apologies I only sort of mean

[swan_tower]

Dear Dead Rick,

I'm sorry I'm a horrible person.

Tomorrow morning kurayami_hime will read this and say, "You're not sorry at all," and she'll kind of be right -- but I have to say it anyway. Because one of your levers is more like a giant knife sticking out of your heart, and sometimes I just have to give it a good twist.

Sorry.

If it's any comfort, I suspect you have some RIGHTEOUS FURY OF REVENGE scenes coming up later in the book. It's got that feel in my head, even if I don't know the specifics yet. I hope that helps.


Love and apologies,
A mean, mean person

Comments

[ninja-turbo.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten/backgrounded 'levers' as a concept in characterization/motivation (amusing considering my love of the Leverage show), but it makes a fantastic one.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

It's probably the most useful breakthrough I've had in terms of how I think about characterization. Won't work for everybody, I imagine -- metaphors rarely do -- but for me, it's gold.

In keeping with the 'writers are not nice people' tag...

[ninja-turbo.livejournal.com]

Plus, it allows me to say things like "Dance puppet dance!"

Re: In keeping with the 'writers are not nice people' tag...

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

. . . I may have done that on occasion.

[cepetit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Dear Dead Rick:

Please do not accept — or even acknowledge — the silly author's "apology." Out here in Readerland, we all like the thought of you suffering. For one thing, it's you suffering and not us. For another, it's the nature of both authorship and literature for characters to suffer, so your choice is between "suffering" and "nonexistence."

Besides, as the silly author notes, your turn to inflict suffering on others is coming. It'll be up to you whether that's a tasty enough revenge, served at room temperature on a sheet of pulped paper, to make up for your current suffering; but it is something to look forward to.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Dear whoever you are,

Go to hell. I ain't 'ere for your entertainment.

. . . well, maybe I am. But that don't mean I 'ave to be nice about it.

Also, why ain't there no dog icons in this woman's list? Cats, cats, everywhere I look!


--Dead Rick