Loving your antagonist

[pjthompson]

For a long time I’ve wanted to write a novel centering around Annia Sabina, the Überbitch antagonist from my novel, Shivery Bones. I’ve always adored her, the unrepentant bad girl who sees absolutely no reason why she should be fair and democratic and decent. I figured she needed a proper coda after the way things were left with her at the end of Bones, and yesterday the plot for her novel blossomed in my mind like the lovely black rose she is.

I really have no time for writing beyond the occasional blog entry and fun games on other peoples’ blogs, but I guess I’m still a writer somewhere underneath it all. I haven’t got the full plot, but it’s bubbling, and I’m enjoying it. (The bubbling is always the funnest part.) I really think the world needs a novel about a righteous, unapologetic Überbitch who will never, no no never again, be subject to the dictates of any man, and will never, never ever, be the bottom. Unless it amuses her to assume that position.

Yeah, I’ll be doing this one for fun if I ever get around to putting words on paper or screen. Many big ifs here. There is also that whole thing about man planning and God laughing. And if I do find the time to write it I’m not sure anyone will be interested in taking a chance on Sabina “in the current marketplace.” But I really don’t care about that. Fun is a valuable reason to write a novel, I think. Maybe the most valuable of all. Trust me on this.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

Comments

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

In the later stages, they all seem to lack fun for a time, but there has to be some compelling reason to keep going or it's never going to get done. Maybe obsession with the characters takes over after a certain point? There's a patch in every novel where not even that's enough and it takes sheer bloody-mindedness to finish the damned thing, but that kind of mindset can't be a long term thing. There have to be other reasons--fun, obsession, whatever--or it's just an exercise in masochism.