Killing… Off Characters

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author, book, books, chapter, characters, death in a novel, editing, fantasy, fiction, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, ideas, killing characters, literature, novel, opinion, Percy Jackson, personality, read, reader, realism, science fiction, scifi, stories, story, tone, write, writer, writing

Everyone has a strong opinion about killing off characters, and I’m no exception. I think that if done right, killing of a character can increase the stakes and add to the realism of a story.

In a war or a struggle if no one ever dies I think that the risk is lost. If I know everyone is always going to be okay, than it isn’t nearly as exciting. I like when they die on stage, so to speak, when it is mentioned afterwards it doesn’t have the same impact.

A death has to fit the tone of the rest of the book. It can come as a surprise, but it should still fit the mood of the story. When someone dies it should be important to the plot and change things, so there’s a reason behind the death. The main character has to be affected, so that the death affects the readers. If the reader doesn’t care what happens to the characters than I’m doing my job.

Some people think that for it to be happily ever after no one can die, but I disagree, look at how many characters die in Disney movies.

Death can’t be undone, or shouldn’t be, unless it is a book about the undead, so be certain before deciding to kill a character. They have to die for a reason, which is true to the character and the rest of the story. Don’t kill for the sake of having a character die for shock value or to prove a point, like war is bad.

Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Game of Thrones, lots of big name authors are killing off characters, but that doesn’t mean that we should follow suit. Every author is different and should do what they think is best for their story. That’s the great part about being the writer. We get to decide who lives and who dies.

What is you think about authors killing off their characters? Have you killed anyone? (In your writing, of course)

Chapter Two

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Chapter two is now available online. The password is the same as the first chapter: jyk Thanks for putting up with my paranoia. I’m just worried that if I submit my novel for publishing and it is widely available online it will hurt my chances.

https://mollymortensen.wordpress.com/chapter-2/

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. I’d greatly appreciate it if you could take the time to post a comment or criticism.

Synopsis:

Ten years ago the shift occurred. For one day, the Earth merged with another world, and strange sword-wielding people were everywhere. Afterwards, everything went back to normal, except two million humans wound up on the other world. In this new world, technology fails, but magic is real.

Alyt is a human girl who has never been out of her tiny village. When she magically defends her home from barbarians, her friends, and neighbors kick her out. She thinks that learning to control her magic will solve all of her problems, but it is only the start of them.

Madj Jyk is a Kuth, a native of the world of magic. He has taken on the unwanted job of being a regional Madj. When city-states have problems involving magic, they call Jyk. Regional Madj usually don’t have apprentices due to the dangerous nature of their work, but Jyk has agreed to allow Alyt to become apprentice. Alyt tries to prove herself and in the process, reveals she has special skills even Jyk has never seen before.

Alyt will travel the world, visiting castles, jungles, and even a magical island. It is always an adventure, but nothing ever goes smoothly. The barbarians who attacked her village keep attacking the humans, because they believe the land is theirs. Jyk cannot help, because the Madj council prevents him from interfering unless magic is involved. Alyt has to master her magic, survive her adventures with Jyk, and save the humans from the barbarians.

Sample chapter

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author, book, books, chapter, characters, editing, fantasy, fiction, ideas, literature, novel, personality, read, reader, sample, stories, story, write, writer, writing

I posted an updated version of the first chapter of my novel, Woven Magic. It’s password protected, so it doesn’t wind up in search engine caches. The password is: jyk

https://mollymortensen.wordpress.com/sample-chapter/

Thank you for reading. I appreciate any comments and criticisms. The second chapter will be posted tomorrow, since this one is so short.

Synopsis:

Ten years ago the shift occurred. For one day, the Earth merged with another world, and strange sword-wielding people were everywhere. Afterwards, everything went back to normal, except two million humans wound up on the other world. In this new world, technology fails, but magic is real.

Alyt is a human girl who has never been out of her tiny village. When she magically defends her home from barbarians, her friends, and neighbors kick her out. She thinks that learning to control her magic will solve all of her problems, but it is only the start of them.

Madj Jyk is a Kuth, a native of the world of magic. He has taken on the unwanted job of being a regional Madj. When city-states have problems involving magic, they call Jyk. Regional Madj usually don’t have apprentices due to the dangerous nature of their work, but Jyk has agreed to allow Alyt to become apprentice. Alyt tries to prove herself and in the process, reveals she has special skills even Jyk has never seen before.

Alyt will travel the world, visiting castles, jungles, and even a magical island. It is always an adventure, but nothing ever goes smoothly. The barbarians who attacked her village keep attacking the humans, because they believe the land is theirs. Jyk cannot help, because the Madj council prevents him from interfering unless magic is involved. Alyt has to master her magic, survive her adventures with Jyk, and save the humans from the barbarians.

Too much of anything is bad, including showing.

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There are countless articles out there on the importance of showing instead of telling. I’m going to focus on the opposite, when to tell. 

What is showing and telling? Showing is conversations and getting inside the mind of the character, experiencing things as they do. Telling is shorter, because it is just stating what happened. 

When I’m reading if something isn’t interesting, I find my eyes glazing over and I’m off in daydream world. I don’t want to do this to my readers, so when writing I ask myself, Is this important? Will my readers feel cheated if I leave this out? If the answer is no, I tell it instead of showing everything.

Skip to the action, and skip the pleasantries.

I tell about everyday interactions and anything a character does repeatedly whenever I can. The character can be bored, but that doesn’t mean the reader has to be. I tell what a character sees, especially when they are passing through an unimportant town or stopping at a restaurant. This way I go straight to the interesting parts. If something important is going to happen during the everyday stuff, I start right before the action.

I show things to make my readers feel like they are a part of the story and to let them figure things out for themselves, but it’s important that I don’t bore them with stuff they don’t care about.

Which parts do think should be told instead of shown? 

 

 

The worst decisions can make the best stories

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author, book, books, characters, choices, decisions, editing, fantasy, fiction, ideas, literature, novel, personality, read, reader, stories, story, write, writer, writing

I don’t always make the right decisions. It’s probably closer to fifty-fifty. I know that if I had a chance to change my past, (without unraveling time or anything) I’d take it. I’m trying to give my characters some things that they’d want to go back and change. Evil, aren’t I?

I never want to make the wrong choice, so it’s hard for me to make my characters choose poorly. Real life however, is full of nothing but bad decisions. Just because a writer has time to think about a decision doesn’t mean the character does. It’s easy to make the right choice when you can see what is coming, but decisions made in the moment aren’t always the right ones.

The hard part about creating a realistic character is they have to make bad choices sometimes, because people don’t always act wisely. We don’t always listen to reason and act logically. There is no such thing as a perfect person. We all make mistakes, so to have a character never error makes them less real, and flat. So, no matter how smart, clever, and talented my characters are, I still want them to mess up occasionally.

I’m far from perfect, so I tend to want my characters to be all that I’m not, but it’s fun to create a rash character for a change. Their recklessness can create all kinds of story enriching problems and a flawed character always has room to grow.

What is the worst thing you’ve done to one of your characters?