I've gone and done one of those silly things I'd mock if someone else did.

Fredster · Jan 4, 2010

This is almost embarrassing to admit. I'm 55K into a story, which should end up being 80K-90K total.

The long and short of the story is that my main character discovers the son he thought died a year ago is alive, and on the run from some Bad People (tm). Dad is trying to keep the boy (who is 12) alive, and figure out who took him and staged his death.

After the son 'died,' my main character went down a dark path of alcohol and depression, and even though he's straightened himself out by the time the boy shows back up, the mother moved out three months before the main action started.

I told you all that to get to this point: Father and son have been trying to get to mom, and dad secretly hopes the fact that the son is alive will rekindle her love, etc. when they're reunited. My plan has been to have her killed by one of the Bad People (tm) as the father and son get there, for them to witness it.

And now that I'm at the crucial scene, I have discovered that I CARE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST, and don't want to put them through her death.

A week ago I would have laughed at the thought of feeling emotions for a creation of my mind, and it's still silly enough to me to be embarrassed by the fact that I'm probably going to let her live.

It got me to thinking --- who else has changed their plot because they didn't want to throw a particular rock at one of their characters?

Maxinquaye · Jan 4, 2010

Welcome to the wonderful world of novel writing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnzHtm1jhL4

Happens sometimes. My characters are my imaginary friends

AryaT92 · Jan 4, 2010

I can't imagine that, haha. Even my main character based around myself ends up dying at the end of 20%...

Williebee · Jan 4, 2010

Good job. It won't be real to the reader until it's real to you.

Now, go kill mommy.

Stew21 · Jan 4, 2010

What Williebee said. Yep. Good job.

but you do have to put them through this stuff. go kill mommy, indeed.

Fredster · Jan 4, 2010

Before I kill her, I need to ask a question. The scene immediately after her death requires the boy to do something heroic to get them out of the situation (they're surrounded by cops, who think the father killed a cop earlier in the day (he didn't)).

And by 'immediately,' I mean literally seconds.

So...how realistic is it for a 12-year-old to witness his mother's very bloody death, and be able to step up and save the day 30 seconds later?

That's been niggling at me for a while, and now that I'm there I wonder if part of my reticence is due to that question, in addition to the concern for his father (I feel 'closer' to dad because his part is in first person; the son is just impetus for the father, if that makes sense).

Madison · Jan 4, 2010

One time I did save a character who was originally going to die -- and he just got badly hurt -- and actually the plot improved. He turned out to be a bigger part of the story than I'd ever thought, so it was a good thing he didn't die.

But... how important is this death to the rest of your plot? To the overall feel of the story? To character growth? Would a happy ending (aka no death) feel contrived?

But, flip side, if her death is necessary then don't shy away from something that makes you feel sad. Sad can be good.

evol_reed · Jan 4, 2010

While I routinely put my characters through all sorts of horrid things, I care about them deeply. What I find is that sometimes I will have an incidental character that decides to stick around and have a far bigger role than I ever intended.

Midnight Star · Jan 4, 2010

I definitely have feelings for my characters. I almost cried when I had to kill off one of them, but Tony, my muse, left me absolutely no choice. It was the only way the plot would work.

CaroGirl · Jan 4, 2010

My characters are very dear to me, but the story is more important. Hurting characters is like ripping off a Band-aid; you just have to do it, and do it quickly.

stormie · Jan 4, 2010

If you feel for your characters, most likely the reader will too. So kill her off.

Seriously, it will most likely draw the reader in more, as long as it takes the story forward in some way.

As for a 12-yr.-old stepping up to the plate after witnessing something so horrible, yeah, I can see it. But make sure you've made that character someone who would be able to do it. (For instance, maybe he's shy but tackles problems head-on. Or the type who can disassociate himself from an exceedingly bad situation yet cries when he stubs his toe. That little seed about his character should be planted in the story before time.)

Maxinquaye · Jan 4, 2010

Fredster said:
So...how realistic is it for a 12-year-old to witness his mother's very bloody death, and be able to step up and save the day 30 seconds later?

Kids are INCREDIBLY resilient. Honestly. And it looks like your kid has already gone through some shit. If he's run from Bad People, then he seems quite resourceful, and might not lock up when in danger. He'd react to it all afterwards.

Albannach · Jan 4, 2010

Caring is a good thing. I've cried as I killed characters I loved. Changing the plot because of it? Not so good. That means your readers WON'T cry.

Edit: What I question is a writer "mocking" other writers caring about their own characters. Why write about them if you don't care about them? I rather doubt many of us are good enough writers to make readers care about characters who WE don't care about. So you might want to give up your superior "mocking".

Fredster · Jan 4, 2010

Madison said:
But... how important is this death to the rest of your plot? To the overall feel of the story? To character growth? Would a happy ending (aka no death) feel contrived?

Honestly, she's nothing to the plot, other than someone the main character is still in love with. Getting the son to her has been one of the things driving him, but she only exists (other than a couple of scenes at the beginning) off-scene. Her death has been planned as nothing more than an ante-upper for the main character.

Having her live wouldn't feel as contrived as having them get back together. I don't see that happening at all.

I could injure her so that she needs to go to the hospital and can't go on with them. Having her alive doesn't change the story really, it just eases some of the pressure on the main character. Either way, the story could progress the same way, but with a lot less weepiness on their part.

The downside to injuring her is that there's another female character who will be injured and end up in the hospital, and I hate having two characters have the same ending in the story, if that makes sense. The second female has an active, pretty main role in the story, unlike mom.

cwfgal · Jan 4, 2010

From everything you've posted I have to side with the homicidal crew. Kill her. As for the boy's response, something that emotional is very likely to trigger intense feelings and adrenaline that can come out in any form...anger, fury, wailing, etc. Use that intensity in your scene but remember to give the boy some serious downtime afterward because he will be drained.

If you are reluctant to kill her in front of the two MCs, consider doing it off camera and having them find her body. Still emotional but maybe less traumatic.

Beth

Rushie · Jan 4, 2010

Yeah you have to kill her. If she lives and gets back together with the dad, I will be angry at her, because she abandoned him in his darkest hour of grief and is only a "fair weather" friend.

Also agree with the others about the boy, yes he can react that fast but do plant earlier that he is capable (action oriented, doesn't mess around in a crisis, whatever) and do need to have him react emotionally at some point afterward in an appropriately severe way to what he saw.

Samantha's_Song · Jan 4, 2010

Why would any of us laugh at you being upset over one of your characters getting hurt or killed and the other characters in mental anguish over it. If you can't feel solid emotions for the characters you've invested in, then the readers won't care about them either and that's not what you want.

Btw, I've chickened out of killing off a character before now, but I made her seriously hurt, nearly at death's door, in order to teach another character a lesson.

Fredster said:
And now that I'm at the crucial scene, I have discovered that I CARE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST, and don't want to put them through her death.

A week ago I would have laughed at the thought of feeling emotions for a creation of my mind, and it's still silly enough to me to be embarrassed by the fact that I'm probably going to let her live.

It got me to thinking --- who else has changed their plot because they didn't want to throw a particular rock at one of their characters?

Fredster · Jan 4, 2010

cwfgal said:
If you are reluctant to kill her in front of the two MCs, consider doing it off camera and having them find her body. Still emotional but maybe less traumatic.

The biggest reason for them to see it, beyond the rock-throwing, is that she'd have a chance to see that the son isn't dead. Sort of a closure, even if she's going to be dead in a few seconds.

Rushie said:
Yeah you have to kill her. If she lives and gets back together with the dad, I will be angry at her, because she abandoned him in his darkest hour of grief and is only a "fair weather" friend.

Trust me, even if she lived, I wouldn't get them back together. Way too cliche.

Z0Marley · Jan 4, 2010

Fredster said:
It got me to thinking --- who else has changed their plot because they didn't want to throw a particular rock at one of their characters?

=x
I've had my ENTIRE OUTLINE that I've worked on for two straight weeks completely ruined once I get mid-way through and my main character throws it away because he likes to do things his way. Not mine. Sounds crazy. I know. It's happened 3/4 books so far that he's been in.

As far as throwing rocks go, I love to make my characters go through hell. :evil

gothicangel · Jan 4, 2010

Sometimes characters have to die, it's the only way out.

Warning! I killed off the wife of my main character. Their relationship is incredibly fiery, the marriage is in the process of self-destruction, yet Ryan made the death scene incredibly hard for me to write. He even refused to go through the scene at one point [he has to switch of life support.]

Tip: use the agony in your writing it's a gift!

Alpha Echo · Jan 4, 2010

Fear not! I've had to change things b/c of the characters or fallen in love with them myself as well.

JJohns · Jan 4, 2010

Fredster said:
And now that I'm at the crucial scene, I have discovered that I CARE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST, and don't want to put them through her death.

A week ago I would have laughed at the thought of feeling emotions for a creation of my mind, and it's still silly enough to me to be embarrassed by the fact that I'm probably going to let her live.

It got me to thinking --- who else has changed their plot because they didn't want to throw a particular rock at one of their characters?

I throw rocks all the time without hesitation, even boulders. I kill off a some very important characters in my WIP. The way I see it, I'm telling their story because how they lived their lives, up to their deaths, is something from which the surviving characters (and hopefully readers) can learn. I see their deaths as the ultimate test for the other MCs, to see if they learned something from the dead characters. If they did, than the dead characters aren't completely dead (in my mind, at least).

ishtar'sgate · Jan 4, 2010

Fredster said:
And now that I'm at the crucial scene, I have discovered that I CARE ABOUT PEOPLE WHO DO NOT EXIST, and don't want to put them through her death.

It got me to thinking --- who else has changed their plot because they didn't want to throw a particular rock at one of their characters?

That's great. If you care so much you stand a greater chance of making readers care too. Stay the course though, if you think the story would be best served by letting her die. No, I don't change my plot unless it's a change for the better. Throwing rocks increases tension and that's usually a good thing. I've had to kill off characters I'd really rather let live but their death serves a purpose in the story so I do it anyway.

ChaosTitan · Jan 4, 2010

Fredster said:
It got me to thinking --- who else has changed their plot because they didn't want to throw a particular rock at one of their characters?

My plots pretty much require me to throw rocks, knives, and flaming swords at my characters.

MumblingSage · Jan 4, 2010

I've occasionally changed the plot to put my characters through even more crap, I've never gone and made it easier on them. With one exception: after crippling a character for life, I decided to make his post-book backstory (that might not be the right word, but in any event, it's something that would never be written anyway) a little easier. Otherwise, if I hurt a character badly, I just apologize and keep on writing.

And I do mean 'apologize'. It might be mock-worthy (or alarming), but I have a very, um, strong ties with my characters and communicate with them pretty openly. Oddly enough, I think it makes things like this easier. I might be hurting them in the story, but on the other hand in my mind they're still healthy and vibrant. And a little ticked off, but that passes.

I've gone and done one of those silly things I'd mock if someone else did.

Village idiot

That cheeky buggerer

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Village idiot

summertime...

We are once in a lifetime.

Living the dream

storm central

That cheeky buggerer

AW Addict

Village idiot

On the rocks

At least I don't need backing-up

Village idiot

Toughen up.

I should be writing.

living in the past

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