I’ve learned a useful writing tip: If you have a really whiny character, go ahead and let the wolves eat that one. Your readers will thank you.
Except now I’m kinda rooting for the wolves.
***
PS: Our dog is doing GREAT. Completely better. Hurray hurray hurray. We seriously thought we were going to have a dead dog by the end of the week. And now she’s fine. Perfectly normal happy dog. Yay veterinarians. Yipee yay yay.
Heh! I told my girls I was planning to kill off a major character in my sequel. I didn’t expect Susanna (the Sanguine, excitable moptop, whom one of my dear friends characterized as “a cheerleader on meth”) to start beating me up.
“YOU (*smack*) CAN’T (*WHOMP!*) KILL OFF (THUD! WHAP! WHAP!) HER!”
Me: (speaking through a mouth of broken teeth) So, what are you trying to say here?
(Susanna screams, goes to look for a heavy blunt object. I wisely make my exit, ruminating on what a bad, bad parent I am. ;])
I’m with Susanna. I’m not aware of any good-guy characters of yours that you have permission to kill. Do you know how long it took me to accept that maybe you were not completely horribly mistaken for killing Fr. B? I mean, I’m all for heroic martyrdom ‘n stuff, but not for people I actually know and like.
“If you have a really whiny character, go ahead and let the wolves eat that one.”
I’m reminded of Hudson in Aliens.
Although he wasn’t eaten by wolves.
Hehe. I haven’t seen Aliens, but I can see where they could be just as useful as a pack of wolves.
Finished the book. It gets a lot better once it’s about the dog and not the humans.
I admire Aliens in that it’s a monster movie where the people don’t stick their heads into places where they can be bit off, but use their brains the whole time. Better than the first one in every way IMNSHO.
Plus the sergeant in charge of the Colonial Marines was a real Marine:
“While on combat duty during the Vietnam War, Matthews became the first Black marine to be meritoriously promoted to the rank of Sergeant.” (IMDB)
Nice.