Your Characters

Say you're a published author and you have a great character that has appeared in several novels, and/or short stories. But then say you die. What then? Would you care to have your character live on, as in being featured in additional books and/or stories written by another author? That's a tough question.

I suppose no one would mind as long as the new author of your character's stories is a great writer. But even then maybe it wouldn't be such a good idea.

I've talked about Robert E. Howard, maybe a little too much at this point, but this is a great time to bring him up. Robert E. Howard died at a very young age. He was only 30. Sadly he didn't have to die, but that's another discussion. He did. But when his character, Conan, took off in popularity, several writers took up the slack and wrote additional stories of Conan's adventures. Among them include L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, Poul Anderson, and Bjorn Nyberg. As good as they might be as writers, none of them were near Howard's level of literary genius. Some even seemed to take over Conan as if Conan was their own. de Camp especially. He tried to fill in the gaps of Conan's life, and tried to put his own signature on the Conan character.

But I don't know one Conan fan who appreciates it. If that is what is in store for other authors who pass on, then I don't think it's a good idea. A character that you create is your baby. If it is possible for another writer to keep that spirit going in your image then I guess it would be a good thing. But if another writer tries to make your baby into HIS image, then it's a bad thing. That's what happened to Conan.

So if you ever find a Conan book in your hands, make double sure it's written only by Howard. If any of the other names I mentioned above are on that book, drop it. Don't even open it. It's NOT the real Conan. And I would thank you.