by Jason Lusk

Created on: February 27, 2008

How many times have you fallen in love with a story only to find something on page 90 that you find morally offensive? How many times have you sat writing away and then saw something in your mind that your sense of morality wanted to hold at bay?

This happens to all of us, at some point, and to the best of us.

I was writing a scene once that went fine, morally speaking, until the two characters realized the strength of a mutual sexual attraction. Friends they were, but they each had a significant other. Nothing was going right for either of them, though. So, true to their friendship, they met to confide in each other. Some might say they fell victim to loneliness or lust, but what happened was in love, even though it was wrong.

I saw that scene coming as I wrote, and I knew I didn't like it. Ten years ago, I might have forced something else onto the page. But I've learned over the years that you can't censor yourself.

I didn't like what happened in that scene, and I still don't like it. But the story would suffer if I'd forced it onto a different path. For one thing, it's real, insomuch that similar situations happen all the time in real life.

Besides the real-life aspect, though, I told the truth. Sure, it's fiction, with characters that I made up, but I did the honest thing: I wrote the story as it happened.

Stories have a life of their own. The writer's job is to first discover them, and then to transcribe them. The best story is the one that tells itself; the best writer is the one who lets it be what it is.

But that's what it's about: honesty.

If you feel the need to write an essay on something, yet you know that your opinions could cause some feather-ruffling, write it anyway. There's a huge difference, however, in attacking others and giving your honest opinion. A writer should always keep that in mind.

There is also a difference in giving your honest opinion and preaching for a cause. Most readers don't like it when a writer preaches to them. That, as well, is something the writer should always remember.

The one, great enemy to any art form is censorship. And I would define moral restrictions as a brand of censorship, though, in that case, you're censoring yourself.

Say that you've written a vampire novel; everything's fine until you get to the point where the protagonist vampire is weak and starving. He finds a baby. Do you go on with it, being true to the vampire's instinct?

The truest instinct for any creature is survival. If you're weak and starving, the survival

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