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| He has nothing to do with killing anything, but a cute guy with a book on his head is awesome. |
1. Edit out the excess words not needed in the story
2. Get rid of the excess characters in the story. Not
everyone in the first draft makes it to the second.
3. In order to add drama to the story, kill one of the main
characters.
4. This one's the most drastic and too painful to think about. When you need to kill a whole book. Why oh why?
For my latest WIP, The Dream Maker, I had every intention of doing
the third. I went into the book knowing I was going to kill off the heroine’s
favorite patient who happened to be the hero’s niece. It would be easy to do
because she’s been diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
Do you know how hard it is to kill off a beloved character? I
really liked this young lady. A lot. Her name is Vanessa and she’s an intelligent smart ass. Plus she likes to stick her nose into everyone’s
business, like when she helps to set up the hero and heroine. But the thing I
enjoyed most about her is that she enjoys life and doesn’t want to disturb
anyone with the pain she’s feeling about being diagnosed with cancer.
Oh my goodness I love Vanessa. So do you think I was able to
kill of this darling? Um…I’m not telling. You’ll have to wait until the book
comes out to see. It was a difficult decision, but I think the one I made
turned out well for the story.
What about you? Any darlings in your novels that you’ve had
to kill which gutted you to do so?
Yes. In my latest book I killed off two!! It was hard to do. And I'm editing it now and killing excess words too!!!
ReplyDeleteTWO! My goodness, Cathy. How can you be so cold hearted? Lol. Just kidding. Sometimes it's got to be done.
DeleteLol Nana, laughing hard here. In WIP I'm killing one person but not a darling. But then is there no way you can save Vanessa? Ovarian cancer can be treated if diagnosed early with the right treatment, right?
ReplyDeleteI'm not telling, Celestine. I take it that the person you're killing in your WIP deserves it.
Delete*offering hug* I promise, killing them just makes your story better. Let's be honest, when I bumped off...um, yeah, we'll leave them nameless...my first reaction was, "HELL NO! I have plans for (fill in the blank). That's PLANS, with capitals and an S!" But, in the end it allowed my fourth UF book in the Kyn series to be what it is, so get your bail money and a good lawyer, and start knocking those little heartbreakers off.
ReplyDeleteI feel so bad about the death because of Raine. I do love that girl. If you killed her I'd disown you (but keep reading your books).
DeleteIn my short dark stories AT LEAST one person gets killed/murdered. Nature of the beast. In SOLSTICE, I killed off a nice lady but felt worse for her boyfriend, George, who was left behind to mourn.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on what you're writing. If you're story is about gritty real life, then sadly, lovely, sweet people die every day. If your'e writing a fun, humorous and sweet contemporary romance, I don't think people want to read about death and sadness.
I was actually thinking of Solstice when I wrote this post. I couldn't believe you'd done it. She was so good. I could see why you did it, but still... it was a bitter pill to swallow.
DeleteI only read this post because of the cute boy with the book on his head.
ReplyDeleteHeh.
;)
I'm okay with that.
DeleteYes. I've killed a character in Gemini the reader will love. What I did is have my protagonist react to her murder the same way my readers would. They won't be so pissed with me. I've also heard darlings refer to more than characters . You could write a wonderful scene, you love the way it flows, your language is flawless but it does nothing to move your plot forward. You have to cut it.
ReplyDeleteIt's good that your readers won't be angry with you for killing off a character, Ronnie. I've heard about that kind of killing your darling, too. Thanks for sharing.
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