 Drama: August 22, 2012 Issue [#5202] |
  Drama
This week: Character Deaths by Writers’ Pens Edited by: Joy  
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"All stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you."
Ernest Hemingway
"I meant to write about death, only life came breaking in as usual"
Virginia Woolf
"I am convinced that the most compelling fiction has death hovering over the Lead throughout."
James Scott Bell
"The treatment of death...is nourished much more on observation, and has a variety about it which suggests that the novelist finds it congenial.... By the time his characters die, he understands them, he can be both appropriate and imaginative about them--strongest of combinations."
Barnaby Conrad
Hello, I am Joy , this week's drama editor. In this issue, we'll discuss the acceptable ways we can send our characters to their timely or untimely deaths..
Note: In the editorial, I refer to third person singular as he, to also mean the female gender, because I don't like to use they or he/she.
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Welcome to the Drama newsletter
How often do you kill your characters? Which ones? Minor characters? Lead characters? How do they meet their deaths?
I faced a certain form of these questions during November 2009 while writing for the NaNoWriMo. I killed one of the lead characters possibly because the month was ending and I thought I needed to wrap up the story in a clear-cut fashion. Since I haven't come around to rewriting any of the NaNo Work yet  , that killing still bothers me. I feel the character I did away with had so much more to give to the story, and possibly that story didn't quite finish at 50 K words anyway. I don't advise anyone to do what I did, for it is, in fact, taking the short way out, where the writer's craft does not rise above the writing level of an average middle-school student.
Still, it may be a good thing that the characters we kill are the ones we care about either positively or negatively. Who can argue with the Greek tragedies and those of Shakespeare where many of the characters, even the main characters, die inside or at the end of the plays? Then who can find fault with the plot and the killing of the protagonists in Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities or Alice Sebold's Lovely Bones?
Death makes readers experience strong emotions because, to most of us, the end of life is a terrible thing, especially if the world the character lives in is in a mêlée, which could be an actual war or an ongoing battle. It could also be a conflict inside the character, a clash within his family, a fight against his adversaries, or a skirmish in the group in which he belongs.
On the other hand, too many killings can cause people to become desensitized to the idea, making readers like me who are a bit on the cowardly side avoid reading such violent fiction.
Nevertheless, some insist that a novel will be more successful if it contains at least one solid death. All the thirteen finalists for Man Booker Prize in 2011 had the common theme of putting to death their main characters. Go figure!
Taking off from the award winners, let's list a few feasible options for killing our characters.
 Kill if, inside the plot, a strong motivation points to killing the character: if he's too hurtful to others; if he's too desperate; if he's a real downer and a killjoy; if his job in the story is finished and you don't know where to send him next. Remember a character's suicide is killing, too.
Kill if this character's death furthers the story or introduces a new twist to the plot.
Do not only kill the bad guys, since death deals an even hand in real life.
It is a good idea to give the readers an advance warning that death is a constant threat in the story's universe, especially if you're going to kill off a likable character or the main character.
It is a better idea to do away with a character toward or at the end of a story, when the death is justifiable. Those who have watched Boardwalk Empire on HBO may recall Jimmy Carmody's shooting by the very man who raised him.
You might opt for killing or suicide if the character is at the end of his ropes such as Martin Eden by Jack London.
Remember that character killings happen in the actual plot. If the events of the plot occur after the death of a certain character, then the death belongs to the backstory, unless the character is still active as a ghost. For the same token, if you bring a dead character to life, it is as if you have never killed him. After all, people are not cartoons like Tom and Jerry or the Road Runner who do not die when a piano falls on their heads.
As readers, we are mostly saddened or disappointed with a character's death, then in some cases, we welcome it. Character deaths create key dramatic moments, so it may be worth our while to approach them with care.
Until next time... 
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Your Drama Newsletter Editors: NickiD89  kittiara Joy
Thank you for reading our newsletters and for supplying the editors with feedback and encouragement.
This Issue's Tip: Once you have established the conflict, search for and find the emotion underlying it to give depth to your story.
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 Reading Recommendation: A book with drama
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If you have a recommendation, a few words on a book or a product review, send it to me or to this newsletter. I'll highlight it here.
Mara ♣ McBain 
Great NL on plot twists! I love when a story takes me by surprise and the joy of thinking back to what clues were laid out for me. 
Thanks, Mara.
True, most twists take off from the clues inside the story, especially from those in the beginning.
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pinkbarbie
Hi, this newsletter is very useful. I too believe that twists make very good stories.
Thank you, Double A.
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Tasia714
Hello, I enjoyed this part about twist and turns. I am in the middle of writing a story (as usual) and I found your newsletter inspiring.
Thank you, too, Tasia. I'm glad the NL was inspiring.
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StephBee 
Joy I love your idea of using the unexpected plot twist. Great food for thought.
Thanks for the feedback, Steph.
You are certainly a master in the plot-twists department.
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yotekai
This was a very helpful newsletter--I wish I could save it on here for future reference! :)
Thank you, Paige.
You can access all the past newsletters here:
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Shannon 
Aw, thank you so much for including my story in this week's editor's pics. Another informative NL, Joy. Thank you!
Thank you, too, Shannon.
You know I'm quite a fan of your stories.
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Ẃeβ࿚ẂỉԎḈĥ 
Great Newsletter, Joy! Very good pointers on how to develop plot twists that will take the boring, predictability out of the story. You also emphasize the need to be believable in the resolve of a conflict in the plot. That's an important thing for an author to remember. 
~WW
Thanks, WW.
I agree. Even in the most far-out story-world, everything has to fit the rules of that world, thus the need to be believable.
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"What a Nightmare!" [13+]
Nightmares do the job.
Yes, Big Bad Wolf, nightmares can be what is needed.
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