Shadowlands
I am working on a new proposal for my darkest piece of fiction since The Roofer. And I already know how it's going to end, even though I am conceiving of this as a trilogy with hundreds and hundreds of pages. And I am also acutely aware that, like The Roofer, not everyone is getting a happy ending.
In fact, there would, like The Godfather trilogy, be no way to write this story and let it lead into light. It has to go into shadows. Two characters of the three main ones will possibly escape, but one--not so lucky. I know it from the first page. From his swagger. From the way, at 13, he declares he is afraid of nothing and no one. From the fact that he grows to a legend. As my girl narrator states . . . we all know what happens to legends. People delight in tearing them down. No, he is not so lucky to survive.
And maybe it's not luck anyway. Maybe he's the character who's always taunting death to come find him. Maybe he wants it in a way.
But either way, I am aware that there is what readers may hope for, and what will actually come to happen. I wonder, in a way, about J.K. Rowling, or any author with characters readers get very involved with . . . is your only obligation to be true to the story arc you envisioned? If she offs Harry . . . is that okay, even though she's lured in a generation of children? (For the record, I can only imagine Harry getting an Arthurian Isle of Avalon, Frodo in Valinor ending.)
Thoughts? Do your characters sometimes demand the shadows? And what obligation do you have to your readers?
In fact, there would, like The Godfather trilogy, be no way to write this story and let it lead into light. It has to go into shadows. Two characters of the three main ones will possibly escape, but one--not so lucky. I know it from the first page. From his swagger. From the way, at 13, he declares he is afraid of nothing and no one. From the fact that he grows to a legend. As my girl narrator states . . . we all know what happens to legends. People delight in tearing them down. No, he is not so lucky to survive.
And maybe it's not luck anyway. Maybe he's the character who's always taunting death to come find him. Maybe he wants it in a way.
But either way, I am aware that there is what readers may hope for, and what will actually come to happen. I wonder, in a way, about J.K. Rowling, or any author with characters readers get very involved with . . . is your only obligation to be true to the story arc you envisioned? If she offs Harry . . . is that okay, even though she's lured in a generation of children? (For the record, I can only imagine Harry getting an Arthurian Isle of Avalon, Frodo in Valinor ending.)
Thoughts? Do your characters sometimes demand the shadows? And what obligation do you have to your readers?
posted by Erica Orloff at 4:49 PM
4 Comments:
Several of my readers have asked me if a certain character has to die. Honestly, I didn't know this character died until the minute I was writing the scene.
But the character did die.
The fact that it broke the readers' hearts makes me think I might have done something right.
You have to do what you have to do.
I am a fierce believer in being true to the story arc regardless of where it takes you.
I do believe in being true to the story arc.
That said, none of my story arcs EVER take the main characters to death, and they NEVER EVER EVER will.
Everyone else is fair game, but they still usually don't die. My stuff is never that dark.
Hi Natalie:
I kill 'em off sometimes. But I do write dark, so . . .
But I am sad when I kill them at least. :-)
E
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