I came across this guy in Hainan about 4 years ago.
He had been tricked out of money when he was younger and he was still angry about it.
So he decided to write the whole story down, to shame them, on the pavement.
— guy.p
“When we set out to judge—ridicule pillory, condemn, sneer at or…impugn our characters–we fail at our objective. Instead of making our characters look bad we make ourselves suspect.”
—-Peter Selgin, 179 Ways to Save a Novel: Matters of Vital Concern to Fiction Writers
We are known by the company we keep. In the case of a writer, that company consists of our characters and our attitude towards them.
Simply put, what kind of person would choose to writer 60,000 words, or there about, centered on a person or persons our words demonstrate that we dislike, hold little or no respect for, or even loathe?
Would you as a reader trust anything this writer has to say?
While every narrator holds a sufficient amount of unreliability, as readers we certainly feel safer, hold more respect for those writers who err to the side of compassion and care for our characters than those who do not.
What is the point of expending time writing about someone or researching a subject that that we appear to hate?
Those of us that do, like the gossip columnists whose articles we may read, hold little, if any integrity, in our hearts.
As with any profession that purports itself as touching the heart the integrity we writers display through the handling of our characters is of utmost importance.
What we say tells how we perceive life and reveals our most deeply held beliefs concerning the meaning of life and the purpose of our living.
Writers provide a service—that of entertaining by engaging our readers’ hearts and senses.
Through our words we ask a reader to give not only their money, but also to invest time in reading what we have crafted.
Time, unlike money that we also should not waste, can never be regained.
Time is our life.
Nothing can leave us more taken than having spent time reading a book or story that disappoints.
No reason that of the many books written and printed so few are fully read and passed on by the readers to her or his friends with strong encouragement to read it.
To readers’ credit, more often than not, they judge our work by perceived intent—not sheer quality of writing.
Were that so, many successful writers would have never achieved their status in the literary world.
What is the integrity of the intent in your writing?
What is it you want or are trying to say?
What do you fear will occur if your words betray the honesty of your heart?
If it is that you are angry with someone and wish to call out her or him then doing it through a character based upon that person and their life then perhaps writing fiction for public consumption as entertainment is not your calling.