I was working on a short story last week and afraid that I was being too cryptic with the ending so I asked my non-writer husband to read it and let me know if he could see any major gaps in the plot. His only comment was that he liked the beginning but then it just went…blah. I asked him what about it was blah and he looked at me sideways and said he just didn’t like it. Fair enough, I don’t need him to like what I write but I really wanted to know what didn’t work for him. I pestered him over dinner until he turned to me and finally said, “You should be writing happy stories.”
I don’t do happy. I tend to create more serial killers than princesses. My characters are more apt to be seeking revenge then to be looking for love and I find sociopaths fascinating.
Cory doesn’t like my writing because he thinks it means I could be damaged or depressed or just plain crazy. Why would a happy person want to delve into the mind of a psychopath?
When I show my work to those outside my writing group will they see me differently? Will they be hiding the knives in case I snap?
What does our genre of choice say about us? Can happy people write about horrible things?
Do non-writers look at horror writers differently than those that write fantasy? Are all romance writers sex crazed and all science fiction writers geeks?
Maybe…maybe not.
