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!

Starting New Projects

First of all, I must apologise for the lack of updates recently, blame a 20th birthday, a tonne of assignments, preparing for a house move, and a new project, which is what I want to talk about in this blog.
Recently I started a new project, and by project, I mean a new story. I'd finished my old one (finally, after changing my self imposed finish date four times) and had had this idea in my head for a long time, so I had been excited to start it. The only problem was that I didn't know where to start.
One of the worst parts of being a writer is finding a place to start. So often a project sounds perfect inside the mind, but when it gets put on paper, it falls to pieces, or holes start appearing, or sometimes the story logistics get changed round. What's more, you have to get a feel for the characters again, find the voices of these people, possibly world build around them, and basically start from scratch. And that is difficult. We get so caught up in our projects that when we have to let go of them to start a new one, it's hard to let go. I've been a victim of this time and time again.
Even when I have been writing a sequel, I find it quite hard to get into the new story, even when it is the same characters I've been writing for a long time. Keeping them consistent is hard, as is keeping their voice flowing, and I think it's because it's the daunting idea of the new story that causes it.
But new characters in new stories are the toughest offenders. Characters, plot, setting and everything has to be reintroduced. Old stories have to be forgotten about, everything is fresh. You can't get into the plot and sink your teeth in because you have to establish things, and get a feel for what you're writing. And it's tough, so, so tough. To be perfectly honest, it's one of the things I hate the most about writing, because it's so hard to get things flowing in a new story. Of course I know I can rewrite later on, but I like to get everything going ASAP, and when I can't get the details right, I can't move forward. I get stuck, feeling desperate to just get on with it, but unable to until the details are right, especially when they're essential to further the plot later on.
I need to learn to control this perfectionism, but at the moment, it feels impossible.
It's murder on the brain, and can be a great one way ticket to the horrible land of Writers Block, something every writer wants to avoid. All I can do in this situation is push through, do my best, and tweak as needed later on. Book openings have to be written, characters need introductions, setting needs to be placed, and plot needs to be at least hinted at before anything else can happen. It's the hardest thing, but it's worth it. The time used writing introductions etc helps to introduce me as a writer to the characters, and everything else, to give me a feel for how this book (or draft at least) is going to turn out. From the introducing paragraphs, I can ascertain just how dark it's going to be written in, what POV I'm writing from, as well as tense and everything else.
I like to view these hard first few paragraphs the testers, to where I can prepare myself for what I'm getting myself into, and know what kind of thing I'm subconsciously going for with the story. I can set out my tone and get a feel for my new story, so I know where I need to go from here. It also helps me figure out if I need to go back to the drawing board and plan out a few more things. I've found it's so much harder to write myself out of a plot hole when writing the middle section of a book, than it is to write myself out when I'm at the beginning.
Basically, this long, winding post that probably doesn't make sense (it's late, straight after a bank holiday weekend, and I'm writing this after I melted my brain on assignments, don't blame me) is trying to say that really, beginnings are a struggle, but a good thing. Beginnings are needed to introduce you the writer to the story, and gives you the chance to go back to the drawing board if needs be. It's so hard to write, and sometimes you just want to jump the gun and get on with it, but it's worth it. In fact, it's a necessity. So don't skip your beginnings, don't leave them until the end of the book to write. Go and write them now, if they suck, you can tweak them later, but for now, get the testing ground going. You'll thank me later.

Too Much To Write!

I currently have a serious problem, I have far too much to write! To a writer, that may sound like a really good thing, so there's always something to write. But currently it's causing a problem for me - I can't figure out what to write and more importantly, when. 
Currently, I have this blog, my vlog channel, two fan fics and my Wattpad one shots to write, and it is scary to think about. Really, it's scaring me a bit to think about it all! Now, as a rule, I prioritize my fan fics, as I'm posting them on a regular basis. This means that both of those are my go-to with writing, but then that means I forget about everything else. Take this blog for example, it's been three weeks since I wrote an actual post, which is not what I wanted for this! I wanted to write a blog post a week, yet this hasn't happened. The same can be said for my youtube channel, and my Wattpad story.
The youtube channel is fairing a bit better, as I've managed to (for the most part) get a vlog up a week for a while, but the Wattpad story is suffering like this blog. And I hate it.
One of my pet hates is leaving these things for weeks on end, leaving anybody possibly interested wondering if I will ever update again. As a general rule, I don't post anything I don't plan on finishing, but others don't know that, so I am potentially losing readers by not updating regularly. But I really do forget to write these things, and if I do remember, I have nothing to write! It's a terrible catch 22, but that's how my brain is working right now.
So what do I do? Do I dedicate a day to write each thing? Do I set myself reminders? That's no promise for me to get something up. I don't know what to do! AHHHHHH!
Currently, I'm just hoping this problem doesn't get worse when I get back to uni, when I'm so exhausted I can barely think straight. Though, alternatively, I could be given some inspiration from whatever my lecture has been about, or something else that has happened in the day. Also, I'll be on long train journeys, so I could have some time before I get too tired to write. Who knows? I sure as hell don't! I'm hoping for the best, but there's no promises, as there never is.
Oh, the writer's life, such hardship...