More often than not, authors tend to think very highly of the characters they create. Veronica Roth has publicly declared her love for the protagonists of the Divergent series.
During a panel at BookExpo America, Proxy author Alex London asked this question: “Why do you do horrible things to characters you love?” Roth responded that being a writer feels like a very “exaggerated” version of parenthood.
Roth allows Tris and Four to feel great pain because “authors do that to their characters” the same way parents let their offspring fall off a bicycle; it helps them to learn and grow as people. What do you think?
That same conversation also compelled Roth to confess that she doesn’t enjoy writing descriptions, struggles with conclusions, includes far too much “sighing” and “glancing” in her drafts, and that she repeatedly tried to kill off the villainous Marcus while writing Insurgent. Roth’s next book, Four: A Divergent Collection, will be released on July 08, 2014. Divergent fans can also look forward to the release of the Insurgent film adaptation on March 20, 2015.