“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.”

“The good characters in my book are loosely based on folks I know. All the bad stuff is made up.”

“You can kill the spell of identification just as easily as youcan create it—if you lose the readers' sympathy for the character.You can lose reader sympathy by having your character commitacts of cruelty to another character with whom the readers identifymore strongly or for whom they have strong sympathy. Youcan lose reader sympathy by having the character make dumbchoices—acting at less than maximum capacity. The idiot inthe horror story who responds to creepy noises by going intothe attic armed only with a candle is an example. You can losereader sympathy when a character seems too ordinary, is stereotyped,or doesn't struggle hard enough. The reader wants tocheer a fighter, not witness a milquetoast wallowing in, say, selfpity.”

“Is my son turning into some kind of monster?”

“I beheld the wretch-the miserable monster whom I had created.”

“Derringer’s face darkened and he pushed a hand through his loose hair in frustration. “Woman, you try my patience.” He turned abruptly on his heel and continued to the back of the house.”