Is it really morally better to kill people to further a plot than to have sex with them?
*counts to ten*
*draws a breath*
*counts to ten again*
In this case it doesn't matter what's "morally better"; what's more important is whether it's more interesting to the story. In fiction there is no "morally better." You are not killing off real people; you are killing off CHARACTERS. If you are concerned about the moral state of your characters or yourself, perhaps you should not write books about necromancers and serial killers; perhaps you should write books about children skipping through fields of daisies with fluffy bunnies and cotton-candy rainbows.
As a writer, your first duty is to the STORY, not to make the characters' lives as comfortable and pain-free as possible. And by STORY I do not mean "300 pages of angsting over relationships." That is not a story; that is a static situation. At least death signifies change and an ending of some kind.
This is not a "Sex? Or death?" either-or situation. THEY ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE. THEY ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE. THEY ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE. Repeat that to yourself until you believe it, however long it takes.
Besides which, if it actually does "further the plot", as you claim it would? KILL THEM. KILL THEM ALL.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-02-26 06:10 am (UTC)*counts to ten*
*draws a breath*
*counts to ten again*
In this case it doesn't matter what's "morally better"; what's more important is whether it's more interesting to the story. In fiction there is no "morally better." You are not killing off real people; you are killing off CHARACTERS. If you are concerned about the moral state of your characters or yourself, perhaps you should not write books about necromancers and serial killers; perhaps you should write books about children skipping through fields of daisies with fluffy bunnies and cotton-candy rainbows.
As a writer, your first duty is to the STORY, not to make the characters' lives as comfortable and pain-free as possible. And by STORY I do not mean "300 pages of angsting over relationships." That is not a story; that is a static situation. At least death signifies change and an ending of some kind.
This is not a "Sex? Or death?" either-or situation. THEY ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE. THEY ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE. THEY ARE NOT REAL PEOPLE. Repeat that to yourself until you believe it, however long it takes.
Besides which, if it actually does "further the plot", as you claim it would? KILL THEM. KILL THEM ALL.