My hubby and I have an ongoing joke. When a character is killed off or leaves a TV show, we call it a contract dispute. For example, the character of Lance Sweets from the show Bones was killed in the Season 10 opener. Boy that was a shocker! Other major characters have left or met their demise on other popular shows such as NCIS and CSI. The most recent contract dispute falls in the lap of Doctor Derek Shepherdwho went out with a bang (literally) when his car gets T-boned by a truck, and he hangs on for dear life for at least a couple more episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. A sad day indeed. Sniff.
The exit of these characters got me thinking. When is it the right time to kill or remove a character from an ongoing book series? Is it when the character stops meeting the readers’ needs and expectations? Do the characters become boring? Stop growing? Refuse to change? Perhaps. I guess the best sounding board would be the readers. Listening to them on the social media or reading the reviews they post. Are they sick of Character X? Does Character Y make them want to vomit? Or do readers even relate to Character Z? Mind you, I’m not sure killing a character off would have the same effect in sales as it does for TV ratings, but you never know until you try. Bahaha…
However, if you kill the wrong character you’ll have blood on your hands and angry readers. Case in point—when Arthur Conan Doyle killed Sherlock Holmes by sending him over a waterfall with his arch enemy Professor Moriarty in tow, it wasn’t pretty. I mean for Sir Arthur, and the readers demanded satisfaction. Seriously? What was he thinking? Note to self: don’t piss your fans off!
In my time travel series, The Last Timekeepers, I’ve seriously thought about replacing certain characters to freshen up the series as it progresses, although nothing is written in stone yet. Readers are continually looking for new and improved characters to keep them invested in any series. That’s the reason why TV shows keep introducing new characters into a series. Even J.K. Rowling added new characters (and killed off a bunch) throughout her Harry Potter series.
So my question is: when must a character die or leave? I’m guessing there are so many answers to that question, but the reason I’d off one of my characters is when there’s no more room for character development or growth. That’s what Sir Arthur Conan Doyle attempted to do when he killed off Sherlock Holmes—he tied up all the loose ends and made sure Holmes lived a full life. Unfortunately, Doyle underestimated his readers, even though he wanted to cash out and move on to writing other books. And to this day, Sherlock Holmes has survived his creator, and duped death. Now that’s one loved character!
Thank you for reading my blog! So, what characters would you like to see killed/removed from your favorite book series? Love to hear your answers! Cheers!
When my daughter, Jaimie, started Grade One, she struggled in many areas. In addition to her sensory issues, she also dealt with praxis issues (which means she wasn't able to learn or follow tasks that had too many steps); she would often get 'stuck' on a specific way of doing a task and not understand how to branch out or learn it in a new way; and she struggled with verbal instruction. You can imagine how frustrating learning could be for her when she had all of these hurdles in her way.
With the help of an awesome occupational therapist (OT) and an amazing bunch of teachers, we learned tools best-suited to Jaimie's needs that have helped her bloom and grow. One of these tools was a 'Word Flower', which not only helped Jaimie with learning words and writing but also helped me with my writing! And I thought it would be something that could help all of you too.
This is is a tool that taps into visual learning, gets you branching out beyond your regular line of thinking and really gets those thinking juices flowing. I'm sure many of you have heard of different ways of doing this but I loved the concept Jaimie's teacher used.
See the flowers above? Think of an everyday word you use frequently (eg: sad) and write it in the middle. Then think of five other ways to say that word. For example, Jaimie came up with glum, sorrowful, down-in-the-dumps, unhappy and downcast for her Word Flower for 'sad'. It sounds pretty basic but, you know what? As a writer, I've found this tool useful and I write the words I come up with for my own personal thesaurus I keep beside my computer. And as an editor, it gives me a way to help an author using a specific word way too much to branch out.
Another great writing strategy is creating 'Word Choice Lists'. Jaimie's teacher created a table with headings like 'Speech Words', 'Movements' and 'Loud Sounds' with tons of words listed under each. Or, you could create a table where you have two headings 'How It's Said' and 'Words to Substitute'. Write subheadings under the 'How It's Said' column such as, 'In a happy way', 'In a sad way', 'In a tired way', etc. then list different action words you'd use to show 'sad' or 'tired' beside the subheadings.
Jaimie's teacher got the kids to create a folder where they'd glue their Word Flowers onto as well as keep their other tables I suggested above. This is the place they'd keep their journals and other writing booklets so they had easy access to their writing tools when they struggled with writing assignments. These strategies helped Jaimie's writing so much. And on top of that, it also helped her learn to expand her way of thinking and looking at how to complete an assignment.
Today, she's doing so well on her own that she doesn't even need to use her writing tools as often, which is awesome because I've claimed her folder! Who says we can't learn from kids?
Feel free to share your own writing tools and strategies. Branch out beyond the usual Thesaurus or Dictionary and get those writing juices bubbling.
Happy writing, everyone.
You know those writers who whine about having to “cut” words from their story? Those writers who can push out thousands of words without any drama? Writers who claim they find it hard to work within word count “parameters?”
I am not one of those writers.
I have always had to “flesh” out my novel during the revision phase. Floods of words do not spring from my pen.
It’s sort of like getting blood from a rock.
I’m Karen and I’m an underwriter.
Honestly, I think I was born this way because if I had to choose, I would rather have to cut words then add them.
There are two main reasons why I underwrite: over editing and perfectionism.
Excessive editing can turn a paragraph into a five-word sentence if left unchecked. And really why am I editing when I’m supposed to be writing draft? This is why I love writing with pen and paper now. When editing on the computer, the backspace and delete key can become your mortal enemies.
Perfectionism is another thing that puts a monkey wrench in my program. I get so caught up in how something sounds or if the grammar is right that I end up not writing as much as I should. “Free-writing” has helped me a lot. So what if it’s a hot mess? Out of those five pages, I could salvage something instead of just writing a paragraph and getting discouraged and stopping — all because it isn’t “perfect.”
So are you an “underwriter” too? What have you done to help you with this “issue”?
Overwriters, how do you go through the process of figuring out what to keep and what to toss? What are some disadvantages with your *cough* issue?
However, if you kill the wrong character you’ll have blood on your hands and angry readers. Case in point—when Arthur Conan Doyle killed Sherlock Holmes by sending him over a waterfall with his arch enemy Professor Moriarty in tow, it wasn’t pretty. I mean for Sir Arthur, and the readers demanded satisfaction. Seriously? What was he thinking? Note to self: don’t piss your fans off! .jpeg?picon=893)
Lately I’ve been having major excessive editing anxiety. Using the pen and paper have helped me a lot.
I like this visual approach Chynna!
So agree with usefulness for writing, too.
Think that is why mind mapping really appeals to me--the visual, even colour!
Thanks for sharing the ideas.
Hi Patricia! Glad you liked these ideas. I'm very visual too and found these so helpful. I learned about mind-mapping in psychology, ironically enough. But I loved how Jaimie's teachers borrowed the concept and made it kid-friendly. =D
Thanks for your comment! 'See' you again soon, I hope!
Chynna
Oh my gosh - this is such a great tool! I will definitely use it, because it creates a visual for me that is so much better than just making a list - which is what I do now. Thanks to you and Jamie for a great idea (p.s. My main character in The Christmas Village is named Jamie, not quite the same, but almost!)
Hey, cool idea!
Thanks for sharing, Chynna.
I like the idea of keeping all of this in a folder too.