Last bit: Writing can be a way of facing your stuff, too. If you avoid conflict in your life then try writing it in your books. Create it, help your character face it, then look back on the growth it provided. Maybe you’ll face more outside writing, too.

K

I have a habit of avoiding the really bad–I might build up for a whole book and then duck out on the crisis because in life I’m a conflict-avoider, and I’ve been working on that in life and writing both, but this book makes it hard. How much can I kick a helpless 15yo?

If he wins, but the victory is hollow, then it doesn’t really count as a win, does it?

I think you’d like it. So far it’s a little lighter than the other books, but it’s just as engaging.

K

A bad example: Trinity in Matrix: Revolutions. Neo was already the Cyber-Messiah or whatever. Killing Trinity was just shedding baggage. He didn’t grow or learn anything from the experience. She didn’t sacrifice herself for him. No great battle was decided as a result. It was just arbitrary at that point.

@Chuck – “Spare the audience” is the phrase I go by. I try not to kill a character unless it’s absolutely necessary, and never for no reason.

Man, you’re not kidding. Spot on with Hobb. That’s in part why I dodged the series: her hero just went through too much shit for no notably good reason.

Pain must be mitigated by success, as @Lugh said earlier.

Huh.

Cool.

Curious to see if anybody’s reading Hobb’s new series.

– c.

Robin Hob does hero suffering well with Fitz in the Assassin series and Capt. Kennit in the Liveship series. She crosses the line in Soldier’s Son, as it becomes trauma and anguish almost for it’s own sake.

K