Pointless Character Death

Hey, long time no see. Blame the damn assignments for uni. Anyway, I want to talk in this blog post about a problem. Something that is a major problem in so many really good franchises, that don't just annoy me, it annoys a lot of people. I’m talking about pointless character death.

Don't get me wrong, I’m totally fine with character death... sort of. But only when it is a necessary death that serves a purpose. When it doesn’t serve a purpose and it was simply done for either shock value or to create tension between characters, it really winds me up.

Take Sam on How To Get Away With Murder, his death was necessary because the entire show is built around Keating and her students getting away with his murder. His death was semi-justified too, he was an absolutely horrible human being, for reasons I won’t get into for people who plan on watching the show, and his death is the premise of the first season.

Another example is Rue from The Hunger Games. Its a horrendously painful character death, but it serves a purpose of sparking off the revolution and forces Katniss to fight back and get revenge on that Capital.

But when a character death is utterly pointless, I just get so annoyed. Recently, I was watching season 10 of Supernatural, and it got to - spoiler alert here guys if you’re not on season 10 - where Charlie Bradbury died. And her death was so completely and utterly pointless and wrong that I was angry about it for days afterwards. Basically, she died to drive a wedge between Sam and Dean, that was it. She died for that single reason, there was no other reason whatsoever. And it was incredibly annoying.

I mean, the writers could have not killed her, and just injured her instead, easily! The whole reason why her death caused the wedge was because she was helping Sam find a cure for Dean and they were lying to him about it. But because she was in danger, Sam had to tell Dean what was happening, and it caused a huge wedge between them because she died. But the same effect would have been caused if the writers had saved her, but she was badly injured instead. She could have easily been badly injured and the wedge would have still been made. Hell, Cas could have saved her, because he can teleport because he’s an angel and the wedge between the brothers would have still been there.

But no, the writers killed her off. And now she probably isn’t coming back. 

This happens time and time again in things, TV shows especially, where characters are killed off for no reason. I understand it when an actor wants to leave, like with Derek and Greys Anatomy, but even then that death could have been avoided. Derek could have simply just stayed in DC and asked for a divorce or something instead of dying in one of the worst character death scenes I have ever seen. I cried after that one. Actually cried, and I rarely cry over character death, I generally end up just getting annoyed.

Because characters aren’t supposed to just die to create tension, or to be a shock that creates hype on the internet. It’s supposed to really mean something. It’s supposed to be like Buffy’s mum, who died to force Buffy to grow up and stand on her own two feet. Like Dobby, who died saving Harry. Like probably Captain America, who’s death will hopefully force Tony to see the extent of what he’s doing and stop the war.

It’s supposed to be like that, not a death just for hype. When it’s for hype, it’s just pathetic, and clear that the writers are lazy and have no idea on what to do with a character anymore. It’s stupid, and I hate it. Now don’t get me wrong, I understand when writers have to rapidly change story lines because actors are pregnant, like in Bones, so they have to write something like Vincent dying to force Booth and Brennan to finally sleep together out of shock or something, so Brennan gets pregnant. That I can totally understand, but surely it doesn’t always have to end in death?

Can’t a character just be injured for once? Or can’t they come back as a ghost? Or decide to move away? Or something that isn’t them dying for once?! Killing someone off isn’t the only way to get rid of them, it is entirely possible for characters to leave through other means and still have it hurt like hell. Look at the Doctor and Rose at Bad Wolf Bay, Christina leaving Greys Anatomy, Zack turning out to be Gormagon in Bones!

All of those hurt like hell, and with Rose and Zack alike, created great plot twists people weren’t expecting. It’s entirely possible to create a feels inducing moment without killing people off. Writers, take note of that, and stop killing people like Charlie Bradbury off. Please, before I lose my mind.

What do you guys think about character death like this? Do you think any of the people I’ve mentioned had a good send off, if so, why? Or are there any other characters you pretend didn't die because their deaths were so utterly pointless? Or did you see a really great character send off that didn't involve them dying? Let me know down in the comments, it would be great to hear from you!

Top 5 Most Important Editing Points

Hey, so here’s the start of my series of blogs/vlogs on editing your novels! I thought I’d start off with a check list of the most important things you need to check for in your work. It’s so important that you get these things right, as these are the basics of a novel that you have to get right in order to get anywhere else.

11)      Check for spelling and grammar mistakes. That’s an obvious one really, because spelling and grammar are very important things. Spelling should be relatively easy thanks to spell check, but grammar is a bit harder to deal with, but there’s a few things you can do to help yourself out. One is to read your work allowed to yourself, speaking and reading engages different parts of the brain, so you pick up more mistakes if you’re reading aloud. It sounds nuts, I know, but it actually works. I’ve done it before, and have had it recommended by several tutors so I know it works a treat.  And two, you can use a website called Hemingway, which checks through your work and clearly highlights sentences that need improving. I’ve used it loads and it works great.

22)      Check your story for coherency. Make sure that your story makes sense and that it is easy to understand. I’m not saying you can’t have a convoluted plot, if you want that, go for it, but you have to make it easy to understand, or you will lose your readers. Make sure that you’ve explained your plot fully in your story as you’ve gone along, and not suddenly including an important element with no explanation as to how it got there.

33)      Make sure you have tied up all loose ends. Unless you’re writing a series and are planning on tying up loose ends in a further book, all the fragments of the story have to come together to make sense by the end. Go through and make a list of all your plot points, and check off each thing you resolve and see if you have anything left over by the end. If you do, you’re probably going to have to go back and resolve that point somewhere. Obviously, if you’re planning a series out, you can resolve plot points in a further book, but make sure that by the end of the series you have actually done that. As for one off books, then you have to resolve all plot points or you’re going to anger a lot of readers, as they will want answers.

44)      Make sure you’re consistent. If you’ve started writing in first person, make sure you’ve stayed in first person throughout, unless you have a specific reason to change it. Check to make sure your characters physical attributes are consistent and haven’t suddenly changed for no reason, make sure you’ve kept to the same tense throughout (a flashback/memory is mostly where a change from present to past tense is allowed, everything else should be in the same tense). All of these things are really important, and you have to make sure you have kept everything like that the exact same way throughout the novel, unless there’s reason for things to change. If there’s no need for things to suddenly jump from present to past tense, then make sure you’ve stayed in the original tense.

55)      Keep your story line on the right track. You have to be certain that you’ve kept to your story line from the beginning until the end. A story is going to go nowhere if your character starts off trying to find their parents at the beginning, and ends up battling demons by the end, unless they have been drawn into doing that while on their original quest. If they’ve completed their original quest and have had to go on another straight away, fair enough, but you have to make sure that that original quest has come to completion by the end.

It’s all about consistency people; every single thing has to be consistent and kept on a similar path. And yes, editing is boring, I know. But it’s an incredibly important part of the writing process, and will be the thing that sharpens your story into the incredible epic it can be. The editing is so, so important, and you have to check for these things and change anything that is wrong, or your novel won’t go anywhere.

If you guys have anything else you check for when you’re editing your stories, please comment below, I’ll add anything to this main post, or start a new one, so we can create one massive checklist of editing! 

The Wattpad Experience

Whoa, can it be, a blog post that isn't a film review?! My God, call the presses, this is news worthy!
But yes, I'm going to blog about something that isn't a film review, as I feel like I've exhausted that for the past couple of weeks. Instead, today I'm going to talk about my experience with the website Wattpad.
Now I'm fairly new to Wattpad (as in, only a few months into my exploration of the site) but I feel like I've got a bit of experience with it, or at least enough to talk about my awakening to the site. I'd been hearing about it for years, and decided to give it a go when I wanted to start posting some 'world building' short stories to do with a novel series I have planned. I wanted to post them to see how audiences reacted, as the idea is quite complicated at first, to see if I should go ahead with writing this novel or not. So I made an account, wrote the first piece, and posted it, expecting it to magically gain readers like my work has done in the past.
You see, for six years now, I've been posting on official forums, fanfiction.net and AO3, and there I've barely had to do any advertising to get readers. I simply posted my work and watched the view count rise, only really bothering to tweet and post links to tumblr simply to inform anybody who followed me that things like that were available if they wanted to check out my writing. But most of my readership came from the website itself, they just somehow discovered my work, and that was that.
With Wattpad though, it's different. The website has a far, far larger readership than I could have possibly imagined, and so many more books out there too. This means that finding readers is incredibly difficult, new authors get lost in a sea of more popular and experienced authors, and generally don't get noticed without some serious self promotion. The thought was very daunting, as I didn't have a clue on where to start with that, but I've started to figure it out.
Here's what I've learnt so far:
Firstly, tagging your work is important. When posting stories to Wattpad, tags work a treat, as your story is then put in with all the other stories also tagged with that thing. So when someone is searching for, let's say, vampire work, yours will also come up with the rest of that work. That's half your job sorted already.
Second, an interesting cover and blurb go a long way. Even after tagging, nobody is going to click on a book and start reading if they don't know what it's about. So putting an eye catching blurb will help draw people in. The cover is a great advert too, it draws people in, be it by the colours, or the images on it. Nobody clicks on work which is simply the blurred out version of the author's profile picture. But before you all start shouting I CAN'T PHOTOSHOP! at me, there's an app to help out, I'm not sure if it's on android, but at least on apple products, there's an app specifically for Wattpad which allows you to make covers. It provides with thousands of images, text fonts and effects for your work, so it's easy to whip up a cover. I did mine in five minutes flat, and I have never touched photoshop in my life, so anyone can do it!
Thirdly, get involved with the clubs. There's a club section on Wattpad, where you can talk to other readers and writers about anything you want. So get in there and start talking to people, from my experience they're very accommodating and lovely people, who will accept anybody. All you do is start replying on threads, and soon you'll have people talking back to you, just like anywhere else on the internet. The difference is that here, you can talk about your work, talk about the bits you find difficult, the bits you find the best to write, and also get help when you need it too. With these comments, it is possibly to interest someone enough to see what you're writing, and you may just get a reader out of it. At the very least you'll find some like-minded writers, which is still a huge resource in your arsenal as a writer. A word of warning though - do NOT just post comments saying READ MY WORK, READY MY WORK or anything of the sort, you will soon become very, very unpopular and possibly kicked off the site. Be polite and respectful, discuss your work, but don't shamelessly post pleads for people to read your story everywhere.
Fourthly, join a book club. There's literally hundreds of book clubs on Wattpad, where other authors will read chapters of your work and comment on them, providing you do the same for them. They can provide constructive criticism when it is needed, and offer opinions which can really help you with your story. It's better to know that something isn't working and fix it, than stare at it and not figure out why you don't have anybody reading your work. The book clubs also work as an advertising agent too, and gets people reading your story, a lot of the time, people who read your story as part of the book club stay on to read more, continuing to leave comments. And when others who find it by chance see that it has a lot of reads/comments/votes, they'll be more likely to read it too. Book clubs are basically a win win situation, giving you views and comments on your stories, and that can never be a bad thing!
Fifthly, read and comment on other's work. Reading and comment on other people's work gains you friends, and lets others know that you're out there. Some may see your profile in the comments and click on your profile to check you out, and then go on to read your story. Some writers do it too, they see someone who loves their story and decide to check out yours. Also, just commenting on other people's work makes them feel good, and there's some amazing stories out there, so go and read them so you don't miss out.
And lastly, post the links online everywhere! I've said this before in a video on my youtube channel, but seriously, post the links everywhere. Post on twitter and tumblr, tag them in both places too! Post the link to your story on all your social media, so as many people see it as possible. There will be people out there who will click the link to see what you're posting about, and so will gain you some readers, or at least some reads. Give it a go, it can't hurt to try.
I've tried all those things and it's actually not going too badly for me at the moment, I'm not currently getting the viewership I had hoped for, but I am getting there, and that's the main thing. It's making me appreciate the process more than ever, before readers almost dropped into my lap, now I'm working for it, which I feel is better for me (and possibly my ego). It's a steady process, and I must say I'm enjoying it.
So if you were thinking of joining Wattpad and posting stuff yourself, I would recommend you do it, but be prepared to spend a lot of time advertising and networking. It takes up a lot of time, but it is worth it in the end. I hope this blog helps in some small way or other.
Oh, and if you want to check out my Wattpad profile, it's here.