Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

I was talking to shipperslist about a comm they recommended 12monthsofmurder and it occurred to me that while I can whump the crap out of characters I struggle with major character death (unless it's a canonical character I don't like, looking at you Andrew Wells). That said it sounds like such a fun challenge that I wish I COULD kill off characters I like.

One of my few attempts to kill a character I love ended badly, points to my Price of Grief series for Prodigal Son. It WAS supposed to be a one and done where Malcolm dies. I don't think that story was up more than an hour before I made it a choose your own adventure and let him live in the end if you wanted that. And from there the next two stories are him living with the aftermath of nearly dying....

I'm even WORSE when it comes to original characters. I'm actually pretty proud of me for killing a character in my nano novel but to be fair she was created to die (Sorry). I will bend my own canon to breaking point to avoid killing characters I like. I've even shelved a few stories because I do not know where to take it if I don't kill the character.

I'm not really sure what this says about me. Even if the villain is pretty awful I still struggle with killing them off.

I do wonder if it stems from TV/Movies where when an actor wants out they kill off a character instead of finding a more creative way to do it. (Looking at you M.A.S.H for starting this with Henry Blake) In some ways that has always seemed like the lazy way to do it (I still maintain there was no reason to kill off Tony Stark. He could have been in the background doing what he does without us needing to see him for example)

We've seen also how killing off a character doesn't always work. Fans get PISSED. I'm not sure if Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the first to run into this but he was one of the most public and was forced to bring back Sherlock. Killing off Spock was met with such horror, he was back by the next movie.

I wonder if this had an affect on me. I wonder if my aversion to killing characters is simply inherent.

Does anyone else struggle with this? Do you like knocking off your babies? I was lamenting this weekend about my horror not being horrific enough because not enough people died and ELD pointed out Stephen King doesn't always kill off everyone so why should I need to?


OPEN CALL


Spoon Knife 8 theme is smoke & mirrors

Novus Monstrum: The Midnight Zone (Full Call) I have something for this one!

Living With Demons This has some pay and the sales go to mental health resources

Electric Spec May Issue 2023 )low pay)

Darklit Press Is Open For Novels And Novellas!

IT CAME FROM THE TRAILER PARK: VOL 3 crap, this is one I wrote for last year and wrote the due date wrong. This time it's a lower word count with a twist on the theme so I'm not sure I can rework my story to fit it. sigh. I think I'll have to write another one if I want to try.




From Around the Web

TAKING CARE OF YOUR MENTAL HEALTH IN THE EDITING PROCESS

DEVELOP A STRONG WRITING PLATFORM BY EXERCISING YOUR ONLINE MUSCLES

Latest Updates to Amazon Author Central in 2023

Writing Cross-Genre Fiction and Battling the Book Marketing Comp Title

Writing Prompts Unlock Freedom And Creativity personally I love prompts.

Traditional Vs. Self-Publishing: Follow The Numbers

How To Write And Publish A Book Faster: A 4-Stage Process

Since I needed a quick way to do this for my novel. I went looking. Found one that was so complicated and I knew it had to be easier than that. It is

Watch on YouTube

From Betty


A World Within a Book

Putting Your Best Foot Forward

Marketing for Introverts

How to Write a Book From Start to Finish in 13 Steps.

Call to Action: The Mega Power of Tiny Copy.

How To Self-Publish A Book In 10 Steps

How to Get Readers to Feel Those Emotional Twists

Crafting Plausible Maps

Choosing Viewpoint Characters

How to Describe Characters

Fear Thesaurus Entry: Criticism

5 Ways to Approach Your Novel Like a Trial Lawyer

the objectively objectionable grammatical pet peeve

Infuse a character’s desires into their observations

Comments

[under_the_silk_tree]

I absolutely cannot kill off characters when I write so I totally understand. Instead, I am trying to bring beloved characters the writers have killed back to life in fanfic.

The death that scarred me as a kid was Catherine from Beauty and the Beast (1987). I was devastated when the writers killed her off, like full on crying. I know the actress wanted to move on but honestly, the show should have just wrapped up the season and ended it. Without Catherine and Vincent's relationship, the next season's ratings tanked, and it was canceled anyway. Such a badly written ending. (Sorry for the rant apparently, I still have feelings, lol)

[cornerofmadness]

OMG I had banished that from my mind because you're right it was so damn traumatic. Some shows you can bring in new characters when a main wants to leave and no problem (Law and Order, Criminal Minds, i.e. ensemble shows) You could NOT do it with Beauty and the Beast and that was a horrible death (and I'm not sure why I watched it but I did watch that season)

[snowynight]

I feel the same too. Death is often easy and cheap in canon. (look at you, Marvel comics). There are more possibilities when characters have to deal with consequence and rebuild/adapt to a new life, to tackle with trauma from the past/unspoken horror, and people around them. Death cut off these possibilities.

[cornerofmadness]

I think it can be a fun thing to play with in fandom because it's such high stakes but I also agree in canon it's too easy or done badly (looking at you Whedon with Tara's death and Cordy's and Wes and Lindsey....)

[snowynight]

Whedon is a huge offender of meaningless death.

[cornerofmadness]

yes he is

[ysilme]

I can whump the crap out of characters
I love this! But I SO hear you on killing characters - it's exactly the same for me, in every regard you wrote. If I need a character death it needs to be a chara created for this purpose, and I can't develop them too much or I won't manage. I also feel you about TV series and movies, and sometimes also books. If a character I care about is killed off my focus from then on will most likely be on fanworks changing or preventing that or letting them resurrect, or write this myself (f.e. Snape in the Potterverse - he's been my favourite character, too, and I'm strongly rooting for the EWE fraction who's skilfully interpreting his death scene to something else. Since my fandoms usually are fantasy at least that's not as difficult as with others. ;op

[cornerofmadness]

Same. Like in the nano, she was created strictly to die to open up a place on the team. I mean i could have started there after the fact but decided to badly hurt another character and thought we needed to see him before hand

Snape's death scene reinterpreted? Interesting. I don't read a lot of HP fiction unless my friends are writing it so I don't see a lot.

it can be interesting to bring them back and yes some fandoms are easier than others with that one

[falkner]

When I first saw the 12monthsofmurder community advertised somewhere, I got super excited. I love (fictional) murders! But then I read their intro and realized my interest runs completely contrary to the community, in that I enjoy having one character commit the crime in various ways, and not one character be the victim over and over... :(

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah I can definitely see it as not being the community for everyone

[dewladen]

I totally understand not wanting to kill off characters. I haven't killed off a super developed character in a while. The last time I vividly remember doing it was in middle school and my middle school friends who read my story as each chapter was released (I was so lucky to have an audience when my writing was terrible) wouldn't let me live it down. So, 5 chapters later, I made up some excuse and brought him back haha.

Also thanks for posting open call links!!! Do you usually do this? :o It is amazing... only been following you for a couple days and I love you already.

[cornerofmadness]

I have brought back a few of my kill-offs too (it's like oops no, sorry changed my mind)

Yes, I try to do the writing links including open calls every sunday. Mostly they're horror/uf/sf. always looking for more

[cmk418]

When I started writing scripts, I would kill off a character in every movie (for one script, death was the whole point of it). There's something fun about a good death scene, particularly if it's unexpected. In the fantasy NaNo novel I wrote two years ago, I won't necessarily say that all of the protagonists died, but they all wound up in the land of the dragons (which basically is like the Undying Lands in "Lord of the Rings").

I don't have a hard time with it if it's motivated by the story. I have a harder time with it in fanfic, particularly if it's not a canon death- I use the filters in Ao3 to avoid "Major Character Death" especially if it's something guaranteed to depress me.

And I'm still not over the end of "No Time to Die". That movie took a lot out of me.

[cornerofmadness]

That is good. I wish I could do better with killing characters where the story needs me to.

I do not do a lot of MCD reading on AO3 either