Back on the Blog Chain: Remember Me

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write something worth reading or do things worth the writing.--Benjamin Franklin


This week, Ten Word Tuesday has been preempted by the Blog Chain. Shannon has a tough question for us:

Imagine this: when you're gone, readers will remember your writing most for just one of these things: your characters, your plots, your settings, or your style. Which one (only one!) would you prefer over the rest? Why?

It isn't emotionally easy contemplating your death and what will be left of you afterward. However, I knew my answer to this question as soon as I read the choices. I admire authors who have poetic styles or who can create lush, detailed settings, but those aren't my strengths. Enthralling, unpredictable plots are great to read, and if I could choose two things, plots would be my second choice. But my first choice is characters. To me, bringing a complex character to life with just words, creating a "virtual" person who evokes intense emotions in my readers, who changes over the course of a story, and who may even feature in several plots is a great accomplishment. If I can manage that, then I feel I have written something worth reading indeed. I'm not the one who makes that call; it's up to my readers. As the Beatles said, "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." I hope I can create characters people love--even if they love to hate them.

Please check out Amanda's and Eric's posts on this topic to continue following the chain.