On the power of death in fiction

Death in real life is rather a potent thing when it is happening to ones you know. Its impact upon an individual lessens though, the more distant it becomes and also the more someone becomes used to the idea of people dying. But death nearly always remains a big kick to the heart for those watching loved ones leave them.

In fiction death is somewhat similar. The deaths of main characters we're close to and wrapped up in are the most potent. Then come those we see as red shirts of even the rattled off stats that result from Darth Vader blowing up a planet. These deaths mean little to us except as plot devices and sometimes points of humour. The further from the main character the death is the less we care. Purely because it is through the main character's eyes that we see the world.

In this way the vast majority of deaths in fiction mean almost nothing to the reader or watcher. They are just things that happen and the drama of a scene comes mainly from the main character's reactions or even their ability to avoid death while everyone else succumbs. Death in this instance is nothing much but a plot device or a reflection of reality so we can understand our own.

Which leaves the most contentious problem with death. That is the death of a main character. In modern fiction, with all its varieties, there is a distinct possibility for the character to die, nearly die or die multiple times on a reader or viewer. Traditionally the deaths of main characters are used to tie up a story and the near deaths to create drama and demand our attention as the problems revolving around the near death are resolved.

This is what we've expected from our fiction for most of our reading and watching history. And by our I mean all our storytelling history. Only occasionally would a character die more than once and in such cases it was less for drama and more for the point of maintaining mythology or highlighting a power structure. The repeated deaths weren't solely for the sake of creating drama that entangled the audience further in the story.

Today, as you can guess from previous remarks, there is a plague of never dying yet constantly dying characters. They die for cliff hangers. The die multiple times in a row so that their real deaths have more impact than their previous ones or the deaths of those around them. And they die and return continually so that the story can continue and be cashed in on. 

Now here's where main character deaths become a little strange in their impact. There is a large response to the first deaths of course, as can be expected when someone fairly close to you dies. This is because of the identification and connection many of us build with main characters. But this uproar at a character's death diminishes as the character continues to die and return. The connection we build and our understanding of their situation is gradually severed as none of us in reality have such luxuries. At best someone resuscitates us one or two times and we suffer. Rarely do we come back kicking and fighting and totally whole again.

To the audience, the main character's importance slowly becomes like that of the video game POV character. We end up counting damage and expecting monsters to pop up to blast away. We sit back and become lulled by the repetitiveness of the story. The reasons we continue to watch or read become less drama orientated and more to just find out how it ends, to continue our lifestyle patterns of sitting down at a certain time of day and watching a certain show, because the characters are known while other stories demand we restart with new ones.

When a character dies not just once or twice but six or seven times, maybe even more, there is little sympathy or empathy left for most of us. In fact, there's a little relief that the story is finally wrapped up. Or that the character can be changed so the story moves on with a so called fresh start. To overcome this relief the writers and creators of such stories try to recreate the impact of the main character's first death by making the final one special is some way.

Stringing out the final death scenes, killing them to have them pop up again to be killed once more, creating stranger and stranger death scenes are all ways of making sure the impact returns to what it once was. Unfortunately, such devices don't work well. We are shocked, maybe, when they pop up again but only because of the adrenaline rush and not the event. We get tired mid strung out death scene and begin to not care whether they end up dying properly or not so the final impact is one of relief, detached acceptance or what can be rather accurately described as a state of "meh". And finally with stranger death scenes we become a little too interested in how they die more than the fact that they die.

So with this bland result becoming known some writers have gone to the extent of killing of their characters one after another. The deaths aren't repeated but rather happening at a rate faster than we're currently familiar with, drawing us in by way of curiosity over who's going to bite the bullet next if not for the various character's actions while they're fleetingly alive. This is all well and good for a while but some audience members will become detached from a story once their favourite character dies as they just don't give a damn about the others and some audience members will detach from the story because there's just too much to keep track of, too many characters disappearing and too many high tension points that cause stress. Where's the point of relaxation if the multiple death's are written well? The impact of maintaining of an increased level of tension is another matter to write about but I will say that when it is created through the application of death that it can be wearing on the system. And wearing is just a step to the side of tiring with a similar result.

All in all, it has actually come to the point where I don't recommend the use of repeated death as a way of creating drama. Death's impact is always greatest in its first instance. Its power only remains for about one more turn but that turn needs to be final. Its impact is also increased by the fact that it isn't a daily or weekly occurrence. This does mean that the art of storytelling has to take a bit of a step back as far as many of those writing and creating now are concerned. But really, the devices we use to repeatedly bring back characters, like time travel and magic and futuristic medicine remain and can be used at any point to create drama that doesn't involve the main characters repeatedly dying. Remember, this applies to main characters only so the mass deaths of red shirts and the unknown can continue on as usual as far as I'm concerned.

Although, just how many times can New York be destroyed before we just don't give a damn?

Oh, and just as a little note: the story is about life not death. There isn's as much in death as there is in life unless you're into writing on mythological subjects.

On the pros and cons of story idea generators

There are such things as story idea generators for first time writers or even experienced writers to use to help them come up with a story. But with any such programme there are several pros and cons that need to be looked at carefully before carrying through with any idea generated or even before using or buying the programme. I thought I'd list a few to help a writer or hopeful make the decision on their own rather than preaching this or that to them.

Also, I should mention that there are plot and character generators out there as well but no matter the type of generator the below should be applicable.

Pros

• A quick solution can be found when you're struggling for an idea.
• The most common or famed themes and issues that sell well will be accessed to produce the idea.
• The most common or famed characters and events will be accessed to produce the idea.
• No need to worry about writer's block (or so a lull in the imagination is called).
• They provide ideas for practice writing much like exam questions.
• Come up with ideas you're unlikely to have thought of.
• They help you learn what you have to consider while initially structuring a book.
• You can create a list of ideas and pick the best.
• They help you analyse your writing.
• They may help you start writing even if you don't follow the idea or plot given to the letter.
• Its easier to write when you don't have to do half the work.
• For writers so far unsuccessful in creating complex plots or characters these give some assistance when it comes to writing a potentially publishable piece.
• If you have most of the story together but are missing a character or an event then these might provide the missing information.

Cons

• The idea is touted to be perfect, usually meaning artistically or with regards to publication opportunities, but perfect is rarely found in the publishing world and usually has to do with the originality matching with marketability and writing skills. Writing works very similar to old classics or best sellers or even ones full of stereotypes or predictable events won't generally impress an agent or publisher. Such works can also be too close to plagiarism to be publishable.
• Much like exam questions, they can leave you feeling blank and uninspired and because of that, stupid. This is not a good emotion for a writer as writers have to at least suspend most of their self-criticism until the first draft is done.
• Idea generators come up with ideas you're unlikely to have thought of which are sometimes fine and sometimes not. If you are unlikely to have thought of the idea or character you'll likely find it much harder to write on the subject or about the character's motivations, thoughts and emotions. Without such inspiration the story will almost certainly read as flat and lifeless. That's if you manage to write the complete story in the first place as without inspiration it is rather difficult to write at length.
• There are much better and more appropriate ways of learning how to structure books, many of which are free. Joining a writer's group will always help. Picking up a book on editing and publishing will show you the other side of the industry. Talking to book sellers and keeping an eye on the latest publications in your chosen genre also gives you an idea of genre trends. And above all, reading other people's works gives you information on structure, writing styles, genre trends, book length, characterisation etc (free if you have a library card).
• A list of ideas that aren't your own is no more useful that a single idea not your own. Inspiration often comes from your own thoughts, feelings and experiences on events and issues related to you. Even if you are gleaning a story from a newspaper article, the reason for your inspiration is your empathy, sympathy, shock, awe etc.
• Analyse your writing against a particular model and adjusting accordingly only gets you closer to a bland but mass marketable read. I say mass marketable as it could be sold pretty much anywhere but without that spark the bland book likely won't sell as well as expected.
• Relying on other people's work, which culminates in a programme, instead of your own imagination can lead to lesser ideas being worked on.
• Compromising on a piece of writing can leave you feeling empty when most writers end up feeling like they've written down a little bit of their heart and soul.

There are likely more points to be added but after this you can see where I stand. If you aren't extremely stuck then search out your own inspiration and draw on your own knowledge. That's what reader's are often interested in, even if it is reformatted into fiction. Actually, especially so for fiction lovers as not everyone's biography will be interesting but their thoughts, impressions and life lessons might well be. But all this isn't to say that you can't take a little boost in your writing abilities from an idea generator. If you're starting out or a little stuck filling in the gaps in your story they might help but I believe the best approach if you are going to use one is to mix a little of your own ideas and a little of theirs. Don't let the programme write everything for you or you'll just be writing a boring essay.

Fans having a say in a story's ending

Allowing fans to have a say in a story's ending has a longer history than many readers and writers realise. For the greater part, its history revolves around serialisation of publications, serialisation also having an extraordinarily long history. One Thousand and One Nights was published as a series of stories. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales was written tale by tale within an overarching structure although it is difficult to tell how they were originally printed. Early tales on Arthurian legend was built up not just by revision after revision but section by section. The Bible was constructed in sections and pieced together at a later date (I am not entering the fact/fiction debate but have included this title as it is an incredibly famous piece of serialised writing).

Canterbury Tales manuscript

But serialised books, the publication of books in succeeding parts, became vastly popular during the nineteenth century with the rise of newspapers and magazines. As a way of garnering a wide and stable audience and a steady living authors published chapters weekly or monthly in the magazine or newspaper of their choice (or the other way round depending on how the deals were made).

Charles Dickens, beginning with The Pickwick Papers in 1836, had his works published chapter by chapter. He listened to public response before he continued on, making sure the readers got what they needed even as he followed his own plot lines. Acceptance in a magazine or newspaper was not for those starting out or producing short works or inferior work, it was more for those who produced high quality pieces. Other famous authors who did likewise were Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry James, Herman Melville, Gustave Flaubert, Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky.

The original The Pickwick Papers

Serial publication continues to this day although to a lesser extent in newspapers and magazines, which now focus on the news and producing short advisory pieces for mass consumption. Along with fading publication opportunities went an author's acceptance of fan feedback as well as fan guided plotting. Authors now generally love positive feedback, are baffled, upset or annoyed by aggressive or negative feedback and fret over stalkers and the unsolicited questioning and demands from strangers. The direct connection and acceptance of fan feedback was affected by stranger danger, Internet stalking, a greater awareness of the need for privacy and the idea that authors are the sole owners of their works, as promoted by copyright.

All such things are valid enough but they do detract from the connection Dickens would have had with his readers. The Internet and multimedia have gone a long way towards reintroducing fan feedback but the connection is generally disjointed, with no great roar for a particular plot direction but rather hundreds of voices demanding or suggesting different things. Feedback is sometimes too intrusive for the author and the demand for plot changes unwanted. Mostly, the author and publisher already have their plans and little the fans say will change them.

Still, serialisation of books continues despite the involvement of fan feedback in plotting being reduced by the standard processes of novel publication. Serialisation has become the continued story of a set of characters over several books, called a series, rather than the publication of single chapters at a time. The great roar of fan feedback has changed to the mass popularity and demand for continued titles of those series that have become multi-formatted phenomena. Books are in some ways like comics to the masses with regards to the need for more information on a single set of characters.

The Harry Potter series

But out of all the genres and all the books sold there is a rather extraordinary type of story telling that involves fan guided plotting to a greater extent than any other. It is the Choose Your Own Adventure genre or series or publication, however you like to look at it. Series is a generally accepted term so I'll stick with that.

Choose Your Own Adventure books were based on a concept of Edward Packard's. They originally appeared as Adventures Of You, beginning with Packard's Sugarcane Island in 1976. Choose Your Own Adventure books were of the most popular children's series during the 1980s-1990s and sold over 250 million copies from 1979-98.

Choose Your Own Adventure books

Personally, I was a fan. As a child I'd read them forwards, then backwards starting from a winning page and then backwards again multiple times to figure out how many different ways I could die. Endless amusement if you counted in the fact that there was a whole shelf of them at the library. I died so many different ways. Exploding in space being one of the most interesting ones to me then.

But as a fan, a young and not very connected to mass cultural fads fan, I had no concept of being able to provide feedback to an author with regards to plot direction. But with Choose Your Own Adventure books what I did do was directly alter the plot as I read. I could, in fact, choose what I wanted to happen and read on, whether forwards or backwards, winning or losing. I cannot tell you how great an impact it had on me but suffice it to say I will always be a fan of this type of fiction even if it does go out of favour and print.

Aside from allowing extensive reader guidance of plot, Choose Your Own Adventure books also provides a small glimpse into what it was like to be an author like Dickens. Dickens sought popular acclaim and delighted in his works being admired by the masses. After each chapter or section was published he could track his popularity by the sales of the publication, gather popular opinion on what should happen and why as well as adjust his stories or the publications to gain wide/r reader acceptance (only some adjustments are documented but he did take his readers into account and played with their expectations to gain the greatest response - this does not mean he always wrote what they wanted). "Readers, periodically renewing acquaintance with Dickens' characters over nineteen months, came to think of them as living people; and they did not hesitate to communicate to the author their hopes and fears over what future instalments might hold in store." - Dickens And His Readers. Dickens was one to respect the admiration for and connection of readers to his characters and so he endeavoured not to disappoint.

Does this sound much like what it is to deal with fans over the Internet nowadays? "I have had a pretty large experience of the interest my hearers are so generous as to take in these occasions, and of the delight they give to me, as a tried means of strengthening those relations — I may almost say of personal friendship — which it is my great privilege and pride, as it is my great responsibility, to hold with a multitude of persons who will never hear my voice nor see my face." This feeling of immediate connection and responsibility over an unknown reader's reactions has returned with the Internet as it is quicker and easier than ever for readers to respond to events within a book. Immediate response, as all salesmen and buyers known, counts a great deal.

Dickens always wrote to his own plan but he did take readers into account far more than the latest round of published authors. He especially took note of the opinions of those who were a source of inspiration for him and of those he respected and sort to acclaim from. He was like a thespian in this respect, a politician in others and a dancer upon the public stage. When he performed he did it with the intention of capturing attention with his story, not with the intention of filling his pockets. He loved performing for an audience, no matter how, and he did it extremely well.

Charles Dickens performing

Choose Your Own Adventures takes this reader plot guidance to a whole new level. Instead of an author asking of or listening to readers the books simply set out all the options available to a character at each vital stage of the story and you, dear reader and self made protagonist by reading, get to follow the path you'd like or want. What happens after that is on your own head.

As far as fan input into the creation and ending of a story goes, the best has already been done. This does not mean that an author couldn't or shouldn't do something fan based but that an extremely brilliant idea will be required to top either Choose Your Own Adventures or the lost times of direct feedback and involvement created by closely knit media, performance and audience response.

A brief mention on performance: I wrote earlier of multi formats for a single story gaining an author vast amounts of feedback. This is a rare thing as only a few authors find their works popular in multi formats even if they do appear in such. Performance on stage or through movies garners the greatest response. Even Dickens valued performance. He would hold readings and enact scenes in ways to purposely terrify or move the audience with their intensity.

To gain wide enough public feedback to appropriately alter a plot line so as to gain further public acclaim may mean an author will need to jump through a great many hoops. Authors, often a little shy or introverted or unwilling to take the spotlight, may need to get up on stage and perform in order to successfully become writers of fan-guided fiction. Either that or send someone else in your place and pay them. Oh, and remember that performance doesn't necessarily mean on stage or camera. Readings, interviews etc count as well but these would have to be consistent and extremely engaging if you want to create popular acclaim enough to get feedback to follow. By this point I believe you would have already established yourself as an author who didn't follow fan guidance so a change of image would mean starting all over again in gaining popularity.

Where you will be

Authors of fan-guided fiction who don't write their own ideas over those of another are in fact puppets to popularity. I am not denigrating the role of a puppet, just making sure you as the prospective author of fan-guided fiction know just what you have to do. Dance, perform, listen, accede to wishes or apologise for not and largely forgo your own ideas. It is a difficult life to do such things so be prepared. A job in the service industry will help you gain experience.