Eddie Whitlock's Blog: Reader and Writer - Posts Tagged "sympathy"
Discouragement
The ending of the sequel to Evil is Always Human has not been completed on paper (or on computer drive, to be accurate) though I do have the vision for it in my head. I would equate it with being in Dothan, Alabama, with a destination of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. You know where you're headed and the direction, but the actual course could vary.
Meanwhile I have become pretty discouraged with the whole thing. I came close to just deleting it Saturday, erasing the 77,000 plus words I have written so far. That would be difficult to really do because I save back-up copies often and in different locations. Erasing the official file would still leave several not-quite-current versions that could still be retrieved and completed.
I've created and cloned a monster!
My discouragement isn't so much about the last leg of my journey in writing as the worth of the writing when I am done with it.
The first novel featured an abused child as the narrator. It concluded with his being an abusive adult. This novel picks up with his being exactly what life has made him: conscienceless.
What I had hoped would be a portrait of this man has instead turned into a rather pitiless string of horrible events. I feel sympathy for him, but I don't know that anyone else would. Even if they read the first book, would they see the man as worthy of sympathy?
Can a character unworthy of sympathy be the focal point of a story?
Can I pass this failed tale off as an existentialist reflection on life?
Well.
I haven't deleted the story yet. So. It could happen, I guess.
Meanwhile I have become pretty discouraged with the whole thing. I came close to just deleting it Saturday, erasing the 77,000 plus words I have written so far. That would be difficult to really do because I save back-up copies often and in different locations. Erasing the official file would still leave several not-quite-current versions that could still be retrieved and completed.
I've created and cloned a monster!
My discouragement isn't so much about the last leg of my journey in writing as the worth of the writing when I am done with it.
The first novel featured an abused child as the narrator. It concluded with his being an abusive adult. This novel picks up with his being exactly what life has made him: conscienceless.
What I had hoped would be a portrait of this man has instead turned into a rather pitiless string of horrible events. I feel sympathy for him, but I don't know that anyone else would. Even if they read the first book, would they see the man as worthy of sympathy?
Can a character unworthy of sympathy be the focal point of a story?
Can I pass this failed tale off as an existentialist reflection on life?
Well.
I haven't deleted the story yet. So. It could happen, I guess.
Reader and Writer
I began to write because it seemed to be a realm in which one could exercise omnipotence. It's not.
My characters demand to make their own decisions and often the outcomes are wildly different from wha ...more
My characters demand to make their own decisions and often the outcomes are wildly different from wha ...more
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