#ScribesAndMakers 2026.02.05 — You now have the same occupation as the main character of your current WIP (or book you are reading/last read) What job are you doing?
I am running orders between a mob boss and his lieutenants, reminding clients that they need to pay their insurance bill (protection money) or collecting interest (on a loan shark loan), tailing a mark to learn about their habits (I'm stealthy), or accepting delivery of herbs (to be made into contraband). I'm a courier for the mob. Even though I've been blackmailed, I'm still a criminal.
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
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#WordWeavers 2026.02.05 — If you found out that someone had to live your MC’s life (like in the “Stranger than Fiction” movie), would you change the story?
I've watched some Isekai anime recently about people reincarnated (or teleported) into a fantasy world or a game world they are familiar with, and in one case wrote. It's a horrifying concept, deeply disturbing, would be horrifying to experience. However, I subscribe to the crucible theory when living my life: I can imagine how I would act in situations (the essence of writing fiction), but when I'm in those situations (burning in the crucible) I rarely act as I imagined due to the situation, you know, actually being REAL.
I can't make this question real. It feels like a test of empathy, but I'd have to feel the danger is realistic to say, yes, I'll change what I wrote. I can't get from here to there. Besides which, isn't all fiction about putting someone through relative hell to see how they might grow or wither?
Would I want anybody to live Lightning Bolt's life, as an ordinary high school jock being forced to work for the mob? Would I want anybody not the devil-girl forced to live the devil-girl's life? It's her philosophy of life that makes her a survivor and no random person would manage that. Would I want anybody to live like Wintereyes, giving up part of their humanity to speak to wolves (and dragons, and other creatures), and to live amongst them? Nobody has the innate kindness she possesses, and as a result would have the kindness necessary to deal with subsequently being forced to live amongst humans who are both alien to her and who covet her ability to the extent they feel threatened.
Would I want people to live these lives? Other than vicariously?
No.
But that isn't the point, either.
There is a certain synchronicity with this question and and that of another hashtag game I wrote a post for today: #ScribesAndMakers https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/116016731035153232.
[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]
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