I finished the first book, then the second, and hoped that in the third book, there would be something great for her. Her own happy ending. Unfortunately for me, she was (quite literally) ripped apart toward the end of the book along with her lover.

Needless to say, I was a bit upset and nauseated at the turn of events.

As a reader, I felt a bit pissed off for a while, but the writer in me emerged eventually and calmed me down. See, the writer in me recognized the brilliance of the move. Of course it would be more potent to kill her and her lover off because first, she was expendable, and second, it just might get the reader to feel something.

Goal accomplished.

Writing within your comfortable boundaries might satisfy your grandmother and Uncle Dick, but it won’t get your reader to feel much or take anything away from the story once s/he is done reading.

(That’s assuming you’re talented enough to keep their attention through an entire story.)

The quote “Kill your darlings” is actually a lot better advice than you might think. In fact, it might be one of the more important pieces of advice you’ll ever hear.

If you need a little exercise in the killing department, take a character you like from your current work in progress and create a scene in which s/he dies. Violently. If anyone thinks you’re a bit off, you can tell them I told you to do it.

I’ve been less than accommodating to her demands that I clean up the place a bit, so I hope this will make her feel better until I do get the time to sit down and really do an overhaul.

***

Having raised her four younger brothers since she was barely a teen, Rose is anything but a delicate southern belle. When asked if she felt cheated by life because she wasn’t afforded the opportunities of other young ladies, she would always grin and say she didn’t have the bone structure for nicer society.

Rose was always judged pleasant looking at best, but if she minded it, she never showed it. Nor did she show any interest in the other sex. With her four brothers to raise, she always claimed to have more than enough men in her life.

There certainly were a few persistent suitors, but she never encouraged them. After she fixed up and started running The Plot – a rest place for characters of all sorts – the men seemed happier to see her as a good bar mistress to be appreciated rather than pursued.

She could talk the pants off any man if she wanted to, but through logical, fun talk rather than fluttering eyelashes and giggling.

Rose didn’t giggle.

She always felt very content and happy with her lot in life. Who wouldn’t with a thriving business and a family who loved her? And yet, there were times when she’d sit in her favourite window seat at night and stare up at the moon. No one could tell you for sure the ways her mind wandered those nights, but she certainly wasn’t thinking about The Plot.

I was reading my Christmas present today, Crusader by Sara Douglass, to find to my great dismay my two favorite characters were killed off! Just like that and in a rotten, terrible way, no less. I was upset by this turn of events so much I had to put the book down for a while.

Now, this doesn’t happen with ever book I (or you) read, but I have been reading this series for six years. It’s no wonder I don’t exactly appreciate the death of the two. (Don’t worry; I won’t betray any spoilers.)

However, through my great annoyance, I found an interesting blog topic.

Character love is something many a writer has fallen into. However, such a thing (besides being somewhat hard for the non-writer to understand) can be quite detrimental to your story.

When you love someone, you want the best for them. Before you realize it, your loved character or characters may find themselves getting an easy route away from the enemy, a gorgeous man or woman to love, or inexplicably finding out he, she, or they is/are royalty!

I don’t mean to insult anyone who has used one or more of those situations – I have. If you can do it well, by all means, go ahead and do it.

What I am getting at is if you love a character too much – yes, it is possible – then you will likely, at least on a subconscious level, want to make things easier for them.

I can already hear someone saying, “Yeah, maybe other writers, but not me.”

There is another side to character love as well. Perhaps, just to prove me and other people who have pointed this out wrong, you throw many conflicts in your character’s way. He, she, or they constantly run into the enemy, only less than lovely people in appearance and personality will fall in love with him/her/them, and they were royalty, only to find out there was a mistake and they are actually peasants!

While amusing, this doesn’t quite work either. (Well, it could if you try hard. I invite you to prove me wrong.)

What would most often happen in that instance would be your character(s) would have a lot of meaningless battles, and/or your character(s) would suddenly have powers or abilities which just don’t make sense in respect to the pace of the plot.

Conflict makes your story universe go round. Letting character love influence your writing unbalances the universe.

I’ve fallen in love with a few of my characters before, and it makes for bad writing most of the time. I promise. It’s okay for you to care about your characters while you’re writing, but keep in mind you should be willing to kill them at any moment to further your plot.

So carry on writing with that in mind. I know some are protesting, saying the character or characters can’t die because they have to do a, b, and c. That’s perfectly fine. But let that be the only thing that keeps you from being willing to shove them off a cliff at any moment.

Remember, you’re doing it for the universe.

(Not sure how to kill ‘em off. Check out Eight Ways to Kill Your Characters.)

2. Other Sacrifice – Oh, the most noble of things – your character throwing himself or herself to death for honor, love, or anything the character considers worth dying for. If played right, you can get strong reactions out of your readers by doing this. Just don’t do it too much.

3. Assassination – Assassination, mystery, intrigue. Oh, there are so many things you can do with assassination. The (reader) known assassin vs. the unknown assassin. The assassin with a mission of honor vs. the assassin who does it for the money. The possibilities are many.

4. “It’s All in the Family” Murder – Murder within the family? Is there a disinherited sibling? Perhaps an unwanted child coming into the realization s/he’s missed out on his/her rightful place in life. No matter what the reason, murder within the family can always put in more plot tangles than you can think of.

5. Poison – The art of poisoning is a delicate one, but it can serve a number of purposes. Whether you want to kill your character in dramatic, fast fashion or slowly, poison can be your safe bet. However, be prepared to do some research on the subject. You don’t want to try poisoning someone with basil. You could try, though.

6. Forces of Nature – It’s unfortunate and random, which is why forces of nature could be just the method of death you are looking for. Floods, rock slides, avalanches – all can happen without warning. (Well, the floods do have a bit of warning, but dams breaking and such are likely to be unexpected. This method, I believe, is more one to keep in the back of your mind.

7. Death by Deity – There’s nothing like a godly hand intervening to strike down your character. Be careful with this one, though, because your deities should have good motives for killing the one character and not others.

8. Possession – This alternative provides the ability to get rid of the character personality, but keep the body. This can enable you to cause conflicts all over in your writing. Whether you care to focus on where the previous owner’s soul is and if it can be retrieved, or if you prefer focusing on the now and figuring out how to deal with the new soul, this method of killing of a character can definitely keep your hand writing or fingers typing.

I finished the first book, then the second, and hoped that in the third book, there would be something great for her. Her own happy ending. Unfortunately for me, she was (literally) ripped apart toward the end of the book along with her lover.

Needless to say, I was a bit upset and nauseated at the turn of events.
As a reader, I felt a bit pissed off for a while, but the writer in me emerged eventually and calmed me down. See, the writer in me recognized the brilliance of the move. Of course it would be more potent to kill her and her lover off because first, she was expendable, and second, it just might get the reader to feel something.

Goal accomplished.

Writing within your comfortable boundaries might satisfy your grandmother and Uncle Dick, but it won’t get your reader to feel much or take anything away from the story once s/he is done reading. (That’s assuming you’re talented enough to keep their attention through an entire story.)

The quote “Kill your darlings” is actually a lot better advice than you might think. In fact, it might be one of the more important pieces of advice you’ll ever hear.

If you need a little exercise in the killing department, take a character you like from your current work in progress and create a scene in which s/he dies. Violently. If anyone thinks you’re a bit off, you can tell them I told you to do it.

Sometimes the world just doesn’t like me.

The world doesn’t like you? Try being me.

Excuse me? Who are you?

I am the woman you haven’t even taken the time to name yet.

Um…

In the story you started! The one that has been floating around in your brain the last few weeks? The one you finally started writing?

Oh, I see. I haven’t given you a name yet, have I?

No. At this point, I’m still the nameless wonder floating around in your messy head. You haven’t named me. You haven’t even put me in a scene yet!

Well, that’s because you-

I know it’s because I don’t have a name yet! Time, time, time. You’re always rabbiting on about not having enough time. You’d better make some time or you can kiss this sexy leading lady goodbye!

Wait. You’re from the desert. You wouldn’t say ‘rabbiting on’. That’s something I would say.

Just make some time and pick out my damn name already!

…

As you can see, a lot of things have been taking up my attention lately, so my plans haven’t being going as I had originally hoped they would. Between life, work and finishing up my column for my new spot in the Mornington Peninsula papers (yay for me! Newspaper writing.) I have been running behind. As per usual.

Do forgive me. I fully plan to be more organized, caught up -

And plan to have given me a name!

All of that, by next week. Until then…

I have been having a lot of trouble with this WIP – the kind of WIP that has, on occasion, made me wonder if I should just put it away and work on something. But I believe I have a good idea here and all the issues that are popping up are ones that come from my own head.

One big problem I have had is that my main character remained not so much a mystery as inconsistent. One moment she was adjusting to her circumstances fine and well, the next moment she was emotional and yelling at her newest friend.

While this makes for great drama in the story, it doesn’t make for a likable main character – and it certainly doesn’t make my job easier.

I fully admit that my main characters are all a part of me in one way or another. I don’t see that as a problem unless they are utterly and completely me. This woman? This woman wouldn’t even tell me her name. I keep switching it in the hope of finding a right fit for her. I felt like she was refusing to tell me anything about her, and so the book would fail for lack of a clear character.

In comes the light bulb. In the bath, no less, which is one of my favourite places to think.

After weeks of worrying and trying to figure out exactly who my main character truly is, it finally occurred to me:

My main character was so much like me that I couldn’t see it.

No wonder I couldn’t figure her out! I can’t figure myself out at this point in my life.

Of course, this means I’m going to have to do some major revising with her so it’s an actual book in the making rather than me simply going on a joy ride in my imagination. But finally, finally, I feel like I have gotten rid of one of those ruddy hurdles making me feel like I can’t write anymore.

Phew!

Have you had any light bulb moments lately?

Yay for swift recoveries, huh?

The funny thing about this whole thing is that I have felt an itch to write like I haven’t had in a long time. Once again, life has shown me that inspiration is everywhere.

I don’t think I’ll ever write about a character who has their gallbladder removed (who knows?), but that is only the most direct inspiration I could take from all this. There is so much more above and beyond that. Let me give you an example:

The people I met at the hospital were interesting and amazing, all in their own rights. One nurse truly stands out, though.

He’s a quiet guy from India, not that much older than me (in his mid to late twenties). With an average height and fit body, you probably wouldn’t pick him out as anyone special on the street. He has an easy smile, but he doesn’t laugh a lot. He is a Quiet Observer of life – so much so that you have to concentrate to even think of giving him a label.

I wonder how he came to be this incredible carer with gentleness in his very movements…

Now how is that for a character portrait. And this is a real nurse I met who took care of me at the hospital. While I am being descriptive of him, I am not exaggerating.

I have never met a gentler nurse.

And, of course, that is just the beginning for interesting people I met there. The three men I was placed with in the hospital room (funnily enough, not uncomfortable for a second for me) were all distinct personalities. The nurse who insisted on interviewing me again because she didn’t like how the notes were taken by another nurse. A spunky young Italian nurse who laughed a lot but always seemed to be distracted by something. The two surgeons who did everything in their power to make me comfortable with what turned out to be an unavoidable surgery.

This is just the beginning and also only the inspiration I found in the people. This post is long enough as it is without me getting into the surroundings or the operation experiences.

Inspiration is everywhere if you just look.