Nov 12
Bad Things, Good Fiction
Posted: under Background, Contents, Craft, Life beyond writing, the writing life.
Tags: Background, characters, the writing life November 12th, 2009
Writers are often asked (OK, I am often asked) why I put bad things in stories about good people. What is the purpose, someone asks, of having war, terrible wounds, grisly deaths, and torture afflict characters? Is it to teach the character a lesson? Did the character deserve it? Or was enduring such things the only way to create a paladin?