Fiction Writers are Sadists

[purplerabbit]

So the book I am writing has me thinking a lot about the personality of authors and what their writing says about them. On a large scale, there is something particularly telling about being a fiction writer in the first place.

All my life I have had these amazing characters in my head and then I do extremely unpleasant things to them. Think about it. What makes the stories interesting to read is when bad things happend to the characters. I am not writing "Waiting for Godot" here. Most works of fiction are about about ripping the characters apart and seeing how they survive it -- if they survive it. I love the characters I am writing about. Yet, I also delight in putting them through hell as part of the story. In fact, the scenes I probably get the most stimulation/satisfaction from are the ones that are horrible for the characters. There is something intensely sadistic about being a fiction writer.

Comments

[purplerabbit.livejournal.com]

I am more nasty than the Old Testament bastard. I just brutally killed an innocent young man yesteday. I already miss him. His death is a necessary catalyst to the other characters. As awful as this experience was for the surviving characters, it is only a foreshadow of their future.

Picture your old beloved friend bathed in the blood of the innocent. Evil grin here.