The essence of literature is human stubbornness.

Like a musical note, stubbornness holds one thing steady

Even in the midst of noise.

Stubbornness is that which gives feeling its flavor.

Stubbornness is what causes humans to choose conflict

When they would otherwise just take what they get.

The consequence of conflict is often tragedy,

Which gives them the karma that stubbornness deserves.

Sometimes it is stubbornness that lets us endure

And triumph in the end, but this is rare,

For probability declares that most of us lose

And winners are not the ones we most love.

Why are we stubborn? Because we are children,

Spoiled in some way, a rotten side, if not green.

Sometimes that allows us to do the right thing;

Most of the time, all it means

Is that we go through a process

Of conflict, conflict, till we reach absolution.

Life is not easy, and that’s no one’s fault.

Life is best when we want it to be hard

And stubbornness confronts, rather than avoids.

A story is a history of stubborn parties,

Like molecules of gas, bouncing around.

You know the straight line that parties will take

When stubbornness is left alone, but not

When they collide with each other, or with the wall.

Molecules exist in absolute chaos, but

Individually, they follow simple laws of motion;

Collectively, laws of thermodynamics.

Patterns of life are not so simple, but

They, too, emerge in and from chaos.

Next time you want to structure a story,

Think not about templates, but what you would do

If you had no choice, but made one anyway:

The friction that sparks the fire.