Friday, October 30, 2009

The Three Protagonists

Editor’s Note: It’s always a good thing to keep your protagonists happy, so I invited all three of the protagonists from the books I have in print to have dinner with me. During the meal, they consented to answer a few questions.

Timothy Fish:
Each of you have had the experience of being the protagonist in one of my novels, tell us something about your experience.
Neal:
Maybe one of the others should answer first. I fell like the odd guy out. I thought you’d made a mistake when you sent me that e-mail inviting me down here because I was one of your protagonists. I figured you meant to send it to Brother Wayne.
Sara:
I don’t know how to answer either. I was twelve at the time and I don’t think I even knew what a protagonist was. If someone hadn’t told me that I was in that book, I wouldn’t have thought anything about it.
Geoff:
Yeah, it’s not like we realized we were protagonists at the time. I’ve read what you’ve written and I’ll have to say that you wrote it just like it happened, but at the time and even now, it seemed like we were just living out our lives like normal. Maybe I shouldn’t speak for the other two.
Sara:
I feel the same way. I was in all three books and things didn’t seem that much different in any of them. There’s a lot of stuff I did that you didn’t write down. I don’t think it’s fair to ask us what’s like to be a protagonist when we aren’t. To you maybe, but to us...
Timothy Fish:
I see you’re point and I withdraw the question. But I would like ask what you think about people reading your stories. Does it bother you?
Sara:
How many people are we talking about? Thousands of people? Millions?
Timothy Fish:
Not nearly so many.
Sara:
That’s kind of rotten. What’s wrong with these people?
Neal:
I don’t mind it so much, but I think I come across like an idiot. I’m sure that when people read the book they’re wondering why I would do what I did. But I like to think its a good story and I’d much rather be a little embarrassed than to think that people don’t care at all.
Timothy Fish:
What about you Geoff?
Geoff:
It’s tough. That was a really hard time for my family and me. I’m not embarrassed for myself, but it shows Heather at her worst. I think that’s harder on me than what it would be if you’d shown my bad side.
Timothy Fish:
Would you say it was worth going through what you went through?
Geoff:
For me, there’s no question. Before all this happened, I dreaded going home in the evenings. I could never make her happy.
Sara:
If that’s what it took to get me what I have now, yeah, it was worth it. But don’t forget, I almost died. That wasn’t fun.
Timothy Fish:
You don’t know just how close you came.
Neal:
On one hand, I don’t feel like it was worth it, but when I look at what happened…Wow!  I just wish I could have been there to see it.
Sara:
Wait. Would you seriously have killed me off?
Neal:
Give the man a break, Sara. You know he wouldn’t have done that. You’re special. You’re in every book so far.
Sara:
But he said…
Timothy Fish:
Maybe we’d better move this conversation offline. We may pick this up again on some other Fiction Friday.