Ep 7.09 - LIVE! Killing Your Darlings w/ TS Hottle

Keystroke Medium

Killing characters can be a traumatic experience... but it can also be extremely liberating. Let's talk about it. https://www.tshottle.com https://jimwinterbooks.com/

Hosts: Josh Hayes, Scott Moon, C. Steven Manley Guest: Tom Hottle

00:00 Opening remarks

-Discord server is up! https://discord.com/invite/t96CVRD

-Keystroke Coffee is live! https://keystrokemedium.com/product/keystroke-coffee/

-Use Plottr! https://plottr.com?ref=190

03:30 Weekly update— Turn Off Your Squiggles Edition

Chuck: Working on Jack Darque #3, working on space fantasy series, family stuff galore!

Scott: Sold hit house! Moving into an apartment in April, writing everywhere. Flying through Reaper #14. Enjoying the launch of Reaper #13. Trying to retire and dealing with the advice on ‘fallback’ for writing.

Tom: Finished the Suicide arc and reworking the ending. Enjoying Pro Writing Aid for older works.

Josh: Finished reading Peter F. Hamilton’s Salvation Lost. Loves Hamilton’s space opera writing. Has some similarity to Hyperion in structure. Working on Tranquility #3. About halfway through Weaponized #1. Working on the flash fiction and the next contest.

25:05 Main Event— LIVE! Killing Your Darlings w/ TS Hottle

-Raising tension by character death. -Serving the plot vs. shock value.

-Character deaths that impact the main character. -Drawing emotion from the reader.

-Should you care about your reader’s feelings? -Killing characters the author likes.

-The offscreen ‘death’ where the character could come back at a later date. Warning: this can be done badly! Ex. Rise of Skywalker https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527338/

-Character deaths raise the stakes. -Character deaths as obstacles. Ex. Dumbledore’s death in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0373889/

-Keeping scenes around even though they end up on the cutting room floor. Ex. Dresden Files latest novel Battleground https://amzn.to/34WDkML

-Infodumps vs. seeding information throughout a novel and setting up an ending.

-What’s important and what’s not? -Genre dictates detail. -Editors killing your darlings for you.

-‘Thou shalt not bore the reader’ -Ex. ‘Pope in the pool’ in Save the Cat by Blake Snyder https://amzn.to/3Jr4iLv -Aaron Sorkin’s tendency to do claustrophobic scenes where the characters are forced to only talk, which is all dialogue.

-G’Kar and Londo stuck in an elevator in Babylon 5 episode ‘Convictions’. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0517641/

-Major character deaths in Babylon 5.

-There’s a reboot! -Love for Seal Team. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6473344/

1:02:10 Closing remarks

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