Avoiding Clichés Like the Plague

Setting and Character Deaths

This is one topic that I feel should be pretty obvious. I mean, come on, how badly can you screw the time and place of your story? Especially when it's modern day New York? Well, apparently you can screw it up pretty badly.

Generally, the stories you find in this fandom take place from 1995-2009, in New York City or on the Long Island Sound (which is still part of New York.) Yes, I'll have you know that through critical analysis, I determined that the Son of Neptune takes place in 2009, not 2011 as so many people think. Look at the timeline yourself. It makes perfect sense. So what does this mean? It means that you can't have people talking about the earthquake that happened in March.

As I had mentioned, lots of the stories here take place in New York City, and Percy lives in Manhattan. Now, I don't live in Manhattan, but I can tell you this much: Nobody owns a house there. People rent apartments. That's where they live for their entire lives. The whole island (and it's not very big) is covered in skyscrapers, with the exception of Central Park. No, Percy didn't live in an apartment because they didn't have much money. People who are well-off, people who are more than well-off, people who are struggling financially, they all live in apartments. And seeing as how Percy's current building isn't too far from Central Park, I'd say they're doing fine with money. Owning a house in Manhattan has got to be nearly impossible, if at all. It's probably a bit like teaching a penguin to recite Shakespeare. Real estate is crazy there. Actually, I invite you to go to Google maps right now, go to street view anywhere in Manhattan, and look up. What do you see? High rises. There's no room for houses.

People also seem to have a lot of trouble describing the setting. There appear to be two types of writers: The first, who doesn't describe the setting at all and leaves you guessing as to how the character ended up in a house rather than the park, and since when was there a closet in that hallway? And the second kind, who put so much (often repeated) description in that you actually lose track of what's going on in the story. It's the same as what I said about character description. Balance is the key to success. It also helps if you know something about the place in which your story takes place.

Oh, and for the record, Percy does say in The Last Olympian that it's against the rules for two campers to be in the same cabin by themselves. Reread the book if you don't believe me. So enough with the stories in which Annabeth gets pregnant at camp. Actually, enough with those pregnant stories in general.

This chapter was originally supposed to be about setting, but I feel like I need to go over character deaths. People often get too attached to their characters to kill them off, but sometimes it must be done to make the story better. So, try not to fall in love with your characters. You can have feelings about them, (this helps you write them more realistically) but don't grow so fond that you can't let go. People die. It happens.

As it turns out, writing about a character dying is really, really hard. Describing the death in too much detail creates a really gruesome or sappy description. For example, The Hunger Games has really violent and disturbing deaths. And I have read countless attempts at dramatic deaths that turn out being ridiculous and funny. Now, if you happen to write something really beautiful in a death scene, don't throw it away. Get someone else to read it. You never know if it's good until people give their honest opinions. And if someone thinks it's great, by all means put it in.

Now I'd like to use an example from Harry Potter:

"And then with a little shudder the elf became quite still, and his eyes were nothing more that great, glassy orbs sprinkled with light from stars they could not see."

-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, page 385

Well, I don't know if anyone else did, but I cried during that bit. And when I reread it, I still choke up a bit. Then again, I am part of the Harry Potter generation. Lots of people said that Dobby's death made them bawl their eyes out, so I think we should go over what makes it so effective. Oh dear lord, I sound like an English teacher.

There are three things that really make this part so great. The first is the writing. The second is the build up. And the third is the character.

So, the writing. It's descriptive, but not too gruesome or blunt. The whole thing really gives the impression of just how gone Dobby is. I won't go into any more detail or this will sound like English class.

As a re-cap, (for those who haven't read the book in years or never did) Harry, Ron, and Hermione had just been captured and brought to the Malfoy's Manor. They'd been tortured, locked up, watched a man die, and were generally pretty desperate. Bellatrix called for Voldemort to come kill them, but Dobby helped the others escape. They disapparate and end up at a safe house. But Bellatrix had thrown her knife, which hit Dobby in the chest. That's where you came in. As you can see, this happened at the end of a really epic battle in which Dobby did a lot of saving, and was pretty spectacular. Also, he had just been stuck in his old abusive masters' house, so it was pretty brave.

And of course, the character. This was the sixth Harry Potter book that Dobby had been in, so he was a pretty important character. He was often described like a child, innocent and loving, but very strong. Dobby put all his effort into helping Harry, although his plans never quite worked out. By the end, most people couldn't help but love him, so his death was a pretty big blow. If you want people to feel anything when a character dies, be it sadness or triumph, you have to make the character seem real. People have to have an opinion about them for it to make a difference. They have to care whether or not the character is alive. Which brings us back to the last chapter, writing original characters. And if you are killing off a character from the original books, you have to write them how they were in the books, or else it won't feel like that character is really dying.

Now off you go, look at the world around you, and at people dying. Crash a wedding, or funeral, or something. And be excited for the next chapter. It's on a topic that everyone seems to be requesting. As you wait for it to come out, go look up Porcupine Tree, buy some white clothes to tie-dye, and regenerate when the Doctor tells you to.

-Socks