Once again, I'm not the one writing this thing, they do

I've mentioned before how it really does seem like my characters drive the story, I'm just providing the gas, and this was especially apparent today.

One character's arc is essentially following him he as decides that he wants to switch sides, but I never wanted it to be sudden. The turning point is when one of his most trusted and valuable subordinates leaves due to something that pushes her over the edge, and my original plan for that scene was that he'd find her and convince her to stay. But as I wrote it I suddenly realized something: It couldn't happen that way because he couldn't give her a good reason to stay, because he knows deep down, even if it's not yet consciously, that he's not doing the right thing.

So I changed it, and I think the end product packs the appropriate punch-in-the-gut. I just record this thing, folks, they write it.

From Twitter 11-08-2010

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Snarky and eloquent are a bad combination

In a paper I did earlier this semester for criminology I was sorely tempted to include this line, but I decided against it at the last minute, even though I have a feeling the professor would have gotten a chuckle out of it:

"The positivist theories of Cesare Lombroso, which relied on Darwinian concepts to explain so-called atavistic characteristics in criminals, were, in short, a crock of shit."

I'm rather proud of that, even if I didn't get to use it. I should also add that the professor in question actually used the word "garbage" to describe the theories in question, so it wasn't exactly a statement he'd disagree with.