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Friday, January 18, 2013

killing them softly

One fun thing about writing - and you can call me a sick little monkey if you want - is that you can let your evil side out without fear of retribution. Now, I know some of you are just plain nice and probably don't even have an evil side but I am not one of you, just to be clear. I have lots of bad thoughts and wish horrible things upon those I deem deserving (a prime example being people who hurt children or animals - they all deserve death - see how evil I am?). Sometimes I take my evil out when I play games and become a thief or an assassin, like when I was playing Skyrim's predecessor, Oblivion. At the end I was the leader of both guilds and I didn't get there by playing nice. Other times I just take my general frustration with horrible people out when I kill bandits and Imperial soldiers in Skyrim (trust me, they both deserve it).

But when it comes to writing, my true evil comes out because I sometimes kill completely innocent people who never did any wrong. Like Sven Lindstrom. I hung him last week. And he won't be the first.

How about you, where do you let your evil out?

40 comments:

  1. Definitely not my writing! Some during computer games. (Diablo deserves death - I mean, he IS the devil.) Unfortunately it probably comes out strongest when in my car and I'm behind someone who is on his cell phone and can't do the speed limit. At that point, I want lasers on my car so I can vaporize his butt.

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    1. Oh, I'm with you there, Alex. I sometimes imagine being able to just plow into those people and shove them off the road.

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  2. oh, poor, Sven Lindstrom.. he didn't see it coming.... you is pure ebil!

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    1. well, actually, he did it to himself _ the hanging that is - but I sort of made him...

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  3. Oh, you know I let my dark side out in my writing. In fact, I'm afraid I've gone all George R. R. Martin on my characters. No one is safe in my novels anymore. :/

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    1. George is much more evil than me; he kills off people I really liked!

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  4. Absolutely in my writing! My bad guys...are just that! They either have no conscience, or have a convoluted sense of right & wrong. Letting my evil out in my writing is a great emotional release! :)

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    1. I think you're right, killing off bad guys can be quite satisfying.

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  5. I am a truly evil author. I kill many of my characters and take my greatest pleasure from killing the nicest and most innocent characters!

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  6. The only time my evil side has ever emerged is when somebody did or said something hurtful or unjust to someone I care about. Like there were some people in leadership positions of a ham club we belonged to who were spreading false rumors about my husband. At the next executive meeting, I let 'em have it. Didn't yell... spoke very calmly, but with passion. Had "that finger out", as my hubby calls it. (No, not THAT finger!) You could've heard a pin drop. Really. Everyone was stunned that such a "sweet funny lady" could get so fired up and cut those guys off at the knees. Everyone apologized. Lots of people thanked me. And they elected me the next club president. (Don't mess with "the finger"!)

    It'd probably be safer to let that side out in a book, though...

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    1. Go you! People should know better than to spread rumours about other people's honeys; that's just asking for trouble!

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  7. It's true you can explore inner parts you never let out or different types of people you're not. I'm assuming the person you hung is a bad guy.

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    1. I'm afraid Sven was not a bad guy :(

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  8. Ha! Sometimes I wish I wrote stuff like that, but evil doesn't factor into my stories (at least not at this point in my writing journey). My evil side usually manifests itself in fantasies of how to insert difficulty into the life of a woman who seems to take pleasure in bringing difficulties to my personal/family life. Usually it involves things like thinking about having a friend leave a nasty message on her home machine or leaving word with her boss about how she uses her work time to send extensive emails that aren't work related, etc. But I would never follow through.

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    1. Oh so sorry you have someone like that in your life. I'd make her a character in my book and then visit some nasty plague or spell upon her ;)

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  9. LOL I play Skyrim. That's funny. Where do I let my evil out? Not sure if I actually have an evil side. I even like treating my characters nicely.

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    1. Oh no, can't treat my characters nicely, not if they're ever going to become who I need them to be.

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  10. Skyrim, definitely skyrim. :) I agree, I cannot play that game nice. I become evil incarnate, and wish death upon all I see. There is nothing so satisfying as killing someone in the middle of a town and not getting in trouble because you already killed all the guards. *COUGH* That sounds awful. I make no excuses, just that when I'm in real life I tend to be much less sociopathic. :D

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    1. I haven't done that, at least, not in Skyrim, but when I played Oblivion I'm sure I killed a few innocents for the Night Mother...

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  11. If you're a "sick little monkey" then so am I. There are bodies of innocents strewn through my books. Heh-heh. But how else can I make the monster/villain seem truly evil?? The more dangerous you make things, the more the reader will be afraid for your mc...and...well, some peeps have got to die for the greater good - the greater good being you selling a book, right? lol

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  12. It's a little frightening how good some writers are at wiping out characters.

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  13. I'm pretty sure I let my evil out in my writing, too. Sometimes I worry about myself when I read over what I've produced, especially if it was during a mad writing session where I just churned stuff out--that's when it tends to get REALLY dark. :P

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    1. Better to let it out in our writing rather than real life ;)

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  14. Definitely through my writing.
    Mass murderers, thugs, bullies and assassins all feature in my stable of characters

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  15. You're a sick little monkey, Marcy :)

    But I like that in a writer. Sometimes, the world isn't pretty, even in fiction.

    .......dhole

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  16. even tho i can, i still dont like to. i have a horrible scene i really dont want to write but it must be done. totally procrastinating! dont know if i have that much evil in me!

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    1. I admit it's harder with the characters I care about. Good luck, Tara, and just keep reminding yourself, it's for the greater good!

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  17. Hi, Marcy,

    I couldn't agree more with your statement about abusers of children and animals. I go one step further.... DEATH is TOO GOOD for them. They should be tortured for years. The amount of time they had tortured their victims .... then death. No, not evil at all.

    You are a realist. GOOD and WONDERFUL people do die young.... SADLY.

    I just killed off my first character in a current WIP. which is in the very beginning stages. I thought it would feel strange, but no... lol.

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  18. Yes, I do that in my writing too. I had one story where there were seven characters and only two came out alive.

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  19. Okay, you sick little monkey. LOL Actually, I do enjoy killing off my villains and such...but often there are worse punishments than death, so I do that, too. :)

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  20. Haha - villains ARE fun to write sometimes. ;)

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