Of the torture of innocents and the bumping off of characters

[Laurelyn]

Well. This is calling all Mooters with twisted minds who torture/kill their characters. I don't beleive I can write fiction without killing at least one character, and the novel I'm trying to write is built on torturing the mind of my protagonist until she snaps (it's built on personal experience. . . bwahaha).
But I wondered how many other Moot writers do this. My friend says she has trouble torturing her characters. I torture mine for fun. Anybody else?
:D

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I don't really think I do...I kill a few characters, yes, but I cannae think of an instance where it is to further the story, usually with a theme of sacrifice. Though one of my characters basically ends up as a broken man old beyond his years...:eek:

[IronParrot]

As a reader: death is way, way overdone. It's good if it's done well, and sparingly.

[Aralyn]

Hmm I like my characters to have at least a bit of a hard time and I have one fantasy where there's this girl who's made a slave. It ibvolves some torture type stuff. But not evil.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally posted by IronParrot
As a reader: death is way, way overdone. It's good if it's done well, and sparingly.

I can think of two instances in one of my trilogy where someone Dies. In one, a person gives his life for another (the Child of Prophecy-type person), and in another, one gives her life up in a titanic struggle against evil.

EDIT: Posted too soon...:o See title for details.

In the other, I can't think of any instances where a main character dies (though in a sort of pillage-sequence there will probably be a fairish number of deaths), though I intend the last book to involve a fairish number of people, and will probably have at least one or two deaths there.

[Willow Oran]

Yeah... I'm guilty of doing that. I've managed to suppress my evil twisted instincts enough so that it doesn't overwhelm the story now but in the beginning I do end up killing off nearly a whole generation of main characters. As for torture, I don't actually write graphic torture but there is plenty of implied mental torture, especially as my main villaness is something akin to a goddess of perverted emotions. Most of the stuff is absolutely nessecary to the plot though. If it didn't happen my characters would have no motivation, there would be no conflict and thus no story.

[Starr Polish]

I save most of my torturous writing impulses to short story characters who aren't likely to show up again. In one of the stories I'm working on, several minor characters (some so minor all you know is their name and the fact that they knew one of the two protagonists) die of old age.

In my fantasy writing people were more likely to die, but it often had to do with the theme of the story, and it was set during a war.

edit: I do tend to torture my characters with suicidal or mental illnesses. When I'm in a bad, dark mood this is usually how I vent out my feelings. I've even written a story (which I have lost and would not post here anyway) about a disturbing public suicide.

[Lief Erikson]

My novel has both torture and some characters dying. No main characters die in Part 1 though; only in Part 2, so far. The torture and deaths are all very well placed though, in my opinion.

[Coney]

I've done so occasionally (in fact one of my comic book scripts centers around the idea of the main character losing somone close).........I suppose it all depends which directions you want the surviving characters to take.......torture and/or death will have a big effect on their personallity/actions.

[Lief Erikson]

Yes, that's definitely true.

[Wayfarer]

I prefer to torture /other/ people's characters, myself. ]: )

[Lief Erikson]

Originally posted by Wayfarer
I prefer to torture /other/ people's characters, myself. ]: )
How do you manage that?

[Ninquelote]

Every story I write, someone dies at least once, because death is a part of life and I want my stories to be somewhat realistic.

I also mutilate my characters mercilessly and kill them off when I'm writing a vampire story... But that's vampire.

[Elvellyn]

Kill them all I say! No, not really.

I would never torture or kill my characters unless it had a significant impact on the development of the plot.

[Wayfarer]

Originally posted by Lief Erikson
How do you manage that?

Most of my writings are collaborative/RP fiction.

[Blackboar]

Most of my characters, (Usually the "heroes" or "heroines") get brutally killed I admit..
I don't know why really, Its often as tragic as I can make it its just fun decribing blood and gory.;)

[Wayfarer]

Most of my characters, (Usually the "heroes" or "heroines") get brutally killed I admit..

I prefer the 'tragic antihero'.

[Silverstripe]

I don't enjoy torturing or killing off my characters, but I'll do it if it's necessary to the plot.

[galadriel]

I'll admit that I like watching my characters squirm. Angst is fun. but I don't really see the point of writing graphic torture scenes and such unless it's absolutely necessary to get an emotional reaction out of the audience. I'm much more interested in showing the psychological side of things to bring out character development.

To be honest, however, it's often more interesting when a character's bad luck is his/her own fault. A poor, helpless hero(ine) gets boring.

Occasionally, when I write for myself (i.e. when I'm in a dark mood), I'll write about my character's warped emotional states endlessly and then psychoanalyze said stories in order to figure out my own problems. It's good therapy. :)

[Ianua]

Ooohh...I've been known to be a little sadistic where my poor 'ickle inocent characters are concerened. Thing is, i always have to calculate how many get drowned/shot/strangled/eaten by killer cheesecake from mars/beaten to death by big bully elves/bitten by vampires, or otherwise bumped off so i have at least one hero/heroine left at the end....or otherwise i can give them a nice, drawn out life of mental torture before bringing them to a sticky end....

Moi? Sadistic? Never....

[Elenka]

I'm way into death. Ask anyone at school. "Yep," they'll say, "violent and murderous. Absolutely. Totally worships death, ya know?"

I have a great time killing off my characters. Talk to the girl I walk to school with. When I'm ticked, I'll recount to her what I"m going to do to the person ticking me off. "...and then, I'm going to lop off their hand and make them eat it..." That's the pg-13 version. I don't know how much gore can be fit under that rating, so I won't take chances.

I like writing graphic descriptions of pain and suffering, but I don't usually put a lot of it in my stories...It gives my twisted nightmares. In order to prevent those dreams, I leave it at tossing the heroine off the five hundred-foot rock and describing the remains. :D

[Agalayth]

In my stories, there are a few deaths, though none of the main characters die. For example, in the first book in a trilogy that I'm working on now (not writing, working on) a huge village is burned to the ground by the Dark Elves. After the fire dies down, one of the main characters finds his wife's ring on the ground, and that starts a whole inner battle in him, and that is what completely motivates him throughout the story.

[Lief Erikson]

And in the end, we find out that the wife actually didn't die in the fire, correct?

[LuthienTinuviel]

I prefer to torture /other/ people's characters, myself. ]: )

i'll say:rolleyes:

im killing off my best friend in the movie im shooting this summer.
so far we have a skeleton plot, with a few lose details, but this one is sure to make it, cause it's a turning point that ultimately brings the destrction of the main character, (who i still haven't named.)

[Laurelyn]

I don't actually kill characters unless it is for the sake of furthering my plot. The ones I killed in my stories weren't main characters; but the story never would have happened had they not died.
I do so like killing them, though.
I've never written a torture scene; maybe I will some day, but maybe not. My torture is normally psychological.
That's what I meant. Only I get some sort of perverse pleasure out of destroying their little lives . . . :D Bwahahaha!

[Elenka]

I don't kill to further my plot, since my plots are usually only semi-existent. I kill for fun. Especially mental pain. 'Tis very funny.

[Amaranthea]

Yes, I am guilty of torturing/killing off characters in my stories. <sigh> Mostly, I'm guilty of the angsty torture, though. Not really anything physical, unless it's necessary to have the physical there to really reinforce the emotional damage done, that is, to make the emotional damage even more extreme, for example, I have written a story that includes an element of homosexual rape. The actual physical act was torturous for the protagonist, yes, because the rapist was also a sadist, but the real damage that was done was the emotional fall-out afterwards.

I'm also really big into writing stories that revolve around sacrifice. That, to me, is what makes characters much more interesting than just "Hey, my name is Bob, and I like cheese." I totally prescribe to the theory that "Love is Sacrifice." That is, that if you creature/person/whatever that loves, that means that you would be willing to sacrifice for that love. And THAT is where the majority of the torture comes in during my stories; someone sacrificing themselves for someone they love and thus having to 1) go through the actual physical torture AND 2) go through the emotional torture of not being able to know if their sacrifice was sufficient for their loved one.

[Lief Erikson]

I believe I am rather weak when it comes to killing off characters.

At one point I had an excellent opportunity to do one in. I was about 260 pages into the story, and it was possible. I mean, she was expendable. There wasn't any plotline necessity to keep her alive; the needs for her were over. I wrote up the scene in which this character was killed, and then after a lot of thought and struggling, I edited it out again. And I've kept her.

I'm just soft on my own people, I suppose :).

Though not too soft, on second thought. I've really tortured one of my characters rather severely, and I did kill two semi-main ones.

[Laurelyn]

Originally posted by Lief Erikson
. . . I was about 260 pages into the story. . .

*sobs* I hate you . . . *sniffles*
Okay, so I don't, but I'm jealous because you reached 260 pages. I'm struggling for a hundred (and right now I'm only on chapter two, so that's a ways away) and maybe plus some. :(

:D
Actually, can I ask you guys for advice? I'm stuck as to whether or not I should leave one or two main characters alive. See, one of them owns the world and sold the world to a terrorist group to get the other one back (yes, character 1 has, er, issues). Now here's my dilemma: I have to get them into a civil war. I can blow up CHaracter 1 and 2 and leave Character three in charge, or I can leave them all alive. Character three's gonna be in charge no matter what. I think I want to kill them, but I don't quite know . . . suggestions?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

I wouldn't kill them, but then again, that's me. :)

[congressmn]

o come on you guys, my charachters have to die. and they seldom die in their sleep.

[Amaranthea]

Actually, can I ask you guys for advice? I'm stuck as to whether or not I should leave one or two main characters alive. See, one of them owns the world and sold the world to a terrorist group to get the other one back (yes, character 1 has, er, issues). Now here's my dilemma: I have to get them into a civil war. I can blow up CHaracter 1 and 2 and leave Character three in charge, or I can leave them all alive. Character three's gonna be in charge no matter what. I think I want to kill them, but I don't quite know . . . suggestions?

Well, if you killed off both the other characters that are stuggeling against Character #3 (whom I'm assuming is your protagonist), how could there be a war? #3 would be the only one left....hence no fighting, hence no civil war! Better keep them alive.....and kill them later.

[Lief Erikson]

I'm a little confused about the situation you described, Laurelyn.

So character 1 sold a world to a terrorist group- who are characters 2 and 3? And why would a civil war be created by character 1's dying? Since character 1 isn't even connected to that world anymore.

I think I just need a little more depth and understanding of the situation before I can comment.

Also, if you're at chapter 2, how can these characters be very main so far? And if they're not main, what's the worry over whether to kill them or not? Go for it :D.