Welcome to May 1st. A lovely day where the birds are singing, the flowers are blowing in a spring breeze, the sky is bluer than ever before...
Well if that's what May 1st looks like for you, I'm jealous, right now in the lovely state of Utah, it's snowing.
No, really, I'm not kidding, it's snowing. I thought it was raining at first until I came upstairs (my window isn't exactly in the prime position for seeing things outside) and saw that it was indeed snowing.
It's not a happy spring, more like a very merry Christmas.
But at least my hair is working for me today. Yesterday, I wanted to shave myself bald, today, less so :)
Anyway, see that lovely example of a stream of consciousness? I love that kind of writing and currently, since I slept in on accident and am still mildly dreamy, that's the only way that I'm functioning right now, so bear with me. :)
Right, so last night, I stayed up late reading a book. It was pretty intense in the middle and I kept thinking, I just want to see how this thing ends...I know, really good middle and I want the ending, I just wanted to know how it ended! I mean, I've been waiting for practically three years for this and I'd like to know...like now.
I regret reading ahead. Sigh.
My favorite character got killed off. I nearly cried. For the sake of not spoiling anyone else's day, I won't reveal who the character is, or what the book is, but I was really disappointed! I hoped that this character would get to live to see the ending, but he didn't! It was almost as shocking as when (wait! if you haven't read the Harry Potter series and want to, skip this line!!!) Sirius Black died. Sirius was my favorite character! I loved every scene with him in it, I even pretended he was my imaginary friend as a dog and my brother and me played some seriously embarrassing games where I was Sirius and he...actually, I don't remember who my brother was, this was years ago, anyway, we were screeching about the Fourth of July...and we were pretending to be British...and in England they don't celebrate the Fourth of July...oops.
Yeah, long story short, I don't like it when my favorite character dies! Other characters I'm like yes, he's dead! But no! I just about cried when the Witch King met his end, (okay, I do now, when I was actually watching the movie for the first time all I could think, ew! That creepy dude just got his face sucked in! I don't want that in my head!) when the dementors were driven off (where are my priorities! I'm voting for the bad guys! Truth, I'm sick of the stereotyped hero, so I vote for the bad guys because they're cool, not that Harry Potter is stereotyped, it's just that the movies ruined it for me, the whole time it's like he's constantly going "my scar! my scar!" in a really whiney voice, sorry if you like the movies, I just prefer the books :D)
Also, I hate having to kill off my own characters. Except for that one guy...I was glad to get rid of him...I mean uh ;) but there is this one character that has to meet his end. It makes me sad to admit, he's such a unique character the only other character like him is Halt from Ranger's Apprentice no one else in my family has read a book with anyone like him in it, well the people I've asked, so two of my sisters.
So if you're writing a book where you're considering killing off people consider this,
1. Is it timely? Will I need this character later on?
2. Is it necessary? Or am I just making dramatics?
3. Why am I killing him off?
In the case of my character, I tried to keep him around, write it so there would be a happy ending for everyone, but I realize that if I were trying to do that to him in person, I'd just be making his agony worse. Writing out of love like that can damage your story. My character needed an ending as sad as it was for me to lose him. I thoroughly enjoy writing about him, every scene with him in it, I'm excited, even though he's a challenge. But he needed to let go, and my other characters needed a chance to learn and grow without him.
Yeesh, I sound all motherly now.
Sorry if I just went on and blabbed, but what can I say? I'm tired, loopy, ate peanut butter for breakfast, it's snowing, and I need to do school. I'm not one hundred percent here right now which probably means I'm going to be humming something really stupid in the next few minutes here.
Ooh the sun just came out!
See what I mean? Loopy! :)
Oh, and the sun's gone now. :(
I can't wait to read Twisted! It sounds so good. And thanks for the tips on deciding characters' fates. It's good to think about the why's of what I do. Though I have to admit that I kind-of like those few times when you get to kill off a main character. Death is such an emotional thing that killing a good guy can be quite an experience. I love writing such raw emotion and the rush from diving into characters' feelings to trying to pull it onto the page. I'm always amazed at how much energy I find myself putting into strong emotions that my characters are feeling.
ReplyDeleteI know how you feel! Writing about the raw emotions that come after death can be heart-breaking, especially when you really like the character who died. Those are my favorite scenes to write because I connect a lot better with them, and some times, action scenes can get kind of redundant, raw emotion is so much sharper and harder to portray.
DeleteAnd if I work really hard, Twisted should be coming out within the next 2 months. No longer than that. I want to be published before I turn 18 as a nice way to say farewell to a childhood dream before turning it into an adulthood reality. :)