On Writing: Anticipation Part 1
Ok, so I have to kill a character. I’m not giving anything away by lamenting this. It’s discussed early and often in my story*and I, of all people, should be used to the idea since I came up with the whole plot in the first place. And yet, I’m having a terrible time typing out the words.
A big part of the problem is that this character became much more engaging and likable while I was writing. It’s going to be very sad for one of my main characters, and I am, quite frankly, a little worried about how he’s going to handle this death moving forward.
This is countered by a huge break through in emotional arc and pay-off for the other main character. I had this brainstorm over Memorial Day weekend about how to end (this part of) my story, but I had absolutely no idea how to get there. Last night, while not really intending to write much at all, I quit thinking so much and realized that I had a perfect opportunity to right efficiently pull a bunch of loose ends together. I’m feeling pretty good about this development, which is making my death hesitancy really annoying. How can it end up being so easy to write something that seems really trick and so hard to write something I’ve been ramping up for since about the first page?
*whatever I’m writing is, at the time, referred to as “my story” almost exclusively. It’s euphemistic and comforting.