#empoweredcrying

(A slight segue)

Today is International Women’s Day. Twitter has been sharing many inspirational women and much more under the hashtag, and there’s been some thought provoking coverage in the wider media. I am proud to live in this passionate, nerdy and vivid space on the internet and in real life and to know so many inspirational (the repetition, I know, but it’s truly the only word which suffices).

And as part of today, I’ve been thinking about Buffy. I’ve been thinking about my writing and how, in a way, it all comes down to one single moment in Buffy.

It comes down to this girl.

For those of you who don’t know (spoilers!), she appears in a final montage where Willow uses the power of the Scythe (magical thingamijig) to basically activate every potential Slayer in the world. No more waiting for people to die. No more power for those who are chosen to have it. No more following the rules. No more sitting down.

A lot more standing up.

And in a way, everything I do and think about literature and writing and creativity and voice comes back to that sentiment. It comes down to that little glint in this girl’s eye that still moves me, twelve years on. It comes down to that moment when she looks up and realises that she’s got this. The world is hers. She owns this moment. She’s got this. For this moment, she’s got it. Oh God, she’s got it. (Excuse me whilst I go and bawl at something)

That’s what I write for. That’s what I long for. Those moments. I want my characters to have them, I want readers to have them, I want people to know that the potential for these moments exist. I want people to have these moments, right now, right when and where they want them.

I want moments.