Okay, so this is another "two birds, one stone" moment, where I participate in this month's AbsoluteWrite blog chain, and post my A-Z entry for the letter J. At first we were going to interview our characters, but then orion_mk3 came up with an even cooler idea - have our characters interview us!).
I have decided to give the reins to the ghost of one of my characters, JD. FYI, "JD" is just what I'm calling him (his name does start with J, but in the novel(s) he's called by his full name, not JD). So, let's see how I fared under JD's interrogation:
JD appears to me in my dreams, crossing his arms and frowning at me. “So, what’s with all these ‘J’ names? I mean, you’ve got Jared, you’ve got Jules, and then there’s me! What is it, a J fixation or something?”
I tilt my head in thought. “Honestly? It just happened that way. Don’t accuse me of having some master J-name plan or something, because I didn’t.”
He shrugs. “Okay, take it easy! But look, I really want to know—why’d you have to kill me off? What’d I ever do to you?”
“I’m sorry about that—I really am. But I had to kill off the absolute nicest character I could find—and you qualified. At least you went down happy, right?”
“Well, that’s true,” he says thoughtfully. “I was doing what I love best. Still, I brought such shame on my bandmates—did you ever think how my death would impact them?”
“I’m really sorry, but it had to happen.”
He lifts his brows. “Okay, don’t even say it was for character development! I’ve heard that one too many times.”
“But you’ve got to admit Jared and Louise were just way too pukeishly happy—I had to mess it up for them somehow, didn’t I?”
“Still!” he protests, “They’re such good people! And they’d already gone through so much.”
“Listen, I was hurting too, man! I was hurting for them. But as Louise herself once said, ‘Life needs the ups and downs...doesn’t it?’ So in a way, she kind of asked for it.”
JD’s eyes flash with anger, an emotion he very rarely felt while he was living. “That’s crap! You need to seriously rethink what you do for kicks—killing people off, throwing spanners in works, tearing lovers apart.”
“Gee, JD, I’ve gotta say, you’re a lot more feisty as a ghost.”
He frowns. “I’ve had a lot of time to stew in my own angry juices, I guess.”
“But at least you got teamed up with Orestes in the afterlife, right?”
“True,” he says with reluctance. “That dude is hilarious.”
“He is. And I’m glad you guys get along.”
JD mutters to himself. “Still, it’s no excuse!”
“Look, is there anything else you wanted to ask? I’ve got to get going...I’ve just finished draft #3 of book 1 and I need to get onto the next version.”
He rolls his eyes. “All right—one last question. Those two are gonna be happy in the end, right?”
“Oh yeah, don’t worry. Credits will roll and the audience will be left with one seriously huge Happily Ever After.” After a moment I add, “Any future misery will be off camera.”
“Errr...that doesn’t really reassure me much...”
“Seriously,” I say, reaching out to squeeze JD’s hand. “It’s going to be okay. Now you really should go off and rest in peace.”
With that, he begins to fade.
And here's a list of other participants:
orion_mk3 - http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com
LadyMage - http://katherinegilraine.com
COchick - http://joannchaney.blogspot.com
Steam&Ink - http://steamandink.blogspot.com
xcomplex - http://www.arielemerald.blogspot.com
pezie - http://www.erinbrambilla.com
aimeelaine - http://www.aimeelaine.com/blog
auburnassassin - http://clairegillian.com
Della Odell - http://dellaodell.wordpress.com
Juniper - http://www.katjuniper.com
Proach - http://desstories.blogspot.com
dolores haze - http://dianedooley.wordpress.com/
Considering you offed him and all, I think JD handled that pretty well :). Rest in peace, JD, it sounds like your death was for the greater good.
ReplyDeleteI like how you wrote the interview more as a flash fiction.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I say 'I like' or 'I love' too much in comments, but a comment doesn't have to be perfect right?
Also, I was wondering, how did you get your labels in all caps? I've tried to do that with some but they just change back into lowercase after I save.
Brooke, I left you a comment answering your question :) and no, comments do NOT have to be perfect. lol
ReplyDeleteErincb - yeah, I think he was well set up already. He was the kind of guy who NEVER had an angry word or thought. In life, at least ;)
This is great :) I kind of want to try the technique, just as an experiment, see what I can learn. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteSarah Allen
(my creative writing blog)
Sarah, it was interesting :) But I had a hard time choosing a character :D
ReplyDeleteTrisha, I really enjoyed that! It makes me wonder how annoyed my characters are... I always kill of the nice ones! Or the bland ones. Sometimes the evil ones...
ReplyDeleteOne day I'm going to try to write a book where NOBODY dies. Wish me luck :D
LOL, loved the interview ;)
ReplyDeleteFollowing you from A-Z challenge!
That was fun! Cute to interview a character you've killed off! :)
ReplyDeleteVery nice. I like the device of dreaming, and of course the idea of a character arguing with their creator over their literary demise is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteI also highly recommend using the phrase "spanner in the works" as a shibboleth. Your Australian readers will be bemused and your American readers will be confused.
I love the way you did this interview . . . especially the argument over the character's death! LOL.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting on my blog!
Interesting interview. If I were JD, I'd be a hell of a lot angier. I mean--he took it all so well. Its awesome being able to meet your characters in your dream. Its happened to me.
ReplyDeleteProach
Yes, I think it was handled well too. JD was very understanding.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to following your posts and writing in the future. Hood to make your acuaintance.
Warm wishes
Debbie
Nice interview, he really is one feisty ghost, lol.
ReplyDeleteBTW, did I miss your email somehow? You won the Lost and Found Blogfest over at mine.
Thanks everyone who stopped by :) Something you must understand about JD - he's a truly lovely person, he'd be less likely to be angry than sad :P
ReplyDeleteLove it. I never even considered having my character discuss the decisions I've made with her fate. Really well thought out!
ReplyDeleteWell done!
ReplyDeleteWow!!
ReplyDeleteJD seems cool!! Eagerly waiting to check him. Don't forget to have a look at my entry. I signed up kinda late!!
with warm regards
CatchyTips for Writers
Aw, poor old JD. He seems so nice.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys, glad you enjoyed! And diane, he really is nice. Much nicer while alive than he was even as a ghost ;)
ReplyDeleteCute banter. That was a fun read.
ReplyDeleteThanks Claire :)
ReplyDeleteI love the back and forth. I think JD would be mad at me as well. I kill off a 'nice' character in my novel...maybe they can meet up and spend their time complaining about their horrid creators. :p
ReplyDeleteHehe, nice idea Della :D
ReplyDeleteI'm going to kill off another 'nice' character in this year's NaNo. d'oh for her! ;)
JD took that a lot better than I would expect someone in his... condition to take it.
ReplyDeleteIf to make someone happier or have emotion growth, you knock someone off, remind me to never get on your bad side... or good side... or... I wasn't here ;)
DR - hehehe, well so far I've kept my "useful eliminations" to just fiction, so don't panic :D
ReplyDelete