Note to my Muse

Dear Sir,

I am writing to inform you of my intense dissatisfaction with your recent proposition to have the entire proceedings of the novel come out as having been a dream.

I remain unmoved by your assertions that makes it easier to kill off various characters, to gloss over the some ten years that the protagonist has spent moping, to introduce technologies without worrying about their legal, ethical, or social implications, to bring in characters or technologies with absurdly fantastic tendencies, or to have the protagonist make completely wrong choices all the way through and wake up with a second chance at happiness.

I am equally unimpressed by your contention that it makes sense, given the protagonist happens to take a massive drug overdose in the prologue.

Reaching the end of a story and finding out that it was all a dream is not only cliche, it's sloppy, it isn't something that can be simply thrown in right at the end of the story, it's annoying, and it's against every one of the philosophical and literary principles I hold dear.

I will not do it. I absolutely refuse, and I consider your stated intention of holding the remainder of the story for ransom until I comply with your demands to be unconscionable and in contradiction with all international treaties for the humane treatment of authors.

Pretty please, with a cherry on top, could I have another idea, please?

Love,
Lily.