Sunday, March 15, 2020

Dead Is Dead - Or Is It?


*kitty is not actually dead
Our topic this week at the SFF Seven is: Beware the Ides of March: Fav/Most Intriguing Method of (Fictitious) Murder.

Do I get to pick pandemic??

Seriously, it’s kind of creepy that Calendar Maven K.A. Krantz picked this topic while we’re all practicing social distancing to #flattenthecurve on COVID-19—and she picked it months ago, before she could possibly know this would happen.

Or did she?

I mean, a global pandemic sounds like a great Evil Mastermind Plot…

Anyway, all of this is to day that I don’t really think about types of murder. Just not my thing. I occasionally have to kill off characters, but I tend to do it in efficient, not very interesting ways. I guess I figure dead is dead and I don’t have a lot of morbid curiosity about how to get people that way.

Probably this is why I don’t write murder mysteries.

Is this something you all pay attention to as readers? Are there more interesting deaths than others? Do you have a favorite fictional death?

6 comments:

  1. You know I have a soft spot for zombies, so I'd say that counts as a favorite fictional death.
    Also: not every author can write deaths well. I could tell by how Snape's death was described that Rowling didn't like him, for example. The deaths of her favorite characters were all very badly written or happening off the page. I had to reread a certain death three times before I understood it was supposed to be the death of a character.
    I'm also not a fan of deaths that don't move the story forward but are just for dramatic effect

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    Replies
    1. I suppose that makes sense, that some authors write deaths better than others. I'd venture that most of my deaths happen off the page. But yeah - death as a dramatic effect? Not my thing

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  2. Man, if I've got the Sight, it's taken its sweet time letting me know! ~slinks off to secret chambers filled with arcane...dragon stuffies.~

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