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

[satyrblade.livejournal.com]

No question. And the more acute the pain, the more compelling the fiction.

[tapestry01.livejournal.com]

I read somewhere that being a writer is like playing god... but good fiction doesn't come from a benevolent, merciful god, but more like from a wrathful, unforgiving god --the kind of god that likes to push folks around and jack with people's lives. I like to put characters into situations, and then say, What's the absolute worst that could happen right now...?

[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.

[purplerabbit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and the worst is yet to come for the characters. Must be working as my loyal test readers tell me this was the best chapter yet.

Of course, I think it is also important the the characters be built to a point where you care about them before the terrible blows hit. Another fucking growth experience!

Maybe that's it! I am a character in someone's book...

[vaiyaserris.livejournal.com]

Indeed.

[moofedma.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure, but I think it's the sadistic elemnent that my ex really took exception to in fiction, science fiction in particular. What I got out of it was the struggle and hopefully the growth of the characters and the maturation of the story line that resulted.

I'm reminded a bit of the news: You hear much more about the bad things than the good things. If the only things that were ever reported were how people were getting along, you wouldn't have viewers for very long.