3 Weeks to Book 4!

Since my last blog entry, I finished Chapter 5, wrote Chapter 6, and am now working along on Chapter 7. Book 4 has 2 "sections", like Book 2 did; the first section constitutes the first 10 chapters, the second section constitutes the last 20 chapters. At the moment, I am drawing towards the climax of the first section and the story is rapidly picking up speed.

I now know every detail of Feyain's past, and I have also revealed enough information in Chapter 6 for the readers to figure a lot of it out. Also, if you guys thought that Auserv's past was convoluted, Feyain's past is equally so. Unfortunately, Feyain doesn't get a flashback epic all to herself like Auserv does, so hopefully within Books 4 and 5 I will be able to explain all of Feyain's past. (Yup, you heard me right, Feyain will be a major character in the beginning half of Book 5.)

In other news, Chapter 6 has a cute little scene between Onathei and Feyain which might make younger readers go "Uck", lol. It's not like hugely romantic or anything but ZOMG ONATHEI HUGS FEYAIN. Didn't plan for it to happen at the outset of that scene but the story wrote itself. It's not like it's the first "couple" (so to speak) I've had in the series... For those who didn't catch these, there were hints at Guutana-Roqini, Krandorn-Zirralo, and Grunekt-Tyaseri (those last two were a bit more obscure but nevertheless there).

That's about it for Book 4 news today, so onto the...

Writing Tip of the Week

This week's tip is on character deaths. Character deaths are like salt... They can really enhance a story, but if you overdo it, the story is too "salty" and no one will like it. For an example, the amount of death in Book 1 and 2 of my series was reasonable... Book 3 was coming dangerously close to being distasteful.

The way I see it, there is a spectrum of character deaths like there is a spectrum of visible light... On one end of the spectrum, the "shocker"--you kill someone off suddenly with little to no warning and usually no last words, and on the opposite end, the "cliche"--a death that everyone saw coming with a long, drawn-out death scene.

Here is a diagram of what I mean with selected character deaths from my story placed at appropriate places on the spectrum. (By Barnoka I refer to the sacrifice into the Dairuno Stones, which didn't really kill him, but everyone thought he was dead; by Desurk I refer to his original Book 1 death, not his more recent Book 3 death.)

Geoku______Barnoka_______Onathei________Guutana_______Desurk

|----------------------|---------------------|--------------------|--------------------|

Shockers_______________________________________________Cliche

Now that you probably have a good idea of the spectrum, I can explain why I brought this up at all. First of all, avoid either end of the spectrum like the plague--I consider Desurk's death to be the worst-written death in the entire series. There was far too much warning, far too much time (a whole chapter!) after the fatal injury that Desurk lingered around. While Geoku's death was a very well-written scene IMO, I didn't actually want to kill a character like Geoku whose character hadn't developed at all since his introduction to the series in Book 2. I needed to kill him in order to advance the plot, so I used a shocker death. So on the shocker end of the spectrum, you'll regret shockers insofar as having to waste a perfectly fine character; on the cliche end, you'll regret writing such a horrible death scene.

I'd like to say that Onathei's death, right in the middle, is the ideal kind of death to use, but in actuality it just combines the bad aspects of both halves of the spectrum. Again with Onathei's death, I regretted killing off a character who had not developed at all, but was forced to in order to advance the plot. Also, the amount of time that Onathei hung on with a spear through his frail Turaga chest completely shattered the suspension of disbelief.

I consider the best-written death in the series to be Guutana's. There was ample warning but not a lot of people expected it despite that; also Guutana didn't linger for too long but lingered long enough to deliver some important messages. Finally, since Guutana had gone through more character development than any other character in the series up to that point, it was a good point for me to kill him at (not to mention the fact that I knew he wasn't gone for good anyway).

Barnoka's death was also very well-done, I think, though not as good as Guutana's (perhaps it would've been if I'd had as much experience as I do now). So the lesson here is not to shoot for either end of the spectrum, and not to mix them evenly...but to mix them unevenly. The best deaths are the ones that are more towards one side than the other.

As you write a lot of deaths, you gain a feel for the spectrum, but until then, just focus on giving deaths a good amount of foreshadowing but not enough to figure it out (i.e., the reader knows something is coming, but doesn't predict that "Genericcharacter" is the one who will die), and giving the character a dying speech but not a dying chapter. *coughdesurklulzcough*