These are notes I took from a wonderful writing symposium called Life, the Universe, and Everything. We have a lot of talented people in Utah and visitors with a great deal of knowledge. Any Misinformation is the fault of the note taker.
Q: How to apply a meaningful death:
– It has to be a character that the readers feel about.
– Did the death accomplish something?
– There has to be a meaning.
– People hated the last book of a series because after they won, the hero gets killed by a random bullet and had no relation to the events of the book.
– Clever banter can enable the reader to like the characters.
– When there is a killing: death eaters administer death in Harry Potter. Kill of Fredric.
– Rejected Disney princesses. Real life princesses blog website. One princess of a chief had to prove she had to be reckoned with by the British. She was not given a chair to sit when she stood before the British. she had a maiden kneel on hands and knees to be a chair. The princess slit the throat of the maiden when done. She told the British, I never sit on the same chair twice. Good source of death scenes. https://www.rejectedprincesses.com/
Q: what good are bad tropes to use? Can beans you can taste the can. You don’t have to do much to make is a story different from what is expected.
– Tropes: torpes.org and 500 tropes related to death
– If the point of your book does not sound dangerous enough, you will not care. Frodo’s life needs to be in threat. The stakes need to be high enough for the reader to care.
– The movie, Deep Water horizon: a movie about an explosion of an oil rig. In one scene a man sacrifices himself to save others.
– You need to set up a world of the hero’s vulnerability.
– Bad examples: K19 widow maker is a bad example of deaths starring Harrison Ford.
– Supernatural: TV show good relationships and the stakes are high enough to die for.
– Foreshadowing: harry potter foreshadows Horcruxes. Tom’s diary is a Horcrux It’s the first of plotting out the book she knew where to put it.
– Foreshadowing in the Avenger movie, the age of Ultron, Captain America says, if you get hurt, hurt them back. If you get killed, walk it off. The camera centers on the brother and he nods.
– Series of unfortunate events narrator: not a good idea provides foreshadowing. In unfortunate events TV show, in the beginning, hint to change the channel and the opening song look away is foreshadowing.
– New author mistake might be to tell the audience what is going to happen before it happens.
– Fake death: now you see me movie. The purpose if for the reader to feel despair and to feel triumph later.
– If writing war deaths: read journals of soldiers to read the emotional impact.
– How bring someone back? Foreshadowing needs to set up.
– The prestige: bad guy pretends to die.
– See if it undoes the reasons for why they died. Does not cheapen it by an act of cowardice. It doesn’t work if it is not planned out.
– Kill your darlings only if it saves the world.
Want to add to the list? Please do so in the comment section of this blog.
