Have you ever wondered about the mind of your favorite authors? Oh sure, J.K. Rowling thought up a wonderful modern spin on wizards. Tolkien was full of tales of elves, hobbits and adventures. Stephanie Meyers went kind of overboard on the Vampire Werewolf thing. And Stephen King? What kind of mind comes up with that stuff?
I was accused of being too creepy. Well, not me directly but the character I created for a story about love at Christmas time. My main character was just trying to get a date. I mean, if you could hack into her life it would make dating so much easier, right?
No?
Yeah, my editor told me that the female readers of our upcoming anthology would HATE my main character. You know, the guy who’s supposed to be the love interest? In fact, he said my story was more classic horror than romance.
I finished the last of the edits today.
I thought a lot about my character’s actions. Did it say something about me? Was I simply channeling some inner stalker and putting him into the story as my proxy?
I certainly hope not. And yet, he came out of my imagination.
Writers are a weird collection of both the best of the world and the worst. If we do our job well, you love the heroes and you hate the villains. And we make you hate them because we think up terrible things for them to do. Things that no one should even think of doing. And yet, there we are bringing them and their horrible deeds to life.
After the edits my protagonist is no longer a creep. He’s got some real humanity. He’s a nice guy and someone that a reader could like.
And that nice guy came out of my imagination. So, maybe I’m capable of being a nice guy too.
But, that dark force is still there just waiting for a chance to come out. Just not as the hero.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren. Order Miscellany II, an anthology including his latest short story, “The Mercy System” here
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