WIP Challenge Check-in, Day 1 -- Wednesday

[linaewen]

Hello on Wednesday, the first day of a new month and the halfway point our our writing week! What kind of a writing day has it been today? Or, if you haven't gotten down to writing yet, how did it go yesterday?

• I thought about my fic once or twice
• I wrote
• I did some planning and/or research
• I edited
• I've sent my fic off to my beta
• I posted today!
• I'm taking a break
• I did something else that I'll talk about in a comment

 

Discussion:  Have you ever killed off a major character in one of your stories?  If so, was it planned from the beginning?  Something unplanned but that you realized would be a good idea at some point?  How did your readers deal with that character's death?  Was it obvious to them that it was coming or was it unexpected?

Comments

[linaewen]

Much of my writing is centered on keeping characters alive who are dead in canon, but I did kill off a major OC at one point. It came up unexpectedly; I hadn't planned on it at all, but once the idea occurred to me, I knew it was a good thing for the story and fitting for the further development of the main character -- in spite of being very fond of the OC. I think it was a surprise to my readers, but they seemed to appreciate it properly!

[the_rck]

I've done some writing already today, and it's not even noon where I am. I'm struggling with a sex scene. I don't want to go into great detail as I write it, but I need enough for the character development to work.

I haven't killed anybody off yet. No, that's not quite true. I had one Chronicles of Amber fic that was set after a funeral. I'm just not sure that counts since the character in question died off screen, before the story. I do have a WIP that will involve major character death by the time it's done. I don't know when I'll get to that particular story, though. I'm kind of stuck on it at the moment, and this other story is moving along briskly.

[insignia]

I tend to avoid killing major characters unless it's necessary for the story (or it's fanfic about a canon death). Even when I do plan to kill someone off I tend to change my mind before I get there. I remember two stories I wrote a long time ago where major characters died, but one of them became a ghost, and the other kept getting resurrected (it was kind of his thing). I think I'm too easily-depressed to write tragedies most of the time.

[samuraiter]

I used to go through characters, both canon and not, like a buzzsaw, but I've really mellowed out as I've gotten older, and I'm usually keeping busy having them get it on, rather than killing them, haha. But! I made a point of paying extra attention to those death scenes, and the readers I had at the time appreciated it (and were often surprised by it, though, if you kill a lot of characters, it starts to get predictable).

re: character death

[theresa_ramseyer]

I have killed characters, but it's obviously way into the future, or in another timeline. I have enough trouble torturing them enough, and I don't want to write woman-in-the-refrigerator.