This week: Sometimes...you just have to! Edited by: Fyn  
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The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? ~~Edgar Allan Poe
I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter. ~~Winston Churchill
Pale Death beats equally at the poor man's gate and at the palaces of kings. ~~Horace
No one kills off characters hoping it goes unnoticed by readers. If you're giving someone the axe, it's because you want a reaction out of readers, and it's important to determine what kind of reaction you're going for. Not all kills are created equal. Some are written to scare readers, some are written to make them cry, and some are written to make ‘em rage.~~Jenna Moreci
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(From a scene in 'Yellowstone.') Rip is backed up to the edge of a cliff. In front of him is a huge grizzly bear. A very angry grizzly bear. Nowhere to go but down, a jump or fall that would kill him. What did he do? He had no choice. He had to shoot the bear.
In our writing, sometimes we have to 'shoot the bear.' We have to kill off the darlings, the characters we've created and have grown to love. Writing is like giving birth, and our characters are very much our 'children.' But sometimes, they have to die.
I remember when I was writing 'Journey to Jukai' and I realized that one of my characters, my favorite, had to die. I felt like I had run into a brick wall. But, but. I didn't want to, she was the coolest character ever! But then I realized I had no choice if b,c,d, and e were ever going to happen. I called a friend of mine, whining that I had to kill off Jinn. "What? Her? Noooo."
And yet, for the story to go where it needed to go (in the next book) Jinn had to die.
Then I had to figure out how. It was fairly easy when Jinn's sister killed her step-dad who was hurting her mother. We had (my faithful and trusting hubby and I) a lot of fun figuring out how that scene would/could work. Think heavy cast iron fry pan filled with now-burned bacon and bacon grease grabbed off the stove with no mitts being walked at the back of his head. Now, granted, the pan was not hot and only had some water in it, but we acted it out. Hubby trusts me and he's alive and well!
But with Jinn, my thrill-seeking adreniliene junky, it had to be while she was doing something spectacular and it had to be an accident. Research! More research. I'd jumped out of a perfectly good helicopter before, so I knew the thrill, the fear of that. My biggest fear, (duh!) was that the chute wouldn't open. I found several articles written by people who survived a non-opening chute and could work with what they felt and experienced, and then have her die of her injuries. Writing it was, honestly, brutal.
Even more so was much later when I'd get messages, emails, and phone calls from people screaming about my killing of Jinn. 'How could I?' Because sometimes, you have to kill off your darlings, you have to shoot the bear!
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DRSmith  says: Hey, Fyn. One can also observe a lot by listening.
Across the bar from where I sit
I'm list'ning to a sexist snit.
Both biased in their attitudes
Toward male and female aptitudes.
And so goes the story of a quick-witted, clever gal who proved her point to a curious observer.
:)
ZZ  asks for help! HI. Who can answer questions about blogs for me? I want to start a blog. Which membership is best for a blog?
Throwing this out there for the folks who will know way more about this than I do.
Damon Nomad  says: Inspirations for story ideas come from many sources for me. I like to jot them down in a journal. Sometimes when I go to bed I play with one in my mind as I drfit off to sleep. A writer's version of counting sheep.
Great idea |
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For Authors: April 23, 2025 Issue [#13097]
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