Empathy.

That’s really kind of a funny word in the writing world we live in, isn’t it? I’ve always said if people used empathy in their work their characters would come across as more authentic. Pearl S. Buck aside, there have been far too many examples (almost on a daily basis) of people who pierce the veil of empathy to make a buck. Concentrated efforts to scam the system. Between pirating, plagiarizing, page stuffing, and pushing certain belief systems onto gay people such as, “Sure, this man opened a conversion camp but hell, he cares about us lowly gays so that’s fine,” instead of pushing the boundaries of a specific genre to be more inclusive of other people’s ways of life.

The difference between spec-fic, science fiction, fantasy, and horror, is most of those genre’s deal with some sort of altered reality, vampires, aliens, magic to some degree. Make-believe.

This genre deals with or tries to deal with, real people. Real circumstances. And when Empathy is not applied, it shows up in glaringly obvious ways that only serve to impoverish their subject matter further.

I will do me. I don’t need your permission.