Characters I have tired of

Yes, that's right. I said it. I have tired of some of my characters. The faces and outlooks that seemed bright and new a year ago have turned old and timeworn. How tortured does a female character need to be to begin getting on my nerves? How moral and straitlaced can a male character be before he becomes something that I no longer recognize as having sprung from my mind?

I became tired of my characters in Gulf of the Plains II: Fog and Bog about the second month I was working on the sequel. Sure, they're the same characters that I used in the first book, but I think I am too familiar with them and they are no longer respectful and eager to please. Every time I turn around, they try to turn the piece into a soap-opera and I'm not having any of that. This is an action/adventure, damn-it! Act like the men and women of action that you're supposed to be! So, jack another cartridge into the chamber and blast away! Act as though you know the baddies are coming over the hill and it's do or die time! Stop getting in touch with your feelings and trying to feel up the new girl. Get some sleep, because you never know when the next time you have a chance to sleep will be! Remember, the future of the human race may depend on you; you owe it to them to kill the bad guys and make the world a better place to live.

Now that I've given them a good talking to, maybe I can get back to the job of actually writing the story. I'm sure that when I edit the piece, I'll have to cut out a bunch of the touchy-feely crap. Hey, maybe I can piece all those bits together from the other stories I've written that have gone astray and make a Romance Novel out of them...Nah! There's not enough explicit sex in any of it to qualify as the porn masquerading as Romance Novels these days. I guess I could write some, but for me, that would seem like cussing in church. Wubba-da-dubba-da-dubba-da! (That was me, blowing out my lips in frustration.)

Well, I think I can do this now. Thanks to all of you for bearing with me as I blow off some steam.

Derek A. Murphy
Author of Gulf of the Plains, Congruencies, The Empty Heart: A Collection and others.
Available on Kindle