(A poem about two people. One is always passing out for a nap while the other struggles to sleep. Why do these types always find each other?)
Crisscrossed pair
Sharing the same bed
One can rarely find relief
Recovering from the day
The other passes out with ease
After napping during day
They barely get along
When the moon is up
The Snoozer takes her time
Flicking lights
And slamming doors
Ignoring the Exhausted’s pleas
Eventually they sleep
The Snoozer out in seconds
As if she has not slept in days
The Exhausted fights too long
Struggling for a blanker mind
While getting nudged away
Every morning
Upon the stroke of six
A battle rages on
Each one wanting to sleep in
Claiming more fatigue
Though the Snoozer has her naps
I was going to be serious and some of these suggestions will be in that category. Yet I find myself in a silly mood, which means we’ll see what happens. So what are some things to consider when killing off a main character?
Make sure the readers will care. If a central character dies and there’s no reaction then something went wrong. Maybe you forgot to include them in the previous parts of the book? Perhaps you forgot to explain what the character’s purpose was besides getting shanked in the giblets. Either way, you might want some beta readers to make sure this doesn’t happen.
Have it be memorable. Nobody likes a forgettable death scene.
Have it be simple. Only so many ‘life story’ speeches a character can do with a gaping chest wound. Unless they’re in a Metal Gear game and then they seem to have all the time in the damn world.
Irony can be fun when killing a villain. Though I might be thinking of blatant foreshadowing too. I can’t quite remember what irony is exactly because I’m part of the generation who listened to a popular song that muddied the term.
Sacrificial deaths are great, but don’t overdo them. Also make sure the sacrifice is real and important. For example, don’t have a character run the bomb into the enemy forces that are invading a space station when the others are standing near a button that decouples the parts that the enemy has taken. Just hit the damn button.
You don’t have to kill a character to make them suffer. Villains seem to enjoy torturing and it can be more interesting to see a character rise from the ashes. After all, dead characters don’t evolve.
Be careful resurrecting characters and establish the possibility beforehand. Don’t do it if the only reason is because readers are mad at you.
Please make sure people know a character is dead, especially villains during the climactic fight scene. If the reader has to ask you if that was a death blow or wonder where the bad guy went, you slipped up somewhere. Of course, this can be ignored if your intention is to leave the character’s fate a mystery.
Today’s teaser introduces a new character who may be just what Clyde needs to survive War of Nytefall: Savagery. He’s a denizen of Mestra, which meant I wasn’t always sure where I wanted to go with him. Since Mestra was always going to be a one-time location, I let things go where they wanted, including this guy. Enjoy.
This would be the second city that Luke Callindor, Nyx, and their friends visit in Prodigy of Rainbow Tower. Rodillen is sometimes called Two-Faced City because it has an outer facade of a typical port city and the true face of a place run by thieves.
There is a mayor, a judge, and a guard captain who do their jobs like those of any other city. The difference is that they’re entirely corrupt and exist to give Rodillen a semblance of order/normalcy. Without these people, there would be nobody to function between the populace and the guild. It mostly when a stranger breaks a law that these people come into play and show that justice can be served here. It’s all a show and it tends to revolve around a visiting warrior killing a thief in self-defense. They make sure to have some of the accused be found ‘not guilty’ to keep up appearances.
As stated, the true power is in the thieves’ guild who have their hideout beneath the surface. They are run by a Guild Master who takes a share of every theft and spends most of his or her time watching for danger to the guild. These are the ones who make the laws and pull the strings when events have to unfold a certain way. It’s been shown that Guild Masters with extreme ambition tend to cause trouble as there have been many who nearly brought the guild to ruin by reaching too high. So there is also the position of Barbed Whip who is a thief that is given the freedom to openly defy, criticize, and argue with the Guild Master. After a year, this person can even call for a vote to remove a leader if they can prove that they are a danger to the guild. By remove, I mean they publicly announce that an assassination will happen unless the rejected leader gets out of town.
Note: The guild is not typically cruel even if you think that after reading Prodigy of Rainbow Tower. It simply had a greedy jerk of a Guild Master who was recruiting children and selling the failures to various organizations. He had been in charge for almost a year and was on his way to be revoked.
So you might be wondering why a city like this exists within the kingdom of Serab. Well, there are a few reasons that Duke Solomon won’t destroy the thieves’ guild and retake Rodillen:
It’s been tried before and the guild returned soon after the royal guards left. It was seen as a waste of manpower.
The guild has proven to be a valuable source of information and, in times of war, willing spies.
Many thieves gravitate toward the guild. Without this organization, these people would be spread across the land and might set up multiple guilds.
Rodillen actually pays its kingdom taxes on time and the guild has even been known to help citizens pay off debts. This is to keep the royal guards and money collectors from showing up, but it’s made it that the city is 100% debt free.
(Post from long ago that started the Animal posts. Way back in 2022 as well.)
So, I was in a classroom and noticed a poster. I’d seen it before multiple times, but a new thought clicked in my head:
There are only 7 species of sea turtles?
I always thought there were more than that, but I only remembered a few. No, there are only 7 and nearly all of them are endangered. 3 are critical! Primarily due to what humans are doing such as fisheries, pollution, and overhunting. So, I thought I would post a picture of each one. I hope I got one of each since you can’t really tell if the Image Search was being honest or not.
If you want to read up on sea turtles then HERE is the World Wildlife Federation site.
Oh, here’s the NOAA Fisheries site that shows what you can do to help sea turtles.
Don’t really know how to start this one since it was another crazy week. It was primarily work, appointments, and my son’s birthday. There was a window where I could have gotten some writing done, but things came up like they always do. By the middle of the week, I was so exhausted that I mostly stared at my outlines to see if there was anything that no longer worked.
I did manage to get one page of Darwin & the Deadland Queen done. I had hoped that I would get more time throughout the week, but that didn’t happen. Looking over chapter 3, I did find that one of the sections was clunky. I put it in solely to have some cameos, which weren’t necessary to moving the story. Going to chop that out and put what I needed from the section into the one I’m working on. The entire point of chapter 3 is for Darwin and his new companions to cross a border, which was going to be dramatic for a bit. It might be funnier if they arrive at the fort and they’re simply let through for some bizarre reason. Either one of the new companions has a pass or there’s a message to let Darwin through, which could create a mystery.
The finale is still churning in my head too. What I have for the current final book really doesn’t work anymore. The penultimate, which was the original finale, is a much better conclusion. I’m going to rewrite it to utilize a few concepts and characters from the one I’m ditching. Won’t have to do that until I finish writing the current book, which is going to take longer than expected. I have to put the finale out of my mind though if I want to finish chapter 3 this weekend.
In other news, my son turned 17 this week and not much has changed. He’s still very willful and has a habit of fixating on things. We are butting heads a bit more as he starts planning his future. The usual teenager thing of thinking they’re more mature and wise than they really are. Come to believe everyone remains an idiot throughout their life, so full wisdom is unattainable. Not saying this to my son though. I’m just telling him to step back and think before making a decision. Plus side, he’s finally able to do the laundry with only minimal guidance from me. Sort of . . . He found a setting on the machines that nobody knew about and he can’t remember how to get to. Nothing blew up, shrunk, or leaked, so it’s all good.
This was week 4 of 6 with the summer school, so I’m beyond the halfway point. Two more weeks to go and then 1.5 weeks before I’m back to work. Not much of a break and I don’t know how much writing I’ll get done in that time. Part of it will be a father/son trip, but one of the days he wants to use for drawing. I’ll try to get either some book writing or Coven of the Gray tinkering done. The trip won’t be that long, so I might not get to do much done. I might have to see how far I am in Darwin & the Deadland Queen too since I’ll get some time to write prior to the trip. If writing means starting a new chapter then I might not touch it since it could be a while before I get back to it. Be nice if I get even luckier and finish Coven of the Gray soon too. Fingers crossed.
I won’t expect much from this week after Sunday. There are appointments every day, except Tuesday, which I promised to do a lot with my son. I might have a small writing window on Monday and Friday evening, so that could allow for one section. A big factor will be stress because two of the appointments are going to be tense. The ongoing life event isn’t helping either. I really need to sit my son down and discuss how we can spend time and get our projects done when he’s here. Not to mention getting Pokemon time in, especially if there are events. The joy of a balancing act, which doesn’t even factor in that I’m back to doing some cooking and am battling exhaustion.
Speaking of fatigue, I need to admit that I’m running on fumes. Been waking up feeling like I barely slept even with CPAP and Zzzquil. Noticing the things on my headboard are shifting a lot, so I’m definitely tossing and turning. I wake up with parts of my body locked up and a sense of impending doom, which means panic attack. This tells me that my mind and body aren’t processing stress correctly. This coming week isn’t going to do me any favors, so I need to start making a relaxation plan for when a few things are settled. I have no idea what that will be, but this is a big reason why I’m worn down by 10 PM every night. I can’t do any writing or thinking if I only get 30 minutes to myself.
So, what are the goals of the week?
Enjoy a block party at a friend’s place.
Write more of Darwin & the Deadland Queen.
Tinker with Coven of the Gray. Rain might help here.
Get extra sleep when possible.
Handle appointments, which are mostly for my son.
Make sweet and sour meatball subs on Monday.
Go to work every day of the week.
Find a place to stash an incoming order of One Piece Lego sets since I’m still working on Minas Tirith.
I talk about having outlines and making plans before I write. These act like a ‘baby draft’ and make the creation of a first draft smoother. At least to me. It’s this part of my writing system that makes me a Plotter, which is a term I never heard until 2013. Yet there is some Pantser stuff in the details when I get to the actually writing. I also seem to hit that point and never mention the outlining stage. So here we go:
Character biographies and write ups can help. I tend to start with a basic role then add a name and then write a paragraph. This includes goals, role, description, a few subplots that turn up, etc. This is actually entirely off the cuff and it helps create more meat for the overall story. For example, some personal rivalries and habits that will be appearing in the vampire series came about from these biographies. So did the Kira/Luke/Sari thing when I designed Kira.
I prefer to divide each chapter into 2-4 scenes and write a line for each one. Just basic concept of what I’m aiming for in that scene. The details appear while I write and I might even switch characters if it works better. I’ve found that I do these outlines for every book in a series before I start. Though I might only do it for the first 2-3 of the longer ones.
It doesn’t hurt to change the plan and I remember this from the beginning. It’s really better to have too much and chop things down than to not have too much and try to fill stuff in without harming the useful stuff. A subplot might get dropped, two scenes might work best as one, something might be unneeded, a previous book changes the future outlines, etc. I tend to look over the next outline as soon as I finish a book to see how they match up. Then I do a repair and rewrite for a day or two. Most stuff tends to stay, but other things get switched around. Then again, I already know that Book 11 is going to need a major overhaul.
Notes, notes, and more notes on everything.
It doesn’t hurt to stop and flush out something that needs more details. I do this a lot with specific creatures and magical stuff in my books. A big reason for this is that I never know if this will be used again. With so many series, it’s entirely possible for these things to pop up more than once.
Timelines can help. I actually don’t use these, but I know many who do. Sorry I’m not much help here.
PERSONAL PREFERENCE: Making the outlines and notes by hand seems to work best. Lower chance of losing the information as long as you keep fire and liquids away from the books. When writing the books, I use the laptop and work quickly. I let the established plan take me away and my fingers run along the keyboard. The outlines push me into another part of my mind, so it goes slower and doing it by hand makes it clearer. Again, that’s just me.
So, do you have any rituals or plans that you do before diving into the actual book-writing?
(I think most people know someone who will get the TV remote and then channel surf the whole time. They won’t give up control even though they don’t know what they want to watch. You either have to remain captive or go do something else. Gets rough when they stop on a bad show or movie for some reason.)
Every household has one
That the others come to fear
The one with a no track mind
And a flea’s attention span
It creates a nightly race
To get the precious remote
God forbid you lose
They change channels
In search of something
That they cannot explain
Passing shows worth watching
And movies rarely seen
Not listening to the family
Who wish they would go pee
Eventually they stop
On a show that no one wants
And they cannot explain
Roaming with every break
Never returning in time
Making the unwanted show
Even worse to view
The evening carries on
With no release in sight
They maintain control
As the shows get worse
The others start to fade
Giving up their seats
To go and read a book
(Originally posted on March 13, 2015. Seems to be a variation of the ‘Ye Olde Shoppe’ posts. A little clunky though.)
Donald Duck
So what seems to be the trouble? Your hero went too dark and lost the shoulder angel? It happens when you’re too rough with them. Guessing you pushed a little too hard and the poor thing couldn’t move on. Did you have a replacement? That’s a shame, but it’s not the end of the story. We can fiddle with your hero to get him on the right track. How’s your villain doing? Not a scratch. That might make things easier. Let me take a like in the old chestnut.
I see part of the problem. You took all of the motivation and controls off the hero. It can work if your story allows for him to go dark, but you just drove him into the ground. Now you can do a few things with this. The easiest ways are to have him go villain, henchman, or feral while introducing a new hero. It’s not unheard of and it takes less effort that dragging him out of the abyss. Many people do this. Let’s not mention comic books here. Great fun, but those characters can switch sides at the switch of a writer. They’re consistent in their inconsistency, which is how they last for so long. Bitter? Maybe, but that’s neither here nor there. We need to fix this guy up. What’s your choice?
Since you want a repair, I should point out the other issue. You never gave this guy any downtime or stable happy moments. All I see here is misery, fighting, and things being taken away. You were going for a gritty anti-hero, right? Well that’s great as long as you don’t go over the edge. They still need a slightly noble goal, a friend or two even if they don’t reciprocate, or something to keep them as a hero. You’ve had this guy go on vengeful massacres, lose two wives to accidents, and forced to kill five of his own children. Why do you keep bringing his mother back and killing her off? Do you have any idea what you’re doing? Even a character’s psychology can be broken. At the very least, your story is a mess and this guy is embodiment of that.
Here’s what I’m going to do. I’ll keep your hero for a week and remove a lot of the trauma that you caused. In fact, I’m going to take all of it out and let you choose the three pieces that I put back in. You’re going to take this coupon and go to my aunt’s boutique. She designs happy events for characters. Buy some and have at least one with the ‘unbreakable insurance’. That stops you from messing with it. After you do this, go home and rewrite your story. This is only a suggestion though. You can ignore me, do what you want, and break this guy again. If you do then know that I charge extra for customers who repeatedly break their toys. See you in a week, kid.
Here is a teaser from War of Nytefall: Ravenous. I figure it’s a time for Nadia Sylvan to get a scene. Check out the full book for the whole story. Feel free to leave a review too. Those are more precious than gold and infinitely harder to find.
Legends of Windemere 