ladyofleithian | How Fiction Works Writing Meme -- Day Twenty Eight

End of Section Exercise 2: Choose a pre-existing character that you do not like. Write a paragraph or two from their point of view. Is your writing shaded by your dislike of the character? Has writing from their point of view changed the way you view them? Write your thoughts at the end of the exercise.

Obi-Wan couldn't say that he disagreed per se with Anakin's decision. After all, he hadn't expected to care about Ahsoka to the extent that he did now. When he had first met her, he had found her to be terribly irritating, to say the least. And yet over time, she had grown on him -- it helped that when one got down to it, she was a genuinely good Jedi. Kind, principled, and sometimes, he mused almost wryly, wiser than her Master. That wasn't a slight against Anakin per se, but there were times when Ahsoka could help him put aside his personal feelings to do the right thing. She was the glue that held the team together. And now...now she was being accused of murder.

"Anakin," he said, "I know that this is difficult, but..." He sighed. "These are difficult times, Anakin. We may need you here."

"No," Anakin said, almost flatly. "No, you don't."

There was something in Anakin's words that hurt, even though in a way it shouldn't have. Anakin seemed to have noticed his Master's reaction, for he quickly amended himself. "I don't mean to say...you know," he said, "But they need you all the more, Master." And yet there was something else behind Anakin's words. Something Obi-Wan could have sworn that he could sense -- //you haven't needed me in the past, Master, why do you need me now?// And that hurt all the more.

Still, Anakin tried to sound casual. Emphasis on the "tried", Obi-Wan thought; if nothing else, he seemed almost close to crying. "Besides," he said, "We've functioned well on our own before."

Obi-Wan sighed. "Last I recall, we nearly died."

"But we didn't," Anakin said, and there was something in his smile that was reassuring, for the most part. And in spite of himself, Obi-Wan had to smile as well.

Then Anakin faltered. "I can't just let her be on the run for something she didn't do, Master," he said. "It's just...it's not the right thing to do."

"I know." Obi-Wan swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat. "May the Force be with you, Anakin."

Anakin smiled if only slightly. "And with you, Master."

And then he turned and walked away into the rain. Obi-Wan watched him go. Perhaps it was Anakin's path and he couldn't stop it any more than he could stop Coruscant's sun from setting. And yet there was something in him, relentlessly tugging at him, that hated to see Anakin go.

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Not bad for the most part. I will admit, I think it's a bit too...emotional, really. Wouldn't be too bad if not for stuff I got in the past, saying that emotional wasn't necessarily "deep". That and I think the threshold of emotion varies for each character, as well as how they might express it.

As for how it may be shaded by the dislike for Obi-Wan...I'll admit my dislike tends to take different forms in writing. In writing, it seems to manifest in me...trying to understand the character. I try to stay neutral in my writing, but I can't say that I always succeed. It's still an ongoing struggle to me. And CLONE WARS Obi-Wan...I will admit there have been points where CLONE WARS Obi-Wan has irritated me. I haven't seen the most recent episode of CLONE WARS, but I'll admit I'm also really...not happy about Ahsoka being on the run. Call it, in a way, like how Obi-Wan feels about Anakin there, a sort of "hate to see you go" thing.

I guess that is how it is for most of my writing. It's always shaded in some way by emotion. It can be good, it can be bad, but it always comes back to emotion. Because I think emotion is really the lifeblood of writing. I want to be able to move my readers, make them laugh, make them cry, make them cheer...if I can at least do that, I've done my job. And I hope I might be able to do it in all my writing, in one form or another.

So, this is it. I'll admit I'm going to miss doing this meme; it was a lot of fun to do. And it helped explore some of how I operate, writing-wise. Which I think will definitely be helpful in the future.