posted
Do writers go to a special hell where all of their poor characters they slaughter, torture, rend, break, and crush physically, financially, and emotionally so they can can get a better review, await them to meet out their own versions of justice?
posted
I've never really been able to get into this kind of thing. That and "What would your characters say to you if they met you walking down the street?", which seems to a a perennial writer's favorite.
I never feel like I'm doing things to my characters. I never feel like I'm in the story at all. I'm telling the story. It's already happened. I just have to find the words and events that fit the story I already know.
posted
I've found an easy solution to this problem: send my characters to Heaven when they die. If I end up in Hell, they won't be there to torture me, and if I go to Heaven, they won't be allowed to.
Posts: 1517 | Registered: Jul 2003
|
posted
I find the hardest part of writing is torturing my characters. I tend to like them and don't want to cause them pain. Of course, without the pain and suffering...the stories can be boring.
Anyways, maybe they will all thank you if they one day find themselves on a bookshelf somewhere.
posted
I find the exact opposite to be true for me. I'm always coming up with new and usually gruesome ways to torture my characters, and have to constantly ask myself if it'll advance the plot or not. If it doesn't, I throw it in a torture file, to save for another story.
quote:Do writers go to a special hell where all of their poor characters they slaughter, torture, rend, break, and crush physically, financially, and emotionally so they can can get a better review, await them to meet out their own versions of justice?
But there is a special exemption for art based on the artist's personal suffering.
Also, consider that the poor characters awaiting you in hell to deal out their own versions of justice will be limited by the fact that they exist only in your imagination, along with the crimes you've commited against them. Actual people that you have actually wronged are a much bigger concern in hell (though your victims don't actually do anything themselves).
Printer-friendly view of this topic
