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Saturday, October 13, 2012

HOW TO KILL

{Meilori mourning Sam McCord courtesy of the fabulous Leonora Roy}
 
David Farland has a great post:

Strategies for Killing Your Babies -
http://www.davidfarland.net/writing_tips/?a=144&utm_source=buffer&buffer_share=203ad

A very important subject since I stopped reading Stephen King for a time because he habitually killed characters I had grown fond of.

If I want to lose people I care about, I just have to remember my own life.

Not that Death doesn't visit my characters.  After all, she is the mother of my young gyspy rascal, Victor Standish.

There is a scene in one of my favorite series, THE DRESDEN FILES, where an enemy shows Harry Dresden an open grave in a prestigious cemetery with the ornate headstone:

HARRY DRESDEN
HE DIED DOING THE RIGHT THING.

Later in the series, Harry did die. But being a wizard, death had ... complications.

As a ghost, he convinced his shattered apprentice, Molly, he was indeed Harry by saying: "You must go to the Dagobah System and learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me."

Molly falls to her knees sobbing, for she recognizes Harry's sense of humor and knows 1.) This is not some spectral imposter and 2.) Harry is indeed dead.

DEATH, LIKE EVERYTHING IMPORTANT, MUST BE DONE WITH SKILL:

1.) DEATH CASTS A LONG SHADOW -

Your first paragraph sets a tone. It should whisper Death is in the wings, waiting in the shadows ... no one is immune. Everyone dies at some point in this life.

2.) DENIAL IS NOT JUST A RIVER IN EGYPT -

Have Death thrust in the thoughts and conversations of your characters.  Do not ignore the 500 pound gorilla in the front room.

3.) THE THINGS THAT DEATH CAN BUY -

The 300 Spartans. The Alamo. A life well-lived is priceless. A death done courageously can be the door to life for countless others. Immortality is born from the fact that sometimes the worst thing about HELLO is GOODBYE.

4.) WHAT IS DEATH TO YOU -

Whatever worldview you hold, not everyone shares it. 

But you must remain true to what you believe awaits us after death. Your words should represent that belief in as stirring and simple prose as you can produce.  It will not ring true otherwise.

5.) AH, WHERE IS THE ETERNAL REST?

One of the reasons I chose "Science Fantasy" as a genre is that it is interesting and emotionally statisfying to show a possible world beyond death and the challenges that plane of "existence" has for its citizens.

6.) THE SUN ALSO RISES -

After Death visits, the dawn insists on rising to a new day. Have people living in it that the reader can like and relate to ... friends left to root for.

7.) KILL THE MESSENGER -

The reader may swear off your books when you kill a beloved character ... unless your words are the very best they can be, not just DURING the death scene, but AFTER Death comes and goes. 

The danger must still threaten, the fight still rage on in some fashion ...

and the prose should literally grab the reader by the shirt front, dragging her or him from page to page to find out who next will fall or if the protagonist has died for nothing.

How do you handle death in your novels?

12 comments:

  1. Speaking of death ...

    My internet provider was killed for most of yesterday and most of this morning by terrible weather.

    I am just back on and, of course, have been called back to the roads!

    Thank all of you for being my friends, Roland

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  2. All good points.
    Spoiler - I killed a main character in one of my books. Hated doing it, but neither the story nor the other character could advance if I didn't. Readers seemed to accept it even as I made a lot of them cry. (And still feels bad to make a woman cry...)

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  3. Alex:
    It should never feel good to have a reader cry -- though I feel that some authors callously aim for that.

    Think of any classic movie or book: the mentor usually dies in it.

    SPOILER BELOW:



    In my END OF DAYS, it is the Twilight of the Gods ... and heroes, leaving only one major character still alive out of all my heroes.

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  4. Death is ever present, in several ways in my novels. As in life, we never know what's around the corner. I try to incorporate that into my stories.

    Speaking of Death: during the anti-bullying posts that have been showing on the internet, we had the sad case of a 15yr old girl who committed suicide here in Vancouver. Coerced by a pedophile and subsequently bullied by her peers at school. When did this type of mind set become popular among the kids in our education system? What are our governments and education systems doing about it? (I'm talking US and Canada)

    Nothing makes me as angry as bullying by those who consider themselves judges of others.

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  5. D.G.:
    Bullying has been ever-present in our schools. You can read of it in the essays of Mark Twain. I was bullied in Lafayette (one fight gave me broken ribs, broken fingers, and a broken nose.) Lake Charles High School had me pushed down a flight of stairs ... and then, the bullies got nasty. Moral: A lone Lakota student cast among whites does not fare well. The different never do. Remember LORD OF THE FLIES?

    It is no coincidence that Victor Standish tweaks the nose of every bully he meets in my novels.

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  6. Sorry to hear that, Roland. One of my kids had to put up with bullying in high school.

    I'm not kind when my kids are attacked. Mother Bear comes out.

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  7. I haven't killed any one of my characters but I'm not against it IF it strengthens the story. Killing off characters for shock value isn't really my thing.

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  8. D.G.:
    Everyone's childhood contains challenges of some kind or other. The school environment is cruel in so many ways. Sigh.

    Elise:
    Sometimes the death of one of your characters becomes necessary to the flow of the story, but, like you, I think to kill just to shock is a cheap way to titilate the reader.

    Yahoo put your friend request in my spam account for some odd reason. But I found it while trolling for a reply from an anthology. Our friendship is now official. ;-)

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  9. Roland, I hope storms have calmed down in your neck of the woods. Stay safe on the roads.
    One very popular Australian author Matthew Reilly, when asked at a writer's conference about how to make characters appealing, said why bother? I just kill them off.

    Congratulations on getting your story accepted in the anthology! So excited for you!

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  10. And was lovely to see a review of your book at D G Hudson's site.

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  11. Joss Whedon is another one known for killing our darlings -- in Serenity, he gave us a 2fer! In my stories and novels, a character's death must have a point to it. I don't believe that anyone's death, real or imagined, is in vain.

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  12. Denise:
    Weather is always problematic here. It makes blood runs ... interesting. :-)

    Matthew Reilly, if chosen to speak at a writers' conference, must be successful. Yet, I can't help but think that death impacts the reader more if the character was made appealing.

    D.G. was exceptionally gracious to review my book on her site, wasn't she?

    Thanks for being glad for me for being accepted in the Anthology. I hesitate to write of it since I haven't been given a "go ahead" by Wendy Tyler Ryan.

    I am looking forward to Friday's HOUSE OF HORROR challenge.

    Milo:
    Joss also killed one of my favorite characters in THE AVENGERS this summer! Aaaargh! I get the feeling he would killed Captain America if he had been allowed.

    When you challenge the darkness, there is always a cost. Lives are impacted, never left the same. Still, like you, I feel death should have a point in fiction. Thanks for visiting, Roland

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