Here’s a short, fun little conversation between a writer and a reader:
---
Reader: “Hey… did you seriously make my favorite character suffer that much?”
Writer: “Suffer? I call it… dramatic growth.”
Reader: “Dramatic growth?! You broke my heart!”
Writer: “And yet… you keep reading.”
Reader: “Because I secretly love you for it, you sadistic genius.”
Writer: “I’m just doing my job… torturing hearts, one chapter at a time.”
Reader: “…Okay, but next chapter better have a happy ending or I’m haunting you.”
Writer: “Noted. But you might enjoy the haunting. Keeps things interesting.”