Offing Characters

I commented on my facebook account that I found a way for my elf to get around a dragon without becoming dragon chow. One of my writer buds, Ash I think, wondered why I didn't simply kill the dragon. LOL She knows me too well. As much as I love offing my characters in new and unusual ways, it isn't always to the benefit of the character or story.

Killing the dragon would have been too easy--especially since said dragon was 'sleeping'. Those familiar with dragonlore know they never really 'sleep'. Besides I don't like my characters to find the easy way out. It becomes too deus et machina (I think this is the correct spelling), basically, God willed or intervened. The character doesn't grow or learn if God takes care of every little problem. The character must figure it out on his own and make a decision, whether right or wrong. Sometimes the character needs to make a few wrong decisions before he can make the right choice. Thus the character arc is born.

From 500 word picture books to 100,000 word novels (I've written both), a character must grow within the confines of the story to become more than what he was at the beginning. The path is never straight. Wrong turns are a part of building the character, making the character interesting and unique. Even series characters, Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher leap to mind, grow and arc, during each book and over the course of the series.

Besides I can't kill this dragon. I like him. Don't get me wrong, I KNOW I'll need to kill my babies, but I don't think it would serve a purpose at this time. I need to come up with a draconic name because I see him being in a few more books in the future.

All I need to do is find the time to write this part of the story. Life intervened over the weekend, and I wrote all of 46 words. *sigh* And this week won't be much better, but I'll try my best to write the scene. And then I have to chop my 2,000 word picture book down to 1,000 words.

But for now--Write on!