Killing characters: Why some horrible deaths are okay and some are not

I don’t know why you’d be reading this if you haven’t watched the last episode of Game of Thrones, but just in case you haven’t and don’t want to be spoiled, please, stop reading. Game of Thrones seems to be the only thing I want to talk about lately, so I might as well take advantage and write about it, hopefully get some interesting discussion on the subject.

A few weeks ago, I ranted at Shonda Rhimes because of McDreamy’s death (STILL NOT OVER THAT). If anything, last night’s Game of Thrones episode nine we all knew it was coming and yet we still hate it death was much more horrifying, not only in the execution, but also in regards to the storyline. A man dying while trying to help others is heroic, even if McDreamy’s death was stupid and unnecessary. A child being burned alive by her father because a priestess insists she needs royal blood to make sure they win the battle to come is just…stupid.

But it works.

It works, because, in this world that Game of Thrones has built for us, these things happen. No one is perfectly good or perfectly evil, and characters we respected, like Stannis, can do incomprehensible things. It works, in a way it didn’t in Grey’s Anatomy, because the Derek Shepherd that we knew and loved wouldn’t have gone back for his stupid cell-phone only to get run over in the middle of an otherwise deserted street.

The unthinkable sometimes make more sense than the seemingly ordinary. Especially when it’s well written.

Of course, there’s also the fact that I could see Shireen’s death coming a mile away. I tried to ignore my instincts, because some things are too horrible to consider, but the foreshadowing was there. In fact, the foreshadowing was so strong that, after the episode, I was left to think that, as angry as we all felt that she was dead, we would have felt cheated if she’d survived.

We don’t have to like all stories. We don’t have to agree with what the writers give us. But, if the writing is good, more often than not, we’ll at least have to bow our head and say: Fine, I can accept that. It makes sense.

That’s the difference between a horrible death and an awful one. The writers. Good writing can tell almost any story. You hear that, Shonda? Almost any story. 

Top 10 misconceptions about writing

1.  It’s easy. Oh, how I wish. In truth, it takes research, reading, planning, charts, floor plans, and lots of editing. (Like…when I say lots, I mean …LOTS. Months and months and months)
2. You need to wait for inspiration to strike. Not so. If you wait for inspiration, then you only write like once a week, if that. No, writers approach this as a job. You train your mind to work, just like you’d train your body for a marathon. And, after a while, inspiration is only a plus.
3. Writing and reading are separate. Writers are, first of all, readers. If you don’t read you can’t write. At least not efficiently, not in a way that reaches your readers, not in a way that changes things. For that you need to read.
4. The more words you use, the better the story. More often than not, the opposite is true. Most writers can express an idea in fifty words, but only a really good writer can express the same idea in fifteen, ten, or even five. Brevity is, after all, the soul of wit.
5. Writers are born, not made. I like to think it’s a combination of both. I know some extremely talented people who, recognizing their gifts, have refused to dedicated the time and effort that being a writer requires, and have remained mediocre, and I know less talented people who’ve transformed into brilliant writers by sheer force of will. Like any special talent or ability, you can get better at writing. All you have to do is work on it, and then work on it some more.
6. Truly skilled writers don’t need to edit. LIES, I TELL YOU. ALL LIES. No one gets it right on the first draft. Most of the times, the first draft is merely a way to get all your ideas out. Then comes the real work.
7.  Writers are weird, often drunk introverts with no friends. Thankfully, this is also not true. Like doctors, and lawyers, and architects, writers are all different. Most of the time, they’re not at all timid creatures. The good ones usually have friends (or first readers, however you want to call them) Though the wine thing isn’t really a lie.
8. Writers always enjoy writing. Sometimes writing is agony. There are moments when you want to fling your manuscript through the window and go do some manual labor. At times writing is like a sugar rush, wonderful and bright and then you crash down, and …it’s back to the torment. Good torment, but torment nonetheless.
9.  There is one method to writing, and that’s it. Some people plan every step their character takes. Others like to write in a way that their own characters will surprise them. No two writers are alike, and no two writing processes are alike. That’s the beauty of it.
10. All a writer ever does is write. We’re just like normal people. We cook. We do laundry. We go to the movies, read other books, work out, go to the beach. It’s just that …on the back of our heads, all those things mentioned above are part of a story. But we still do them. We need to. There are no stories if we don’t. 

An open letter to J.K. Rowling:

Hi! It’s been a while. For me, more than for you and I guess I can understand that. If I’d created these characters, I’d have a hard time letting go. Hell, I had a hard time letting go and I was only a mildly obsessed reader.

So, hi, I repeat. I managed to let go, as you probably surmised. It was hard. Your books brought me not only many hours of enjoyment (and countless hours of stupid arguments and assorted drama), but also brilliant friends, and the certainty that I, too, was meant to create some magic. Not the same brand of magic, of course, but my very own kind.

Why am I here, you wonder, after all this time? To be honest, I wasn’t planning on writing this. You can say whatever you want about Ron and Hermione, and, at this point, I’m pretty much immune to it, for a number of reasons, the first and foremost being the very thing that so BOTHERS me when I’m the one writing …

The books are over and done with. There is no going back. You already wrote the ending.

As they’d say, it’s time to let go.

Easier said than done, I know. I imagine you look at the books now and consider literary themes and all that. You second-guess yourself. Maybe I shouldn’t have killed Sirius. Did Teddy really need to be an orphan? Was Dumbledore truly gay?

The truth is none of it matters. Or, at least, it shouldn’t. You did kill Sirius. And I threw my book at the wall and screamed and yes, I cried, but it was the right move. Ron and Hermione were also the right move. Maybe you weren’t thinking that far ahead when you wrote it, maybe you ignored themes and motif and all those fancy words. Maybe, to the Gods of literature, Harry and Hermione made more sense.

But not to us.

And, that’s because of you. You made us believe. You wrote a magnificent story where things don’t always have to end up the way they usually do (and you did it without killing all our faves (SEE, GRR MARTIN, IT CAN BE DONE). You did it, and though it seems like now might be the time for regret, it’s actually the time for merriment.

You changed the rules. You made things different. If you ask me, there are no regrets in that. There’s only celebration.

And, if you really really want to regret something…you might consider turning your attention to the Lupin/Tonks situation. Because, come on …THAT was weird.

Sincerely,

A longtime fan. 

How I did NOT win #NaNoWriMo, and yet, in a way, I still WON

So, I did not get to 50k. In a way, it’s disappointing. I got to 45k. That makes it even more disappointing, because I was SO close to 50. I was almost there. I ALMOST had it. And then, I didn’t. 

I got very sick during the last few days. I tried, I really did. But, in the end, it just wasn’t worth it. I had to fight through a lot to get to 45k in the first place. NaNoWriMo was a very different experience than I thought it would be. In the end, I think, a little self-reflection is probably good. For me, and for anyone who wants to try this again. Take a lesson from my mistakes, and all that crap.

The whole shut your inner editor thing is a good advice. It works…for some. For me, it was downright impossible. I lost an ungodly amount of time trying to do this, and then, when I decided to just ignore it, I actually did much better. I realized, I should have been letting my inner editor speak from the first day. My inner editor rules me, that’s the truth of the matter. I can’t keep on writing when I’ve repeated the same word twice in the same sentence. And the overuse of adjectives gives me a headache. I will even lose sleep over it. That’s just the way it is.

It might not be that way for everyone, but that just the point. Everyone should get the chance to be the way they are. Writing is not something that has a blueprint. It’s not the same way for everyone. And that’s just fine.

The other thing that absolutely did not work for me was the word count. Some days 1k was fine. Others I could write 5k. One week in I got so stuck (and this always happens to me, because I suck at planning ahead, I get an idea, I get excited, and I just want to get started, but I’m very bad at figuring out how to get from point A to point B, and when I actually have to WRITE that, well, I get stuck), that I couldn’t write. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry. I had to summon and emergency council meeting (aka my mother and my sister), for a lost afternoon of R&R, which in our world equals shopping and ice cream.  

After that I had to sit down, take their ideas and flesh out what I actually wanted to do. I lost two days right there. And, I needed those two days. I really did. I wouldn’t have been able to FINISH my novel without those two days. But, for NaNo, those were two lost days. Because I should have done that before. And, I didn’t. I can’t. My brain just doesn’t work that way. I need to get going. I need to get my creative juices flowing. And, THEN, I can think about planning. 

So, lesson number one from November. #NaNo works, yes. But, it works in different ways, for different people. I guess you just have to figure out what you want it for, and make it work for you.

Oh, and also, you have to realize that it will make you a lousy friend, coworker, sister, girlfriend, daughter, etc. You will also, eat too much, too little, drink a lot of coffee, eat a lot of ice cream, or just eat nothing at all. November will be a moth of extremes. That’s just #NaNo for you. That’s the way it’s built. Are you up for it?