I was sitting working recently; planning out what will be the final book of The Inner Lands series, when I realised something: somebody needs to die.
I’ve been pretty cruel to my characters already and for good reason. For one thing, if there aren’t some events that test your characters, then it’s not going to make for much of a story. But also, I write with an aim. I write for other people’s enjoyment, obviously – that’s the end goal – but there are also personal reasons why I write. I want to make my readers feel something. I want to make people think and question things. I want to send a message, even if it’s buried in connotations, metaphors and plot lines.
It’s a strange feeling to invent a world and its characters. Much as other people might enjoy what I’ve crafted, I’m always going to be more intimately invested in it than anyone else and that can, in some ways, hinder the story. You see, what I realised is that I’ve grown attached to my characters. I know their pasts, I know their fears and, for some, I know their futures.
When planning a novel, some story elements happen organically but other ideas come to you suddenly one day, when you’re thinking about what should happen next, and these are the ideas that change things. I have a habit of not wanting to physically harm my characters. We all enjoy an almost invincible hero, who can be consistently relied upon to come to the rescue but that’s also not very realistic. Not very human. And as I want to engage with my readers, I need my characters to be human; to have flaws and weaknesses, no matter how brave they might be.
So, sometimes, as hard as it is for me to let go, I need them to die. Without any spoilers, at the end of Book 1 I wrote a blurb for Book 2 and it ended like this:
Will anyone survive the hardships of the Inner Lands?
A good question. Now, I just need to decide the answer.
The Inner Lands: Something Stirs is available from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com as well as all other, major online book sellers across the world.
If you are interested in a FREE copy of The Inner Lands: Something Stirs, contact me, as I often give away eBook versions in exchange for an honest review on Amazon.
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A.J. Austin
theinnerlands.com 