I have realized a recent trend through my current wip's. Violence and death. Yup. Happy, huh? In Thanet's Curse I'm having the issue with my characters killing people without regret or any serious moral "hm, maybe I shouldn't kill this guy?" It's very weird. Especially because I'm not a big fan of murder. But seriously, the one girl, Damaria, kills like it's her hobby, and Nadra has these spikes of anger that are just plain dangerous.
No, Nadra doesn't look like this.
But sometimes I do.
The reason behind this is I get very annoyed at movies/books/sandwhiches that show murder like this:
BadGuy: Go ahead, shoot me!
Heroine: I will (hands shake while holding weapon/gun/zap stick)
BadGuy: No you won't!
Heroine: I can do whatever I want! (Hands BadGuy gun.) And I want to not kill you.
BadGuy: Swell. (shoots Heroine/Hero)
This type of scene tends to get me screaming "Shoot 'em in the leg! Shoot 'em in the leg!" Seriously, their leg can heal and that way they won't continue to train monkeys to steal every can of peanut butter in the galaxy. Thus, my scenes tend to look like this:
BadGal: Go ahead, shoot me!
Hero: Sure (shoots BadGal in leg).
See? Simple, easy... But when it's the five-billionth time Hero/Heroine has given up without a fight... I worry. I do have the excuse of it being in a world of fantasy, where maybe murder isn't looked down upon with the same fervor. But. Um. No. A girl kills her father (by accident) in self-defense and she gets banished for so many years. Yup. People still take it as serious as bananas. And bananas are pretty serious.
Feel the seriousness ooze out at you. Bwoogaly-Bwoogaly!
What about you guys? Have you ever had to deal with death in books? Do you find it easy to kill? Even FUN too kill? I mean, not really kill, because than I would have to have the popo hunt yo face down. (On a side note, fortunately I haven't started basing to-be-killed characters off of real life customers. I haven't lost it too badly.)
He, on the other hand, has lost it
*shudders*
11 comments:
My characters only kill for good and noble reasons. ::snickers:: No, not really. :)
One of my villains is a psychopath. He kills for the sheer pleasure of it and masks it with weak ideas of vengeance. One of my villains has a twisted sense of nobility and only kills out of his "moral" code.
I have a hero who kills by accident, the first time. The second time she means it--but it's to protect her family, her children.
I do have a problem with characters, any characters, killing for no reason. But, like you, I have serious issues with heroes giving up to the bad guy without a fight. Seriously? Not in this universe? Not me. I'd fight.
But then, I've got a lot to fight for. :)
Hmm how to answer this.
Death is certainly a frequent caller to my writing.
One of my main characters kills a number of times, essentially in self defence. What she finds disturbing is how much easier it gets to take a life each time she does it.
I on the other hand would make a terrible killer, I find myself in tears every time I kill on of my significant characters.
Al
Publish or Perish
I just can't bring myself to kill a character. hard enough to talk about someone who's died a violent death.
And I love your profile.
~ Rayna
Okay, here's the thing... If I don't kill off my characters and let them live peaceful lives with warm fuzzy feelings, I might just have to retch.
If I am building up and building up and I've got two factions facing off and suddenly one just shrugs and says, "Okay, you win. You could beat us up." I'd really have to kill someone. (ok no not really)
My theory is this. I could never, ever kill in real life. However, death surrounds us. In books, in television, in movies and in real life. I let my characters do the killing. You don't even have to go into detail (however, details can be quite amusing. Did I say amusing? Ahem.) you can leave people hanging, with the impression someone has just died.
Sadly, I do enjoy killing my characters. I don't do it repeatedly, that'd be overkill. Get it? XD Yes, it's late and I'm loopy. ;)
I don't have a hard time with it. I find it intriguing but the ending must end with the good winning all.
i'm pretty pro murder death kill, but i find i actually don't write it all that much. which is weird.
I think it comes down to needing most of my characters to move the plot forward so i can't kill them.
OR...i could...and see where it takes me...
Writing murders isn't my strength, but I like reading a good one! It helps to see a villian that I would normally never expect do the unthinkable.
Now I'm REALLY locking my doors at night!
Yes, this is me making my late night/early morning blog run and I WILL make random comments on EVERY post of yours that I read! mwa hahahaha!
VW: vitonto - "What's a Tonto!?"
Ah, inside jokes. Good times.
@Cheri: Haha... psycho path villains are always fun.
@Al: I think that's a good thing (that you'd make a terrible killer). ;)
@Rayna: Thanks for stopping by! :D I can totally understand not wanting to kill people. When writing you get attached to people as if they're real, cause in some sense they ARE real.
@Caledonia Lass: Don't worry, I love loopy comments. And I love your puns.
That's why I tend to write about the Darker Side of Life, because life can be dark, and it's in our face ALL the time.
Christine: Good point. Having good endings are important.
Falen: Haha... I am so tempted to write a book where every chapter is a new character because the last one was killed off. I think I would annoy people to death with it, though.
@Tamika: Thanks for stopping by :D Writing good death scenes can be mad hard. I was re-reading over one of mine and realized how corny it was. Bleh.
@Sonshine: Please do. I love your random comments.
And: Ahahahahahaha... Tonto.
I am always pro-murder and mayhem in my fiction. I actually created a serial killer and you know, that's what they do...kill...a lot.
But seriously, why did you put a clown in your post?! I...hate...clowns!
I don't know. After I hit the button to publish my post all I could think of was "What have I done?" Although, I suppose Clowns = Death, so it was appropriate to the blog title.
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