Slave or God?

by Lucy Bignall
31st July 2014

Okay, here's another question: should a good writer be a slave, or a God to their characters?

Replies

The writer who possesses the creative gift owns something of which he is not always master - Charlotte Bronte.

Profile picture for user Adrian
Adrian
Sroka
19900 points
Ready to publish
Fiction
Historical
Middle Grade (Children's)
Young Adult (YA)
Adventure
Adrian Sroka
31/07/2014

I find it's the opposite: I start as God, crafting them from nothing and giving them life and physical embodiment (although never in my own image; I wouldn't be that cruel), but then they take over and tell me their life story and their characteristics and faults and I become a slave to them; there merely to pass on their story to anyone who might care to hear it.

Although I can be mean to them if my mood (or the plot) determines that I should.

Profile picture for user mark_d_d_33793
Mark
Davies
270 points
Developing your craft
Short stories
Fiction
Autobiography, Biography and Memoir
Comic
Crime, Mystery, Thriller
Adventure
Mark Davies
31/07/2014

You could start out as a slave and if that doesn't suit you or they get a bit too hard to handle become their God and tell them if they don't like it you have the power to destroy them,

Profile picture for user juneligg_33704
June
Liggins
270 points
Developing your craft
June Liggins
31/07/2014