choose your own adventure! –the novelist’s version
I always loved these things when I was a kid. And hey, how often do we get to write in 2nd person these days, right?
So. A dilemma for you– purely hypothetical, of course:
You’re, say, ten chapters in. Make that about 50,000 words, or at least it would be the way I write, but if your goal is less than the 97K (+ or – 3K) that I generally shoot for, adjust accordingly. About halfway through. It’s time to kick back and read through it, because a) you’re bored, b) you’re stuck, c) you’re obsessive like that, or d) all of the above. For whatever reason, you decide to take a night off, exercise your scrolling finger, and read what you’ve got from start to I’m-not-there-yet. And you’re getting into it: it’s not as good as it’s going to be after a few revisions, but it’s not exactly tripe, either. Not bad, you think.
And then you see it: the guy that died. And he’s not a zombie, or a vampire, or a ghoul, or any other type of undead on the chart: he’s Accidentally Resurrected Character Man, the guy you killed gorily and dramatically three chapters back so your MC could have a Life Changing Moment Of Grief and angst over this terrible tragedy for another 100 pages… only you apparently forgot you did that. Now he’s everywhere, making toast, serving dinners, saving lives. Uttering wonderfully witty side-man one-liners. Injecting humor, poignancy, and a sense of scope and moral direction to your confused plot.
You can’t get rid of him.
And yet, to go back and unkill him would take all the depth from your MC’s journey, and would also totally screw your plot.
Do you:
a) waffle, turn his previous death into a mortal injury with a shelf life (think Johnny Depp in Dead Man), and kill him dead, dead, dead once he’s managed to Impart Great Wisdom?
b) kill the bastard when he should have died, hell with plot?
c) unkill him, and try to make a slightly shallower MC work?
d) tack …and Zombies! onto the end of your working title and keep on truckin’?
Quick! There’s little time left!
Uh, crap. Can I have some time to think about it? Maybe sleep on it? Which is how I always end up procrastinating when I realize I’ve made a big booboo like this. I say, “Well, I’ll think about it.” Only that’s really code for, “I’ll start a different project so I don’t have to deal with the complete and utter crapfest I’ve just created.”
But you will be eaten alive by rhesus monkeys if you delay!
Ah, well, maybe not. Since we’re in North America and all.
Good call: I should have had that one as a fifth option, now that I think about it. I’m pretty sure that’s what I’d end up doing.
That’s why I keep notes while I write.
Run away?
Waffle. Definitely waffle. Too much is invested in his character. Of course, you could be asked later to cut all that and kill him, but later is not now. It’s later. And waffles taste good.
I chose unkill him. In “Portraits”- I was all set to murder a particular character. But then I realized said person was necessary later on. So I created another character to be killed off. This new character ended up adding a lot to the novel, and my beta was very upset when they died. So it all worked out.
Tasha, you’re the first unkill vote!
And, actually, that’s a good answer. Much more sensible to write in a different redshirt.
Anna, I could not agree with you more on the lovely nature of waffles. They often become part of my writing process for the very same reason.
I voted to kill him, before I read the comments, but for the same reason Tasha voted to unkill him. You could always write in a new wingman for your MC to serve up toast and bon mots, but for the death to be meaningful, you need to kill someone who matters.