The Line

Yesterday, I was tempted to get into the April Fool's spirit and fake the second half of my mini-biography. It was going to be a winding plot involving my parents betraying me, my father dying, and an assignation plot by the mafia using a pre-teen boy named Jack. It was also going to include ninjas. It would be quite a stretch for anyone to believe, by the end, that it was real.

And yet, about halfway through, I had to stop writing. I had gotten to the point where I portrayed my father as a cruel, ignorant fool that had his own beliefs I couldn't change. I described him dying as well.

Even though I knew it was a work of fiction, and knew that everyone else would see that too, I couldn't write it. I just felt wrong, showing my father in a bad light like that. This wasn't entirely fiction, where all the characters were made up. I was being cruel to a person that actually exists, albeit in a fictional way.

My father is great guy. He's a retired colonel, and he learned how to deal with people in his military career. He didn't take the 'my way or the highway' attitude of some officers. He made people want to follow him, like a true leader does. He hardly ever raised his voice at his four kids, and certainly didn't hit any of us (frankly, at 6' tall and a military build, he could've snapped us in half.) He cared for his family above everything else. He set an example of integrity, resilience, and honor that I've not seen in anyone else in all my time on this earth.

Portraying him as anything else felt like a betrayal I wasn't willing to make.

There's a line every author has that they won't cross. Some place where they won't go in their stories. Perhaps they refuse to write sex scenes, or put swear words into their writing. Perhaps they refuse to show kids getting hurt or molested.

Apparently, my line is making false statements about those I know personally, particularly my parents, since they are both wonderful people.

Authors are always told 'write what you know'. Jak has an extremely bad childhood, and his birth parents are less than affectionate towards him. But I definitely had to extrapolate for that, because even though Jak is based loosely off me as a child, I was luckier than he was. I had two supportive parents who would always be proud of me no matter what.

And I wouldn't have it go any differently, even in fiction.