"Thou shalt infect thy reader with anxiety, stress, and tension, for those conditions that he deplores in life he relishes in fiction." Sol Stein
The fun thing about writing is that you get to live someone else's life without really experiencing any of the nasty consequences. You can become a murderer without ever facing jail time, a medical examiner without ever touching a dead body, a detective without the boring hours of a stakeout, and, my personal favorite, a beautiful heroine with a killer body and great hair!
You get to play God, actually. Putting your characters in life and death situations and then letting them stew a bit before you come to the rescue and write their way out of imminent peril. What a great job description.
Of course, there is the down side. The hours of sitting before the computer, agonizing over each word, worrying incessantly about people who don't really exist - and all this for little to no money. Hmmmm...why would I do this?!
Because it is incredibly fun...and there is something deeply gratifying about seeing the words in my head spill out on a page - filled with the hope that someone somewhere will feel what I am feeling and be glad they spent the time reading.
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