There are two kinds of writers.
- Evil
- Slightly less evil
Writers are a special kind of evil. They’re the kind of evil that you invite into your home. They’re the kind of evil you don’t see coming until you’re already so enraptured that you can’t say no. They sweet talk you and then rip the rug out from underneath you. Think about it. You have probably been struck to the core by some kind of sadness or heartbreak, given to you by a writer. Whether it’s a TV series (Literally any BBC show) or a book (I’m looking at you, John Green), there is a writer to blame for the sadness you felt. You opened yourself up to their words and the stories they spun. You fell in love, only to have your world shaken when they rip away the flowery words and leave you in a mess of feels. Starting to see why we’re evil?
Not only are we evil, but writers are, essentially, liars. We create worlds and characters and fill a book full of fictional things. We make things up for a living. We lie to, steal from, hurt, and murder all of your favorite characters. The majority of writers that I know enjoy killing off their characters more than they probably should. There are polls asking advice on how best to kill off a character, or different techniques. The web browsing history would look terrible in any criminal investigation, and our knowledge on murder in general is a bit too extensive sometimes. So when you start reading a book, or watching a TV show/movie, prepare yourself. No one is safe. EVER. Writers live off of tragedy and conflict.
I don’t know how it happens. Some of us start out so kind and gentle with our readers’ emotions and the characters in our books. But somewhere along the way we’re hit with an idea. A tragic idea that, for some reason, we adore to no end. I’m not saying all of the books after the tragic one are going to be an emotional mess of heartbreak and cuss words, but that one book will start to influence how we write. Because regardless of how many letters of hate we get, no matter how many readers say they will sneak into our homes and take revenge – we see all those things as something good.
Before you start to assume the worst, like all authors should be restricted by padded white walls and wear a jacket that leaves them perpetually hugging themselves, let me explain a bit further. The job of an author is to connect with the reader. When we get feedback like that – letters of hatred because we killed your favorite character – we will most likely rejoice. The fact that you hate us for how horribly we treated your favorite character, or the fact we killed off half of your One True Pairing (OTP), proves to us that we did our job. If you read a book and could care less if someone dies, then we’ve failed. Our job is to connect with you, to make you fall in love with our characters. We want you to feel sad, happy, angry, confused, and any other emotion the main character does.
I recently just finished writing a book where the MC’s father has Alzheimer’s. It’s not a big part of the story, but it does come into play a few times throughout the story. Each time I brought up his dad I wanted the person reading to feel that same gut-wrenching feeling that my character did. I wanted to make it hurt. Since no one has really read the book yet, I can’t be certain if the feelings come across, but I wrote it with that intention. I wrote those scenes with the hope that they would be sad, that it would hurt you if you read it. And that’s one book, a few blots of color in a much bigger picture. Imagine how much darker that picture would be if I was writing a book based in tragedy? I would do everything in my power to make that book as heartbreaking as possible. See what I mean about being evil?
If you want to avoid tragedies, your best bet is usually general-fiction writers (think Rom-coms). There are happy endings, couples falling in love, and spunky best friends. Stories like these fall under the “slightly less evil” writer category, as there is still emotional turmoil at points in gen-fic. Unless the book starts out with two people already together in love, you’ll most likely have to wait for them to finally be together. The writer, (being evil, crazy, and clever) knows this and uses it to their advantage. We will put your OTP in a romantic setting, almost let them find happiness, and then at the last second we’ll pull it away in hopes that our reader will be left in a bundle of “Uggggh!” feels. The good thing is that you know there is a happy ending in store. Things will work out, even if it takes some time and a few mistakes (Don’t go for that guy, he’s not your true love!), it is bound to happen. Your characters will end up together in the end. However, as with everything else, there are exceptions to the rules. Even some gen-fic stories will leave you in a heap of tears, glaring at the words “The End” until someone comes along and takes the book away from you.
It wouldn’t be so bad if I was the only person trying to hurt you through fictional stories, but this is every writer, and we are many. We’re behind every book, TV show, movie, song, and poem – we’re everywhere and our main aim is to make you feel something – good, bad, and in between.
The second you pick up a book you accept the terms and conditions:
- I understand that the author’s intentions might be to hurt me.
- I accept that my heart might break throughout the duration of this story.
- I agree to watch my favorite character walk into dangerous situations.
- I agree to witness the death of my OTP and/or any character I hold dear.
- I understand that no one is safe.
- I agree to smile when something good happens, to cry and curse when something bad happens.
- I agree to feel ALL THE FEELS.
Cheers to feels!
– The Introverted Rebel
Introverted Rebel 