I Don't Feel Like God But I Am to Them

These days, most of my creative energy is being directed at deciding the fate of a certain character in my sequel to The Nautilus Legacy. Until now, the character dies. But I recently chose to ponder the question, must it be so?

If they live, it opens up new avenues of character development. It can also complicate things that were previously much clearer. The experience truly has been one of opening a creative can of worms.

More abstractly, it's a bit uncomfortable, knowing you have godlike power over these people who populate your stories. You create them, decide their lives, and determine their fates. And sometimes, despite all attempts at objectivity, you develop a true fondness for them, making it hard to say, "sorry, Joey, but in this scene you get killed."

I've grown quite attached to my "Joey," and my heart has let me know in no uncertain terms it doesn't like this death. Of course, at that point I'm supposed to be the adult writer in the room and say we must do what works best in service of the story. My won-loss percentage in heart vs. mind conflicts is about 50-50, by the way.

If I decide to let "Joey" live, I hope all the other deceased characters I've ever created don't unionize and demand their resurrections, too. Otherwise, it's going to get a lot more crowded in here.