pith: (Default)
pith ([personal profile] pith) wrote in [community profile] lkh_lashouts2006-02-25 06:02 pm

blog flog: "Screw your courage to the sticking point, or something like that"

Date: 2/25/06
Title:"Screw your courage to the sticking point, or something like that"
Link: http://blog.laurellkhamilton.org/index.php/site/screw_your_courage_to_the_sticking_point_or_something_like_that/

LKH in italics. Yours truly in plain.



Part of me is wondering if just refusing to let anyone die is a betrayal of the plot and characters, or if the betrayal would be to let them die. Books ago I grew tired of death.

Y'know, I had a glimmer of hope there. It died a swift, ugly death as soon as "to let them die" came around, of course. Because, LKH, death is just, like, sooooooo unnatural that it would be a "betrayal". Oy.

And then the kicker: "Books ago I grew tired of death." Er... how? Yeah, okay, Anita and Edward kill a lot of useless people, but no major players have died since... well, since ever. Phillip [pp] and Robert [?] don't really qualify, IMO.

Merry and I both feel like we've had enough character growth for awhile. We'd like some simpler choices please.

It says enough on its own. I won't give it the dignity of a flogging.

Trinity has no idea that her mother is such a chicken shit about flying. I pretend good.

Grammar aside, this brings up a point I've been pondering for a while: Does she think her precious daughter doesn't know where her blog is?

It's not exactly hard to find. Her website is basically her name. Oooh, I'd never think to look for my famous author parent at a website where the domain is HER OWN FREAKIN' NAME! (Provided that I had a famous author parent.) C'mon, man. This is the age where people Google potential dates, employees/employers, even their friends.. Unless she's has inherited LKH's fear of technology, I'm sure Trinity has popped on the Internet at some point, and thought, "Hmmm. Let's Google mommy dearest!"—and then found the blog entries not only detailing Laurell's fear of flying ad nauseam, but all those gems where the gist was "Gee, it sure sucks that I have my daughter this weekend. I was really hoping to get laid."

[identity profile] freyalorelei.livejournal.com 2006-02-26 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] firesongvx.livejournal.com 2006-02-27 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
A-fuckin-men. How many books is it going to take for her to finally *get* that?

::sighs:: Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's going to be any time soon.

...if ever.