I'm going to make an effort to update daily during this month, in part to keep you updated if you care, but mostly to hold myself accountable both for blogging and for writing.
Autumn of Discord was coming along quite swimmingly last night. I did a couple of word wars with a friend (I love word wars, because they force me to focus instead of simply dicking around on the interwebs and not writing) and got to just past my word count goal for the day. Something that I do always keep in mind during NaNoWriMo is that yes-- when I word war, the majority of what I am writing is stream-of-consciousness and will very likely be edited to pieces. But I am getting words down on paper for the first time in a very long while; I am keeping my general sense of focus; and, most importantly, I have the information should I need it later. I am very much a member of the "better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it" school of thought (something evidenced by my closet, as well as my suitcase whenever I pack to go anywhere-- right Becca?). I can always cut something out that I don't need and save it in another document in case it comes up as necessary elsewhere, or is needed for backstory information.
I did, however, come to a rather startling realization last night.
I have to kill people in this book.
I'm generally not a killing-people sort of writer. I like fluffy happy endings and rainbows and sunshine and daisies. But this quartet is about, in short, what happens when a country and it's ruler are plunged into a war for which neither are prepared. (Oh my heavens, did I just sum up my entire quartet in one sentence?? There may be hope for me in the summary-slash-synopsis-writing department after all.) People are going to die. It is a fact when dealing with war. And it would be a cop-out for no one important to die, and I do my best to avoid cop-outs in my writing for the simple fact that it irritates me when I see them in other books, and I try not to be a hypocrite.
Operative word being "try", of course.
Thankfully, the killing does not happen for about ten more chapters or so-- at least, the killing of the important person or persons (I shan't tell which). Until then I can happily kill randoms because I don't know their names, faces, or families.
Back tomorrow.
Do it to it, lady!
ReplyDeleteI find that killing a character is at once distressing and freeing. If that makes any sense at all.
Being able to breathe life into a fully-melded person and then also give it a final stop is enlightening, as the process reveals to you what you think about that character and his/her death, and it also strengthens your storytelling ability. Life gives and takes away, and I believe as writers we should endeavor to do the same, as we are wont to aspire to be the great folklorists of Life anyway, right?
Hopefully this will be a challenging and overall enjoyable (is that really the right word..?) experience for you.
The importance with killing characters if that they need to be the right ones to kill off. Sometimes I get mad at JKR for killing off Fred instead of, say Percy, because (and I know people are going to harp on me for this) while Fred's death is gutting, I feel like if Percy had died, his death would have been even more gutting since he never would have gotten the chance to mend the fences with his family.
ReplyDeleteYou can do it! I can even lend you Death if you want!