While I did one link to Writing Excuses with http://ethesis.blogspot.com/2011/08/writing-excuses-podcasts-comments.html I've decided to put the rest here.
This is about a novel where you have to kill Sauron in every chapter (inspired by one of their podcasts).
It hit me as we sat plotting (which is all anyone ever does). "Where did Sauron Nine Lives get his name?"
Kara snorted, the beer sputtering everywhere. "You idiot, everyone knows it has to do with the fact he is alive in nine places, nine bodies at once. That is why we are having such a hard time figuring out how to kill him."
"No, I know that. Sheesh. Where did the 'Sauron' part of his name come from?"
Dead silence. "Uhh."
"Never mind" I said, "Now we just have to figure out how to kill him nine times -- maybe ten or eleven if we don't do it fast enough and he brings a body or two back while we are at it."
And that is how you write a novel where you kill Sauron in every chapter. ;)
Next, how to write a YA novel where the first person narrator, protagonist/heroine gets eaten at the start of Chapter 2 and parts of it are written in second person imperative.
Someone made a comment about killing Sauron in every chapter. Which made me think, how would you do a novel if the entire novel was about killing the villain in every chapter? Easy enough, make it so you have to kill him a *lot* of times ...
ReplyDeleteProbably make it so your conspiracy gets pushed off high center by someone else killing him at least once, they you start killing him, then it is a race to be the one to get credit for killing him to prevent someone worse from taking control.
So you are trying to kill him and keep someone else from killing him at the same time -- and maybe a reason to even let him rebirth himself at least once (which gives you a soft twist and an additional layer of conflict).