So, while writing my adult fantasy books — featuring mages, warriors, idiots, godlings, seers, pirates, empaths, queens, and corrupt assholes — I came to a very important conclusion about what kind of writer I want to be: I don’t want to poop on my reader’s heart.
I’ve noticed a trend of entertainment the last couple of years to go dark, to indulge in nihilism as endgame, to present problematic people as “interesting” rather than…problematic. Characters are killed off for shock value, women are raped because “that’s the way it was,” and hope seems to be in short supply. And while I think 2020 has shocked us all into rejecting this trend, I do think that some creators deride the desire for hope, light, and happiness as “less than.”
Another thing that set me off this year was a post to a FB group that asked if you would be disappointed, as a reader, if someone doesn’t die at the end of a fantasy novel.
Think about that question for a second.
Would you be DISAPPOINTED if a character DIDN’T die at the end of a book?
What the fuck?
I’m fed up with questions like that, with entertainment that wants us to believe that pain is the only meaningful way to express value or drama or some moral payoff. I don’t find killing characters off as an end-goal or as a way of getting to a bigger message is a very happy mind space to occupy. Character death shouldn’t be seen as a requirement for people to like your narrative or to take it seriously. I’ve had my fill of entertainment dressing up as SERIOUS STUFF and then pooping on my heart through bad and/or cynical creative decisions.
Looking at you, Game of Thrones and The 100. Cough. Cough.
As far as how this trend affected me: I got fed up. I’ve been toying with an idea for years now and finally decided to start writing it during NaNoWriMo 2019. I decided very early on that I wanted drama and conflict and pain, but it shouldn’t feel punitive to LIKE a narrative or its characters. I wanted to balance that out with humor and love and happiness. And hope. Goddammit, nowadays we need hope. Good people should get a fucking win, right? And stories should deliver on their promises without cheating the audience or viewing them with contempt.
So in the end, my promise is: I won’t poop on your heart.
I want you to enjoy what I create without wondering when it’s all doing to dissolve into a pile of hopelessness and despair.
If you’re interested in NOT getting your heart pooped on (WHAT A CALL TO ACTION! I’m a marketing professional, folks), sign up for updates on my book(s):