Leaving the Comfort Zone
Monday, March 24th, 2008
I began reading a fantasy trilogy early last year and in the first book I became rather attached to one character. She wasn’t a major character – at least not at the level she should have been after the first book – but I identified with her all the same and looked forward to the chapters with her in it.
I finished the first book, then the second, and hoped that in the third book, there would be something great for her. Her own happy ending. Unfortunately for me, she was (quite literally) ripped apart toward the end of the book along with her lover.
Needless to say, I was a bit upset and nauseated at the turn of events.
As a reader, I felt a bit pissed off for a while, but the writer in me emerged eventually and calmed me down. See, the writer in me recognized the brilliance of the move. Of course it would be more potent to kill her and her lover off because first, she was expendable, and second, it just might get the reader to feel something.
Goal accomplished.
Writing within your comfortable boundaries might satisfy your grandmother and Uncle Dick, but it won’t get your reader to feel much or take anything away from the story once s/he is done reading. (That’s assuming you’re talented enough to keep their attention through an entire story.)
The quote “Kill your darlings� is actually a lot better advice than you might think. In fact, it might be one of the more important pieces of advice you’ll ever hear.
If you need a little exercise in the killing department, take a character you like from your current work in progress and create a scene in which s/he dies. Violently. If anyone thinks you’re a bit off, you can tell them I told you to do it.
