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Writing means different things to me. I'm a storyteller, a book editor, and a songwriter. For me, it's like breathing.
Showing posts with label writing difficult scenes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing difficult scenes. Show all posts

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Writing difficult scenes

Being a writer means I can make up stories and the fates of my characters are in my hands, but it also means writing those scenes that are hard the write. I’m talking about the scenes that go against my own beliefs or the scenes that make me squeamish. As a writer, I have to put aside my own feelings and do what is right for the story and the characters.

This is different for each writer. For me it’s difficult to write scenes that involve an animal death. I hate to see animals die. I won’t even watch a movie if I know an animal will die. But sometimes these types of scenes are important to the plot. That still doesn’t make them any easier to write. I would never kill an animal or even a person for no reason. The plot has to be moved forward in some way by the death.

I’ve had to write a couple of these scenes. In one book, a dog’s death brought the hero and heroine closer. In another soon-to-be released book, the animal death was symbolic and also true to the time period in regards to sacrifices made to the gods. This scene was really difficult to write and I almost deleted it, but then decided I had to stay true to the time period and to the story. It was a necessary scene. My editor agreed. This type of scene may upset some readers, but that’s a chance I had to take.
Writing that difficult scene isn’t always easy to do, but a writer needs to put aside his or her own feelings and stay true to the story. After all, it’s our job as writers to move the story forward, not to write what we want or to coddle the reader. Sometimes those difficult to write, heartbreaking scenes are the ones that resonate most with readers.

Kelley Heckart, Historical fantasy romance author
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A Greek vampire, Celtic kings, vengeful goddesses, an ancient faery curse…
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All three books of my Dark Goddess trilogy are available in Print and Ebook. Set in Dark Age Scotland, I mixed history with a Samhain/Beltaine myth that revolves around an Irish clan and the goddesses Brigit and Cailleach.
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