Primal emotion is the aim of all great writing. By primal I mean the deepest, oldest, and most fundamental wellsprings of human need. And since yearning and dread are the most fundamental of all emotions, they’re essential for serious writers to command.
When we talk about yearning and dread, we’re not talking about mundane fears or material desires. We’re talking about the essential craving for love and connection and trust. The need to feel safe in the world and to be understood. The need to hold primary importance in the heart of another human being. We’re also talking about the terror of losing that central importance, of being abandoned or lost.
When my stepson was little, he would spend a month or two with his father and me in Los Angeles, and then we’d return him to his mother and her boyfriend in Northern California for the next two or three. At around age three, Daniel’s constant refrain was, “But where’s their moms and dads?”
