You will not be written or killed

…Okay. I’m sorry, but I kind of have to vent. I keep seeing these things on facebook [I know, I know; I should ignore them; it’s just stupid facebook] that are supposed to be, like, writer’s humor. …Things that say something along the lines of, “Beware of making me angry; you’ll show up in my next novel!” or, “Don’t make me mock you in my next novel!”…and the like.

Now, I am not saying that no writer has ever done that. Perhaps it is “normal” for a writer to “get revenge” on someone by writing them as a character, and then killing them or something.

But in case you are afraid that I will do this to you…or in case you have the misconception that this is what I do…or in case you think it’d be funny to tease me about me doing this…let’s just get some things straight, okay? =) [I am not as aggravated as I might sound, I promise!]

I have never based any character, in any story, off of any person that I actually know. Not in personality, and not really in appearance either. [The one exception to this is myself; in my elf story, my girl character is essentially me…but even then, not entirely. I am nowhere near that stubborn. ;) ;) …Haha!] I don’t know why this is, exactly…it just isn’t how I come up with characters. …It just isn’t.

…Now, I have taken certain characteristics [personality- and appearance-wise] of people I that know and added them into a character’s personality [key word there is “added”]…but that is pretty much it. And I don’t even do that very often. [Sorry to disappoint!]

In this same vein, I have never --- and would never --- create a character based on a real-life enemy for the sole purpose of enacting revenge on that person by means of the story. …Um, I admit that I am twisted, but I’m not twisted like that. If I have an issue with someone, I will either tell them about it, or let it go; I do not seek revenge in any form. And even if I did, I certainly wouldn’t seek revenge by writing my enemy into my story so I could kill them. Why not? Well…

…I have an extremely hard time killing any characters at all. Even bad, sick, terrible characters. …I’m dead serious when I say that I want to save EVERYONE. I’m a sucker for happy endings. I have purposefully not read books before because I knew they wouldn’t end happily. […I may or may not sometimes usually read the end of a book first…] I dislike war movies because everyone usually dies; I boycotted Gladiator for several years because of how it ended. I want everyone to be redeemed, everyone to be happy and alive…and everyone to be good. I want everyone to be reconciled with everyone else, I want the bad guys to have changed their ways…and darn it, if a couple is in love --- especially if part of the story revolves around their relationship --- they better be together at the end! [And alive!]

But even beyond that…I take my writing very seriously. [Maybe too seriously, or maybe not seriously enough?] I respect my writing, what my mind creates. I understand that words have the power of life and death. I believe my writing is a gift…and it isn’t for me to write something that allows me to control and kill characters who represent people that I don’t like. I feel that writing a disliked person into a story so the writer can enact some form of psychological revenge on that person is extremely distasteful, vindictive, and demeaning…and I do not want to be any of those things.

So…the end. =) You can rest easy now.