You know, of all of the sports and jobs and travails and difficulties people go through, writing isn’t exactly difficult in the physical dimension of danger or bodily exhaustion.  Writing is a mental task, for the most part.  So please understand that I have my perspective engaged when I talk about what I find hard to do in writing.

It’s very difficult to take a lead character that you’ve created, walked with, imagined for, and guided through all sorts of “challenges” and really hurt them – really and truly in a way that makes you wince.  It’s not just a boyfriend/girlfriend breakup kind of hurt.  It’s the kind of soul rending event that will hurt them forever, harden a part of their soul that may never recover, and the kind of hurt that will cause them to hurt others, even without meaning to.

One of my characters, Vanarra, is going through that kind of hurt in the part of “Purebred” I’m writing now.  It surprises me how difficult it is to write what needs to be in order to explain their character in their later life.  I know that she has amazing things in front of her, that her wildest dreams will be realized, and that she’ll partner with an amazing friend who will help her change the very fabric of a planet’s history.  That sol (day) is not now.  Here is where the walls were built around her soul that in the future, someone will break down bit-by-patient-bit.

Hurting a real person you love; hopefully most of us only do it on accident.  Hurting a character you love – that’s the job of a writer.  Take care…