The line to
“kill your darlings” really applies to words and sentences (except in the case
of George R.R. Martin). So I don’t go on a killing spree in my books, but I
have become vindictive and started torturing some of them.
I’ve always
adopted a noir attitude with regards to my endings. There are no true happy
endings, more like surviving to try again tomorrow. Oh yeah, and there’s an
extra weight around your neck, making it that much harder to keep your head
above water.
My torture
also isn’t physical. I’m messing with my characters’ heads, pondering ethical
dilemmas, blurring lines of right and wrong, giving them choices doing the
right thing and doing a different right thing as well as dropping other changes
that seem innocuous at the time, but will germinate (or maybe fester) as time
goes on.
It’s a
wonder my characters don’t hate me. They might prefer Martin to what I’m doing.