So like I said in a previous post, it's been a while since I did anything meaningful in my book. With college, a blog (yeah, I know), and the odd video game, my free time has been too full. So out goes the video games (except maybe the weekends), and I think I'll cut my blog posts down to one every other day or so.
On another note, Writing Excuses had an excellent cast today. Recorded at Worldcon, they had a transsexual (female to male) author on as a guest to talk about gender roles, specifically in fantasy. It was actually pretty interesting, and I found some things that I'd like to modify about my own work. Take a listen.
Tomorrow I will try to make a full post, subject unknown. Do you have anything you want to talk about?
Hi!
ReplyDeleteI'm new to your blog and I'm having fun reading your older posts. There is one thing that I would like to know: when you are writing do you ever get a case of guilty conscience because you made your characters go through a rough time?
I think that's one of the (oh-so-many) reasons I could never write a novel... I think i'd get too attached to the characters and act like a mother-hen.
How do you deal with this? Or it doesn't happen to you at all?
Welcome Alailanible! I'm glad you have been enjoying my ramblings. Sometimes I wonder if the things I write make even a little sense.
ReplyDeleteIn answer to your question, yes, I do sometimes feel a little guilty about the things I do (or think about doing) to my characters. Let me rephrase that. I don't so much feel guilt; it's more along the lines of fondness for the character making me dislike the thought of them dying. There are times that I feel like a character should die, but I can't seem to let them go. In my first, unfinished book, there were several necessary deaths that I actually prevented because I grew to like the character too much. It was one of the many problems with the beastly thing.
Beyond death of a character, I actually take pleasure in putting characters through the ringer. I forget who said it, but a famous author has been quoted more times than I can count as saying something along the lines of, "Have dogs chase your character up a tree, then throw rocks at them. Then set the tree on fire". (That's paraphrased heavily.)
The worse the character has to endure, the stronger they are when they overcome it. I imagine that God might feel the same way (though I doubt he purposefully does bad things to us). It's very satisfying to me to see this take place (I'm also a little morbid).
There are never reasons why someone can't write, only obstacles meant to be beaten. If you feel a story needs to come out of you, do it!
Thank you for answering my question! :)
ReplyDelete