First off becky I'm sorry I haven't been by much and haven't done any of the recent prompts or the ones I promise I'd do like so many weeks ago. I still keep my promise about doing them but not now, I'll start working on them when school is finished and done.
Now for your workshop session, I think it was great choice talking about characters development and how we should play around with them in a plot. Killing characters can be a hard task especially if you have one character that everyone loves but you have no idea how to keep her/him in the story so the best move is to take it away by, in this case, killing her/him.
Take Harry Potter for example, I never read the books but I know someone (my aunt) who loves it and it has there this really sweet and kind character (she told me once the name but I can't remember right now), my aunt loved that character to bits but in the recent books he died, she was really pissed by that, "it was a unnecessary death", she told me.
According to her, killing him off didn't actually helped the plot nor did it bring this big drama to the book.
I know that sometimes a writer cannot please every writer but I did a small search over the net at that time and I saw a lot of people saying the same so I think when you choose to kill a character even if it has a small part in the plot, you should consider other ways, perhaps instead of killing make the character travel somewhere else?
But yeah, I'm just babbling here. Nice workshop becky, as always.
Now, inflicting a healthy amount of trauma on a character is what writing is all about. (At least, that's what I believe!)
Quoted for truth as a guy who has shattered the feet, almost raped, shot, concussed, broken the legs, captured and tortured his protagonists . . . yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with this.
It's funny you mention the bits about suddenly adding this kind of drama. In the webcomic world, "Ctrl+Alt+Del" recently dropped a huge bomb on the internet with a main character having a miscarriage. The guy seems to know what he's doing with his comic, but yeah, a looooooot of people weren't too excited about that particular plot development (funny gaming-related stuff, silly boy/girl stuff, quaint domestic stuff, meeting the parents, playing different games, getting excited about upcoming games, BAM! DEAD BABY!).
I'd best be ready for Sunday so I don't lag behind everyone else again.
But yes. I totally agree with you when it comes to killing characters. When done right, it can be the most emotionally effective scene in the story. But when it's done to cause drama, the reader's not going to cry - they'll roll their eyes.
And you're right, it's a tough decision. I'm in the midst of that decision right now. D:
Character development is indeed an important part of story creation. They need to have individual personalities, at least to try and separate one from another.
As to killing off characters, that's a tough choice to make for great characters. You don't kill them because you are tired of them. You should do it if it will benefit the plot of the story. The one that usually gets the most audience response is when a great character dies. I'd really hate killing off cool characters, but if it is for the advancement of the story, I guess I'll have to greatly consider it.
ShadowLight
Otaku Eternal | Posted 07/04/08 | Reply
First off becky I'm sorry I haven't been by much and haven't done any of the recent prompts or the ones I promise I'd do like so many weeks ago. I still keep my promise about doing them but not now, I'll start working on them when school is finished and done.
Now for your workshop session, I think it was great choice talking about characters development and how we should play around with them in a plot. Killing characters can be a hard task especially if you have one character that everyone loves but you have no idea how to keep her/him in the story so the best move is to take it away by, in this case, killing her/him.
Take Harry Potter for example, I never read the books but I know someone (my aunt) who loves it and it has there this really sweet and kind character (she told me once the name but I can't remember right now), my aunt loved that character to bits but in the recent books he died, she was really pissed by that, "it was a unnecessary death", she told me.
According to her, killing him off didn't actually helped the plot nor did it bring this big drama to the book.
I know that sometimes a writer cannot please every writer but I did a small search over the net at that time and I saw a lot of people saying the same so I think when you choose to kill a character even if it has a small part in the plot, you should consider other ways, perhaps instead of killing make the character travel somewhere else?
But yeah, I'm just babbling here. Nice workshop becky, as always.
The crazy bubbly shadow
SomeGuy
Canadian Liaison (Team) | Posted 07/04/08 | Reply
Now, inflicting a healthy amount of trauma on a character is what writing is all about. (At least, that's what I believe!)
Quoted for truth as a guy who has shattered the feet, almost raped, shot, concussed, broken the legs, captured and tortured his protagonists . . . yeah, I wholeheartedly agree with this.
It's funny you mention the bits about suddenly adding this kind of drama. In the webcomic world, "Ctrl+Alt+Del" recently dropped a huge bomb on the internet with a main character having a miscarriage. The guy seems to know what he's doing with his comic, but yeah, a looooooot of people weren't too excited about that particular plot development (funny gaming-related stuff, silly boy/girl stuff, quaint domestic stuff, meeting the parents, playing different games, getting excited about upcoming games, BAM! DEAD BABY!).
I'd best be ready for Sunday so I don't lag behind everyone else again.
NightBeck
Otaku Eternal | Posted 07/03/08 | Reply
theO ate my comment! Damn them. D:
But yes. I totally agree with you when it comes to killing characters. When done right, it can be the most emotionally effective scene in the story. But when it's done to cause drama, the reader's not going to cry - they'll roll their eyes.
And you're right, it's a tough decision. I'm in the midst of that decision right now. D:
jomz
Otaku Summoner (Otaku Eternal) | Posted 07/03/08 | Reply
Character development is indeed an important part of story creation. They need to have individual personalities, at least to try and separate one from another.
As to killing off characters, that's a tough choice to make for great characters. You don't kill them because you are tired of them. You should do it if it will benefit the plot of the story. The one that usually gets the most audience response is when a great character dies. I'd really hate killing off cool characters, but if it is for the advancement of the story, I guess I'll have to greatly consider it.