The Pen As Revenge?

We should be careful how we use our sword.

The pen is mightier than the sword? I don't know. I know that as a writer, I have the power to create worlds and share ideas. I can create characters who are like people that I have known in life and speak to them perhaps differently than I did in real life. I can have these characters respond back to my protagonist in the way I would have hoped. I can make fools of my created characters or I can use real life experiences to explore the dynamics of relationships. No one is perfect. Does anyone deserve to be attacked unarmed on your page? I have been attacked verbally in real life and I know that it is difficult to write about those people without bias. So, I attempt to use my pen to explore the dynamics of their behavior; I try to imagine the root cause of distasteful behavior so that what I write is not revengeful or about a real person. There is no best practice when it comes to revenge. No, I take that back, wanting to get even ruins any hopes of revenge.

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My students asked me why I had no tattoos. I responded with, "I can't think of anything profound or eternal that I would want scratched on my skin." I knew in my heart that the books I write, or the plays I have produced will last longer than any tattoo. I didn't want to acknowledge the shortsightedness of tattoos--people are passionate about their colorful and temporal body art. Time to go make some words appear on the page.

Keep writing.