It's a funny thing, being a fiction writer. There are a lot of things that you can work out by writing about them. I am here to tell you that it is very therapeutic. If you are angry, or have an enemy, the last hing you should do is reach for that gun you got at the store down the street. Instead, pick up a pen and a piece of paper and write it all out.
That even includes murder.
Probably the bestselling novel I have out there is RIG. It's a novel about a demon-possessed oil rig and was one of the first novels I made available for Kindle. It's not really the best novel I have out there, but it has definitely sold more than any other. It's my B-movie book, as I call it, the kind of novel that would make a decent cheesy SyFy Channel movie.
It's also the book where I killed my boss - twice.
When I wrote RIG I was working for a horrific company called Aon (if your life is ever a choice between working for them and a stick in the eye, seriously consider the stick). I was working in a call center. I had a manager who was an obvious corporate shill. Whatever the big brass said and did, this guy just smiled and nodded, never asked questions or did anything to think about the people who worked for him.
Needless to say I was not a fan.
That was when I started writing again. I had this idea for the haunted oil rig. If you've read the book then you know it starts out with a man, living alone, hearing a strange transmission over a ham radio that actually causes his brain to melt.
That man, in description and manner was my boss.
I hated that guy so much that, later on, I needed a character to be a helicopter pilot. It was to be a minor character that I knew right away was going to get killed off. So, I described him exactly as my boss. Then, I killed him all over again in an equally horrible manner using a crane hook.
I have to say, it was very therapeutic. People think that because I write about murder and the dark side of the universe that I must be a mopey and dark person. That's not true. I work out my stuff in my work so that I don't have to be dark in the real world.
That's my tip for you, young writers. Work out your problems in your writing and live a happier life.
BWA