A Very Sad Update.

So I think it’s well known that I hate killing off characters, but if I think it is needed in the plot, then I do so. For the final draft, I will get around to killing off a certain main character that I refused to kill off in the previous drafts. It just seemed ridiculous to me that they stayed alive, really. I only kept them alive because of how scared I was to kill them. It changes the plot of the second book slightly, but it’s important that it happens. Otherwise, it’s not realistic and the whole point of the story is not as compelling.

I REALLY hate myself for doing this. The fans will probably hate me just as much, but I can live with that.

To end this off nicely, for the final draft, I will finally do what I proudly proclaimed I would do initially. Now, half of the book is from the protagonist’s perspective and the other half is from the antagonist’s perspective.

Basically, what I’m telling you is that there is now no antagonist or protagonist. There are just warring sides. And really, that’s what I should have done all along.

Gabriel, out.

Writing Deaths

As many people are not writers, I feel like explaining the thought process of a writer after writing a death of a character. Contrary to popular belief, we do not thrive on the thought of ourselves as an evil god of destruction while doing it. Ok, maybe a little, but there’s way more to it. So here it is, the written description, at least what happens to me:

Stage 1: The Grim Reaper. The writer has not yet actually written this scene, but is plotting this character’s demise. The writer does this not for shock sake, but mostly because they need to die. That’s one of the cores to a fantasy book, I think… someone has to die.

Stage 2: The Procrastinator. So now the writer actually has to write this death down. But, depending on whether they’ve written a death before or not, they avoid it. We remember what happened to us the last time we wrote someone’s death.

Stage 3: The Death Note. Now they must do the deed – someone must die. And now it is their time to write that death in all its emotional, traumatic detail. Every word feels like blood pouring from your pen, but it must be done.

Stage 4: The God Complex. You’ve done it. You’ve killed your own creation.

Stage 4: The Banshee. Then comes the stage that almost no one knows about, the mourning stage. We mourn for our characters. We typically feel like we just killed our own child. We sort of did. And that’s what makes us feel like a disgusting monster.

Stage 5: The Guardian Angel. We desperately attempt to find a way to keep this person alive. There must be a way! We must be able to save them! There must be some way to bring back the dead!

Stage 6: The Accepter. You realize that there’s really no way to keep them alive. When you said there was no other way originally, you meant it. And now you know that your readers will think you’re an awful person for all this. But no, you’re not a monster. You’re just a writer.

So, for those who have written books before, what happens to YOU with writing deaths?