By Jill Williamson
The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman is a nonfiction book first published for married couples. I don’t remember when I first discovered it, but I found the concept fascinating. The five love languages work for every relationship. In fact, I asked my editor Jeff Gerke what his was, told him mine, and that helped us better understand each other.
I always like to know my characters’ love languages.
You don’t have to buy the book to understand how the five love languages work. Here’s how it works. People tend to feel love in one of five ways:
You might know in simply reading that list which is yours. Some people have more than one. I’m a service girl. I show people love by doing things for them. And I tend to feel loved when people do things for me. My husband is a words of affirmation guy. I can do nice things for him all day long and if I don’t say kind, affirming words to him, he doesn’t feel loved.
See how clever this is?
You can take the 5 Love languages quiz here: http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/love/
So how about it? What’s your love language? Now think about your parents and see if you can figure out what theirs are. Then try and do their love language for them in some way.
What do you think? Do you see how it might be helpful to know your character’s love language?