Aphelion

Well, then, good luck to you indeed! I'm sure you'll keep us informed.

The need to put your characters through the wringer, to hurt them, even to kill them off- That's something that I've never been able to wrap my mind around before.

Ooh, that's a tough one, isn't it? Have you actually done it yet? I did it years ago, to a really likable guy . . . it was nothing short of agonizing. He had to go, though . . . the best I could do was arrange a relatively quick ending for him, and let him show some nobility and even humor on his way out.

It's especially bad if your characters have "taken on lives of their own." I thought I was actually losing my sanity when that happened to me. I'd sit down to write something, and I had it all planned out, but then my characters threw away the scripts I had given them and started ad-libbing it -- and I had to let them, because they were telling the story better than I'd planned!