CloverReef

“Romance with a body count”, sounds like the one I wrote.  I did it to portray how that society viewed and marginalized a particular segment of its population, both in life and death.  (ie, funeral/mortuary generally refusing to even touch the body)
While gratuitous violence can definitely be fun, this can definitely cheapen because how much effort are you going to invest in a character you’re just going to kill off, especially if you’re doing a thousand of them?  If you’re going for realism, any surviving characters will have a very bad case of PTSD; which is why I chose to portray two instead of a thousand in my case, figuring two still had the shock value while implying the other thousand.

Killing off characters has always been a huge problem for me because I do end up getting really attached. I really haven't had any stories (original or otherwise) where I’ve actually done the deed yet, though I know that in certain ones there should realistically be a body count. When I do finally decide to off someone (very reluctantly), I really want there to be a solid  reason for it, instead of just doing it for shock value/attention, or because a character is or becomes “boring”, etc. These are reasons I’ve seen characters be bumped off  in shows/books/etc, and it’s pretty transparent.

I had very little problems killing off characters. Well, except for thinking up the best ways to do it.

One editor told me I write romance with a body count. I suppose if I was writing detective romances, that might be good, but, sadly, I just like killing off characters.

You know, it’s a bit scary with everybody plotting cold blooded murder in here….  
@CloverReef  On screen vs off screen deaths, depends on the importance and severity of it.   Had one story where I was going to have the main character (+2 friends) witness a mass-murder… but then I kinda realized it’d mess them up more than I wanted, so I made a compromise, rewrote the scene so they wouldn’t be where they’d see a thousand, instead, just a couple of the victims trying to escape, with the rest implied.  Overall, better for the story.

I’ve killed off characters often, despite how attached I get to them. It’s often literally painful for me, but if it’s necessary for the story, I’m ruthless about it. I take Stephen King’s advice: “kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”
(Which is, of course, Mr. King quoting William Faulkner: “In writing, you must kill all your darlings” who was in turn quoting Arthur Quiller-Couch: “If you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.” Sort of a stretch to interpret that as killing off one’s characters, but there we are. )

I grow very attached to my characters, in the sense that, even when I get detached from a story and decide to drop it, the characters haunt me for months, sometimes years to come. As we speak, Blackbird is fucking taunting me. But even though I’m so attached to them, oddly enough, I don’t have any problem killing them off. If I got it planned right, like it comes at a pivotal moment and accomplishes something important, I get excited about it. High emotions, high tensions, those are some of the easiest scenes for me to write. When I killed off a main char in Blackbird, that scene took me an hour when most of the scenes in that damn story took me weeks, sometimes months. 
How I kill them off varies. I like to make it dramatic and bloody, but I tend to favour what’s best for the pace of the story. I’ll only really do an off-screen death if it needs to be a mystery to the reader… or if the character and their death isn’t all that important. 

So, let’s not pretend this is me having an epiphany…  This is me procrastinating with a good question…  lol.
So, as I come to the end to one of the many stories I have here…  The major climax that leads to the denouement and subsequent finale and goodbye is becoming a pain in the ass to write.  I’ve been finding myself having trouble writing some deaths of characters that are both minor and major characters in the tale and have, hopefully, been good enough to warrant someone actually cheering for survival…  It’s problematic…  on every level.
So, my question, since I’m going to make a wild assumption that everyone grows attached to their characters (...we’re writers, I’m pretty sure we all do this…  Even Bob...)…  How do you all murder your characters?  Do you struggle with it?  Prefer it quick and simple as the end grows near or do you prefer long, drawn out deaths?  Do you find yourselves procrastinating?  Or is just an easy decision, like putting toast in the toaster?

Lets give Bob a red shirt, see what happens
More seriously, it depends on the character.  If I’ve grown attached, I will typically procrastinate in the story, making sure they’ve had a good time, before I do the deed.  Method, the method, unfortunately, more depends on what I’m trying to achieve, and i generally go for simple methods too.  (Shove in front a train is about the most complicated I’ll do; gunshots are relatively humane.)   There was one character I took out last year, and the location was a nice suggestion from @DirtyAngel. 
In my current series, I tend not to depict on-screen deaths too often, I will but not often, instead typically making it out-of-sight, so it’s more of, ‘look, there’s a body!’
And while committing the deed, I’ll adjust the soundtrack on my computer, typically more sad/sorrow that helps me put me into that right frame of mind to follow through with it.
My $0.02 worth.

With as little info as he provided, it’s more useful to review trolls with a new point to flame with.

I agree 100% @yukihimedono. The advice in that thing, I found to be pretty damn counter intuitive. I was just completely blown away that a professional would advise writers that way. 

I totally agree if slamming the door is not in the character's 'character' then it is bad. As is absolutely anything else they might do that isn't like them. Like balling their fists if they're super good at hiding emotions. Assuming we're talking about everything written well and in character, then I think that histrionic exit is a powerful tool and removing it for the sake of more stylistic shit would be a mistake. 
I agree with you Praeter too, to a point. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with cliches and there are times when they're absolutely the right thing to do, but in general I would suggest people avoid cliche plot twists/tools just because they are predictable and run the risk of boring the reader. Well maybe not avoid, but use sparingly. 

Okay, I need to talk about this because it made me angry. As things usually do when they start calling writers who do a certain thing ‘lazy’. 
http://inventingrealityeditingservice.typepad.com/inventing_reality_editing/2014/09/cut-plot-cliché-of-histrionic-exit.html
I somewhat agree with avoiding cliche plot things, but the histrionics? We’re advising writers to cut bold actions now just because they’re dramatic? People do dramatic things. Some people slam doors when they’re angry. The little gestures like the balling of fists is good advice, but telling the writer not to have characters slam doors just seems totally counter intuitive to me. And Ending a scene on that note, when appropriate, and when it fits the characters and the circumstances, doesn’t seem lazy to me. 
Can I get an “Amen”? Or a “fuck you clovey”? No, really, someone tell me I’m not crazy, please. 
Edit: plus WTF? Since when are we telling writers to delete relevant physical actions? 
Edit 2: This kinda turned into a rant, but it’s meant to be a discussion lol. I’m stressed. Let me be pissy. 

I agree 100% @yukihimedono. The advice in that thing, I found to be pretty damn counter intuitive. I was just completely blown away that a professional would advise writers that way. 

I agree 100% @yukihimedono. The advice in that thing, I found to be pretty damn counter intuitive. I was just completely blown away that a professional would advise writers that way. 

In regards to the article, I agree with Desiderius and Dirty.  It was only 187 words with no real explanation of how to use Histrionics other than to say “don’t use it”.  (And yes, I actually checked his word count.)  Honestly, in my opinion, that article was a joke.  Just telling others that such devices shouldn’t be used is a little presumptuous considering there is no context to the advice being given.  The author does not know the degree of writing experience of his audience and does nothing to exaggerate on the meaning he is trying to convey, which leaves the readers confused and unsure of how or whether to use this literary device.  That would be like having a gay character not be flamboyant in any way or having a surfer not use any beach slang.  It also constrains the character and his/her actions within the work and, if a writer is attempting to create a realistic situation with real characters, then such actions like slamming a door or punching a wall or throwing a book would be necessary as they are real-life actions taken by real-life people.
Okay, I’m done ranting now. 

Okay, I need to talk about this because it made me angry. As things usually do when they start calling writers who do a certain thing ‘lazy’. 
http://inventingrealityeditingservice.typepad.com/inventing_reality_editing/2014/09/cut-plot-cliché-of-histrionic-exit.html
I somewhat agree with avoiding cliche plot things, but the histrionics? We’re advising writers to cut bold actions now just because they’re dramatic? People do dramatic things. Some people slam doors when they’re angry. The little gestures like the balling of fists is good advice, but telling the writer not to have characters slam doors just seems totally counter intuitive to me. And Ending a scene on that note, when appropriate, and when it fits the characters and the circumstances, doesn’t seem lazy to me. 
Can I get an “Amen”? Or a “fuck you clovey”? No, really, someone tell me I’m not crazy, please. 
Edit: plus WTF? Since when are we telling writers to delete relevant physical actions? 
Edit 2: This kinda turned into a rant, but it’s meant to be a discussion lol. I’m stressed. Let me be pissy. 

It  looks to me that many of them involve gender-bending, so the pairing might still be Harry/Draco, but one of the two will be a female version.
Now, here’s the question: are gender-bender stories located under the actual gender of the character, or the assumed gender of the character? I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not sure, even after as long as I’ve been moderating here, but my inclination is to think they’d belong under the assumed gender. I’m going to ask among my fellow mods and admins, and if we all come to a consensus that these belong in the Het category, we’ll move them.

What’s so bad is about all this that he just goes around posting the same rambles everywhere. Reviews that aren't actually reviews bug me. He’d be better off just getting a blog and posting his deep thoughts on superheroes and comics there.
I’m not even sure what this devolved into towards the end there…

Well, that’s awfully rude. Now, I will try to answer what you said as thoroughly as possible.
Firstly: I do write Naruto stories. In fact, as we speak, I’m putting the finishing touches on the chapter of a Naruto story. There’s one reason I write more Sasuke stories than Naruto stories: I prefer Sasuke over Naruto. It’s nothing more complicated than that – I don’t hate Naruto, neither do I loathe him… I just prefer Sasuke.
And no, I don’t ‘go out of my way to have Naruto humiliated in (my) fics’. I have about 3 fics, out of 28, where Naruto is in any way humiliated. And in those three fics, he’s not only an active participant but also gets his moments of dominance, at least in two of them. It’s fairly obvious that you haven’t read any of my stories, considering anyone who has read them can tell you that I tend to go out of my way to make Naruto either not involved in the story, or genderbent into a woman and allowed to join in the fun. It’s also worth noting that one of my favorite pairings is Sasuke/Fem. Naruto.
I don’t believe I’m a hypocrite, either. Yes, I write stories where Naruto is cucked – but they’re of a completely different nature than other stories where Sasuke/Naruto are cucked. Naruto is a willing participant; and he gets just as much enjoyment from the act as everyone else. Not to mention I don’t bash him, either… in fact, I tend to go out of my way to make his actual strength and power obvious to the reader. A fact you would be aware of if you actually read my stories.
Neither is my motivation ‘spite’. I was simply stating why I thought other authors began to write stories where Naruto gets cuckolded – for the most part, I write them because I have good ideas and I feel they translate into good erotica. And considering the relative popularity of those stories, I think other people agree that they are good erotica.
Hopefully, I’ve answered your response in a way that’s acceptable.

As someone who’s moderated here at AFF for the past seven years, I have to say the quality of fiction posted to the Naruto subdomain has shown a recent trend into cuckold stories, so much so that we had to revive that tag.
There were some amazing stories when I first began to moderate here, and although I’m not an anime/manga fan in general, there were more than a few stories which were highly creative and managed not to bash any character. Prism0467’s work comes to mind, in particular.  I wonder why authors with a desire to write fiction with strong plots and minimal fetishes don’t find a welcome in the subdomain any longer?

This is something we’re seeing more and more.  Thankfully, we have some very sharp eyed readers.  Cretins who think because a story is old (ten years or more older, usually), and the author inactive, that it’s okay to post it back up.  Under their own pen name.  
Sorry to disabuse you youngsters of this particular thought, but, nope.  It’s still theft.  It DOESN’T MATTER if it’s an old story, or even if old and from a now defunct archive.  There are ways to find them even still.
 

 

Omg it looks amazing! Congrats!

I am very, very excited about the upcoming republication of Ghost’s Sight, the first book in the Witch’s Apprentice series. NineStar Press has been good enough to give me a new home, and I couldn’t be happier.
The book is now available for pre-order at the NineStar website, and I’ll add links for third party sites as soon as the book is released. There’s some new material, and a fabulous new cover, so take a peek!
 

This is Canada, DP. Our angry mobs favour the hockey stick.