The Ultimate Writer’s Revenge
Normally I don’t try to go negative when I deal with things. I really do feel like it doesn’t do me any good, it doesn’t hurt the other person and it just wastes a lot of energy. That doesn’t mean I don’t have negative feelings about some people. Because I do. Trust me, I have some very negative feelings about some very particular people. People who have hurt my family, or me, or been dishonest. But up until I started writing there wasn’t much I could do about these people. As much as it pains me to say this you can’t give a dishonest real estate agent or the guy who short weights you at the tea shop a good swift kick in the pants. No matter how much you want to.
Then I started writing as a hobby. And one night I couldn’t sleep, so there I was, lying on the couch and trying to think of what I wanted to do with this new found hobby. What was I going to write about? I had no idea. So I flipped on the television and there it was. Arguably Heath Ledger’s finest movie—A Knight’s Tale. Wouldn’t you know it? The best line of all comes on not five minutes after I flip on the screen.
“Today I may be standing here naked but one day I’ll write about this and leave you naked and shivering for all of humanity to see, immortalized for all time.”
That’s when it hit me. Writing has a lot of great, wonderful things going for it. It opens new worlds of creativity, it makes your mind race and then there’s that dirty little secret that no writer really wants to confess. Writing is the perfect revenge. That horrible boss you had a few years ago? Make them look ludicrious for all the world to see. That teacher in High School that you hated? Give them a horrible fate to get the story started. And the guy from the tea shop and the real estate agent from above? Have you ever heard of better people to die slow, painful, and agonizing deaths at the hands of villains that would make Nora Robers alter ego JD Robb hide under the covers, quivering in fear? Me either.
3 comments:
I like your way of thinking, Patricia. Revenge can be safe, sweet--and very long lasting--when we put it in a book. Years ago, a mystery writer (I can't even remember her name, but I remember her sitting with legs crossed in the middle of of the desk in the lecture room (really!)talking to all us students.) She said she'd had a particularly horrid teacher in college, but she got even with him in every book she wrote. Power to the Pen!! Enjoyed the post :)
I totally agree!!! I took creative writing in college, and because I didn't have a tragic past or wore all black, none of the other students or teachers took my writing seriously. But now that I'm published, there are several lines in my book in "honor" of those true creative types.
I always felt like I SHOULD be reading the classics. And some I read, I loved. Some, not so much. Now, I'm more interested in a good story no matter where it comes from.
My MFA prof would be stunned.
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