(no subject)

[iniquiticity]

Anonymous asked
I like how you have no qualms about emotionally destroying us all on a weekly basis with each new greenhouses chapter

actual truth: i actually DO feel a little bad. (this upcoming chapter is …. uh… it’s … pretty bad? actually this upcoming part of the story is the darkest part. but you know, that’s how stories go because we’re rounding up to the end.) sometimes i write something really sad and just go “holy shit, this was REALLY sad.” and i don’t think i feel half as sad writing it as someone might feel when they read it. usually i feel a lot sadder sort of in the brainstorming-planning-talking-to-myself strategy part of the story than i do in the actual WRITING. writing is work. thinking about how sad it is gives me lots of extra brain to think about how sad it is.

that being said: i also feel like the stories that you connect with emotionally are also the ones that are the best to read. to me something really bad you can say about a story was “i wanted to know what happened next, but i didn’t actually care about any of the characters.” (i recently finished a book that i felt this way about called the lies of locke lamora.) so when someone says “holy shit that chapter ruined me,” i hear two things that are super important and valueable to me as a writer:

1. i wrote something that stirred these emotions in you but also (and maybe more importantly)

2. you have meaningfully connected with my characters and the story - you’re not just reading out of a sense of curiosity and inertia. that’s super important to me.