the keys burn under your fingertips, or the pencil shears across the page.
Fight for you! Fight for your readers! Fight for the hope of humanity! While the world burns, who will tell the next generations how the fires felt? Who will describe the sizzling flesh, the agony of flaming injuries, and who will warn them so they know to respect the flame? You, dear reader, let your fire warn those who come after. Let everything you feel be felt by you and those who need to read it.
I wish I had more to say, but I don’t. I’m going to go work on my fantasy WIP right now and see if I can pick up where I left off. Godspeed, my beloved readers, Godspeed.
Writing is a hobby full of solitude; I think many of us enjoy that about it. If all you want is a creative outlet for your explosively creative brain, then a solo hobby may be all it ever needs to be for you. For those of us who wish it to be something more, however, we will need to expand our reach to the real world. We go to conventions, we go to local bookstores, and we go to coffee shops. We go to where the audience is. Sometimes you can skate by with just improving your online presence, keeping yourself mostly anonymous and letting others find you, but, like bards of old, some of us want others to hear our tales so we go and find them and tell them.
How do you find people? Well, I’ve already given some examples. But here are some more ways.
Network
Go to writing-focused panels at the next convention you go to. Look into your local library’s schedule; oftentimes, they will already have local writers’ guilds or some kind of networking event for local authors. My library is having a meet & write for us local authors this Saturday, it’s helmed by a local author who wanted to network and build a community.
You could look into local bookstore/coffeeshop hybrids; sometimes they will have an event where you can go and do a read-aloud of your story. This is a great place to get feedback and to meet other brave authors.
Outreach
Go to local volunteering events and have a stack of business cards with you. If somebody asks who you are and what you do, give them a business card and tell them to check out your WordPress or Substack!
Volunteer to give talks at a local high school; this could be a huge winner if your book is YA or youth-focused. Don’t just talk about your book, though; talk about your writing process, pick an element that you think you are good at, and write a 5-10 minute PowerPoint presentation on the subject. I did mine on character creation! It was a blast, and I got to network with all of the English teachers at that school.
You could even host your own panel about that very same PowerPoint topic at your next local Convention!
Any other ideas?
What about you? What have you done to get yourself out there? Have you printed business cards? Have you looked into local events and shops that might be willing to host you? Let me know below!
