I can't tell you how many pins I've seen that link to articles that will educate you on the finer points of killing your characters and making it affect your readers in style. Interestingly enough, there is a classic comparison for this principle found in the
Anne of Green Gables books. (Unfortunately, I can't remember which book this scene comes from. Rae, maybe you can help me! :)) Anne and her friends have formed a story club and Montgomery actually makes fun of her own character. When Diana runs out of ideas for her characters, she kills them off, leaving all her stories in disarray. In short, Montgomery represented this principle as lazy writing and taking the easy way out. Nowadays, it's a stroke of genius to have the
strength to kill your characters off. Well, I'm here to kill the cliche and spare your characters. Introducing my
Spare Me series. I'm going to become the voice of your characters begging for their lives. ;D With this series I'll be illustrating other scenes that engage your emotions; as that seems to be the intent of death scenes in stories today. I'll be kicking it off this November as they are posts I can schedule while I'm participating in NaNoWriMo.
In the meantime...
What are some of your favorite emotional scenes that don't include death?
Yours truly,
Cordy
P.S. One day, I will get around to doing a detailed post where I will rant about the killing in media today. Until then-- STOP IT!! :P
I don't think I have the strength to kill my characters! But then again, they are not very detailed, but I'm still working.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite scenes is in Sense and Sensibility, where at the end Edward has arrived and they all think he is married, but when they realize that he isn't Elinor can't stop crying from happiness!
Good! I hope you never gain that kind of 'strength'. Hahaha.
DeleteThat is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Have you seen either of the movies? If you have, which have you liked better?
I hope so too!
DeleteI have seen the 1995 version, and I really like it, but I am hoping that I will see the 2008 version some time.
"Until then--STOP IT!!" Hahaha. Loved this post, Cordy! Really, this sounds like an awesome subject to delve into. I'm very much looking forward to the upcoming posts!
ReplyDeleteEmotional scenes that don't include death? Oh, I'm sure there are TONS of them. The problem is getting my brain to think of them...
Well, the first one that popped into my head was the scene in An Old Fashioned Girl where Polly is crying over Tom's picture. It's not a "rip you apart" kind of emotion perhaps, but I'd say it counts. :)
I KNOW there are a lot more I could mention, but sadly my brain is not working fast enough right now. :( I really liked this post, though, and yeah...I said that already, didn't I? ;)
I hope it doesn't disappoint. Personally, I'm rather excited for what I've put together. (If I do say so myself. :D)
DeleteA reference to An Old-Fashioned Girl is always welcome here to be sure! :D You can't help but love Polly and Tom!
Hehe.
It was from Anne of Green Gables itself. ;)
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! I actually have a hard time killing off characters. Partly because of the pain it would inflict upon both myself and my readers, and partly because it would be kind of hard not to make it totally cliche.
I'm super excited for Spare Me!
Some of my favourite emotional scenes that don't include death? Wow. Let's see...
I always get SUPER happy in the end of An Old-Fashioned Girl. Like, squealing and almost jumping up and down kind of happy. Like, I almost burst into tears. I think some of the most emotional scenes are happy scenes.
Really, the endings of a lot of books. Happy endings. Always so emotional, but usually in a joyous way.
Anyway, loved this! I can't wait for your blog series!
Yes! I knew I could count on you, Rae!! :D
DeleteWell, I won't complain. Hehe, let the characters live!
An Old-Fashioned Girl makes me shiver with happiness so, I'm with you there.
Thanks!
Ahh, these sounds great! But what really caught my attention is that you're participating in NaNoWriMo, too? So am I! :D Would you like to be writing buddies on the site? (I'm not at all sure how it works; I've only heard it's a thing. :P) If for whatever reason you'd rather not (time, privacy, etc.) I totally won't mind if you say no. :)
ReplyDeleteEmotional scenes that don't include death...hmm. Okay, reunion scenes really get me. For instance, Aragorn's reunion with Arwen in the RotK movie. :')
I loove reunion scenes!
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