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Your Favorite Scene To Write

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Carol Rose said:
I've never seen this played in person so reading about it in detail would be a treat. :)
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I'm with Carol on this. I've seen parkour in action and even played video games with it in there (@Emurelda you might want to check out Mirror's Edge and Assassins Creed. The first game prominently features parkour and the second has a mix of parkour/free climbing.), but I've never read about it. Can't wait to see what that reads like! :D
 
I wouldn't say that it's my favourite part of writing in creating psychological thrillers, but I certainly get a kick out of the technical challenge of expressing the thoughts of a murder victim as they're dying. If anything, I find this part quite disturbing.

If you've ever watched someone die, you know that they don't always comprehend what's happening to them.

I take inspiration from one of the first crime writers I read avidly as a teenager. Ed McBain was the pen name of Evan Hunter, when he wrote his police procedural novels set in the 87th Precinct of Isola, a thinly-veiled New York. In one of his early stories called Ten Plus One, from 1963, a sniper is picking off seemingly unconnected victims. McBain skilfully acquaints us with the victims before they die, creating empathy with them. As they go about their daily business, thinking the things we all do, a bolt from the blue strikes them—the sniper's bullet.

I recall reading about the death of one victim, a businessman leaving a skyscraper queuing to get through the revolving door. I was impressed by how his dying thoughts as he was shot were that he'd tripped and was about to fall against a large plate glass window and worrying would he be hurt? His passing was swift, unexpected by the reader, not realised by him—and all the more shocking for it—more effective than a murder than was set up, where we know what's going to happen.

Excuse me, I'm feeling homicidal...
 
Emurelda said:
Most of you have read the first chapter right?

Parkour Abyss

Admittedly I haven't changed it since my observation with Sebastian since it got some very positive feedback.
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I hadn't read this until now — this is awesome. Some of the time, it feels like I'm watching the character parkour, and then other times is as if I'm seeing him do it through his own eyes. I never see the story that way — through the character's eyes. I'm not sure what you did to convey that, but it obviously has a unique something, about it...

I did a parkour chase across a castle rooftop in one of my books, with soldiers chasing and shooting crossbows at the protagonist, and loved writing it. I did the same thing, though I had to watch videos, and furiously take notes regarding moves, descriptions, etc... I even went out and tried what I could manage in the back yard, changing things as I found out "hell no — only a professional could do that. A good quick and dirty way to do the same thing would be this..."

Set to THIS SONG, starting 4:04 in, until 6:39...

Tell me that doesn't get your blood all hot and crazy.
 
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Nicole Wilson said:
Fight scenes. I don't have to worry much about character development (the bane of my existence) and I get to find new ways to hurt people. Wait, that didn't come out right....
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They used to be one of my favorite things to write, but I would say there are two things I like even better:

2) chase scenes. Like, your characters running for their lives through a stampede of panicked and screaming peasants out of the city as the nightmare close behind tears through wood and stone giving chase.
1) horrible realization dialogue. When your characters piece together amongst themselves what all the hints mean, that you've been dropping in your books now for upwards of 2 books and 700 pages.


Believe it or not, I actually don't like hurting my characters. I like almost hurting them, but managing a narrow escape. Killing them makes me sad. But, like a soldier — it's a job. Someone's gotta do it.
 
Jason Byrne said:
Believe it or not, I actually don't like hurting my characters. I like almost hurting them, but managing a narrow escape. Killing them makes me sad. But, like a soldier — it's a job. Someone's gotta do it.
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Killing characters is fun to write when it is part of a sudden twist (that makes total sense). Nothing compares to that "WHAT?!" moment that readers get when a character is suddenly gone. :D
 
Chase Gamwell said:
Killing characters is fun to write when it is part of a sudden twist (that makes total sense). Nothing compares to that "WHAT?!" moment that readers get when a character is suddenly gone. :D
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Well that's true. I usually still have to get up afterward and take a walk, have something to eat, just step away from it for a minute, though. Sometimes have a good cry. Then deal with the aftermath.
 
Jason Byrne said:
Well that's true. I usually still have to get up afterward and take a walk, have something to eat, just step away from it for a minute, though. Sometimes have a good cry. Then deal with the aftermath.
Click to expand...

I always push through the grief. I kill them, then write the aftermath in the grief of my own creation. It winds up making the reaction to the death more poignant in my opinion. I did that once when I killed a characters parents in front of him. He watches his father sacrifice himself, then shares a few words with his mother as she slips away in front of him. It's so brutal to read, but it feels so much more heart wrenching because I pushed through all at once.
 
I once killed a character on a plane to the US (I was on the plane, not my character). I can imagine what the person next to me was thinking as this woman types furiously on her computer in the seat next to her, with tears streaming down her face. Ha!

But my favourite scenes have to be anything where something unexpected happens. My absolute favourite scene to write, ever, has to be what I call the "loo" scene--MC has just been nearly drowned by the bad guy, is running from him, and hides in the only place available--an abandoned pit toilet. Bad guy can't find her, but has to pee...I'll let your imagination take it from there. ;)
 
Jason Byrne said:
They used to be one of my favorite things to write, but I would say there are two things I like even better:

2) chase scenes. Like, your characters running for their lives through a stampede of panicked and screaming peasants out of the city as the nightmare close behind tears through wood and stone giving chase.
1) horrible realization dialogue. When your characters piece together amongst themselves what all the hints mean, that you've been dropping in your books now for upwards of 2 books and 700 pages.


Believe it or not, I actually don't like hurting my characters. I like almost hurting them, but managing a narrow escape. Killing them makes me sad. But, like a soldier — it's a job. Someone's gotta do it.
Click to expand...
Chase scenes are fun, too. But I just remembered a scene that I had A LOT of fun writing: where my character knows something is going to happen, but everything is still around them. I had one of my MCs enter her friend's house which she suspected had been broken into and was sure someone else was in the house with her. But the house around her was quiet, so the suspense just built and built as she looked around for anything out of place. Anything to confirm her fears. Until a child coughed (the friend has 3 kids). That whole scene was GREAT.

I also don't usually kill my characters. So far, I've made it with zero protagonist fatalities. Only two antagonist fatalities that I can think of. That may change in the future, but I'd have to have a good reason for it. Now, side characters? Ha! Poor guys. They're like my red shirts. But I do like to put my MC through pain. Most of my MCs don't make it through a book without being shot, punched, hit with various objects, etc because what person in those kinds of circumstances makes it out without a scratch? Plus, it makes it more interesting. Having my characters have to deal with their actual enemy and now a gunshot wound is more intriguing.
 
Chase Gamwell said:
I always push through the grief. I kill them, then write the aftermath in the grief of my own creation. It winds up making the reaction to the death more poignant in my opinion. I did that once when I killed a characters parents in front of him. He watches his father sacrifice himself, then shares a few words with his mother as she slips away in front of him. It's so brutal to read, but it feels so much more heart wrenching because I pushed through all at once.
Click to expand...

Batman?:eek::eek::eek:
 
Robinne Weiss said:
I once killed a character on a plane to the US (I was on the plane, not my character). I can imagine what the person next to me was thinking as this woman types furiously on her computer in the seat next to her, with tears streaming down her face. Ha!

But my favourite scenes have to be anything where something unexpected happens. My absolute favourite scene to write, ever, has to be what I call the "loo" scene--MC has just been nearly drowned by the bad guy, is running from him, and hides in the only place available--an abandoned pit toilet. Bad guy can't find her, but has to pee...I'll let your imagination take it from there. ;)
Click to expand...
HA!

Nicole Wilson said:
Chase scenes are fun, too. But I just remembered a scene that I had A LOT of fun writing: where my character knows something is going to happen, but everything is still around them. I had one of my MCs enter her friend's house which she suspected had been broken into and was sure someone else was in the house with her. But the house around her was quiet, so the suspense just built and built as she looked around for anything out of place. Anything to confirm her fears. Until a child coughed (the friend has 3 kids). That whole scene was GREAT.

I also don't usually kill my characters. So far, I've made it with zero protagonist fatalities. Only two antagonist fatalities that I can think of. That may change in the future, but I'd have to have a good reason for it. Now, side characters? Ha! Poor guys. They're like my red shirts. But I do like to put my MC through pain. Most of my MCs don't make it through a book without being shot, punched, hit with various objects, etc because what person in those kinds of circumstances makes it out without a scratch? Plus, it makes it more interesting. Having my characters have to deal with their actual enemy and now a gunshot wound is more intriguing.
Click to expand...
I would love to see a "Litopian supporting character fatality" ticker. On slow days, I could just stare at it and watch it flip up by the hundreds.

I'm willing to bet if you assembled the characters from all of our respective stories in one place, there would be an astonishing number of gruesome scars amongst them...
 
Jason Byrne said:
HAHAHA! You know I didn't catch the parallel when I read the excerpt, because it was more military in tone, but totally a Batman, Chase.
Interesting that the story deals with concepts of resurrection and immortality, and begins with the death of his family.
Click to expand...

I never really thought of it like that, but good point! :D I needed someone who started out as naive, but had the ability and drive to go from that to very dark places.
 
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