Anatomy Of A Drunken Prat

Among other things we've been writing in the book lately (when we haven't been distracted to no end by each other) have been some rather unusual moments. From the wrong people getting an eyeful of some rather... personal photographs and a near drowning in a bathtub, to what we're in the middle of right now (two words: mutual massages), it's been an eye opening experience.

In the middle of all that, however, we wrote a passage that wasn't so pleasant. A character turned up in our narrative, a rather nasty piece of work. We've written him before, and it was time to bring him back.

Jeremy is, among other things, a full blown alcoholic. In his recent appearance, he's already drunk well before noon. He's also a womanizing letch, a boor, a jerk, and a creep. In other words, a real prize.

Without going into too much detail about his connections to our characters, we wrote him very much as a vicious, cruel, and even sadistic man. While it might be possible with characters who are jerks to be redeemed, we agree that's not going to happen with this guy. While we have ideas for future books, the Redemption of Jeremy Hayward is not one of them. This is a man very much set in his ways, a complete bastard.

Our character's responses to him were very much true to who they are. And Jeremy's personality is very true to who he is. This is the sort of person we've all known at one time or another. The drunken in-law. The obnoxious former friend who's gone downhill. The boozing, angry neighbor who's one drink away from driving drunk and killing an entire family.

Writing the relationship between our lead characters, and the other characters in their lives, has been a blessing. They're people we've gotten to know and like. Yet there's also a need as writers to create characters we don't like. Jeremy's certainly one such example. At least he's a fictional creation.

Now, if you'll excuse us, we've got some massages to get to. Oh, and write.