If I included myself in one of my stories, I would be the villian. And for once, the main character would lose the fight. How can one defeat someone who can, at will, change you, kill you off? I simply am too powerful.
For instance, is one character getting too strong? Would they make for a boring story with an obvious end? Change them. Better yet, trash them, forget that I ever thought of them.
Is the villians motives too convining? Make him the hero, instead.
Too funny? Add a tragedy to their early life. Too sad? Give them a sheltered life. Too smart? Find a reason for them to skip school for a few years. Too dumb? Throw in a parent with high expectations.
Like a tornado, I wizz through their world, tweeking and changing the fundamentals of who they are, what they know. It's like a game- Suit My Needs or Playing God.
I imagine what it would be like if I were to pit myself against one of my characters. Perhaps Sam- a super genius who controls fire. I would mentally pluck him from his story, (I probably won't finnish it, anyway.) and put him in a whole new situation. The plot seems obvious. He would discover my presence with the help of one of his inventions; a device that picks up on radiation. He would slowly deduct that I was there by peicing together clues I would leave for him, like mysterious telephone messages, or bookmarks in encyclopeidias. He would go bravely to my lair- an underground mansion, thinking that he could destroy this evil. Then I would toy with him, create some tension. Slowly, I would make him go insane. In the end, he would die of a cancer he never knew he had, in the liver, lets say, one that I had placed in him. I can see the last sentence now (from Sam's point of veiw-) "I closed my eyes, defeated for the first and only time."
Come to think of it, that would make a good story... look out, Sam! I'm coming for you.
