There is a certain joy in writing fiction,
for many readers will assume the protagonist
is the author or at least partially based
on the author, never pausing to consider
that the villains and lesser characters
are just as likely to be based to some extent
on the author or bits of his or her life.
And often the readers are not wrong,
if overemphasizing the point, for writers
in creating characters do so through
the lens of their own experience, and emotions
are those the author has experienced.
Perhaps that is why I cannot write fiction
for my protagonist will be either
too much like me, boring the reader
to tears, or worse never lasting long enough
in the reader’s mind to amount to anything.
Or he will be ultimately unbelievable
even though all the remarkable things
my protagonist will do, all the joy
he will bring to the lives of other characters
are of course nothing more than
moments from my own life
at least as I imagine it.