Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

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sbs_mjc1
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by sbs_mjc1 » November 9th, 2010, 4:52 pm

Michael is quite stoic, but totally freaked when we decided to off one of the viewpoint characters (well, she's not dead but is no longer human, and not able to recover). I tend to be pretty stoic about my characters suffering, but seriously squee when they have a cute moment.
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by Quill » November 9th, 2010, 7:52 pm

karenbb wrote:
side note: as one of the lucky people on the planet who've read cheekychook's first book, I can say that her characters made me cry (and laugh and smile) too.
Wow, what an accolade. I want to read it!

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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by bcomet » November 9th, 2010, 9:49 pm

Me too! CheekyChock, PMme!

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Mira
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by Mira » November 10th, 2010, 12:09 am

This is a really great thread. It's touching.

I always have happy endings. I can't cope with hurting my characters. I'd feel guilty forever, and ever.

And I want to read CheekyChook's book too.

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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by tanvi02 » November 10th, 2010, 5:59 am

do not remember the character but there have been many plots and situations in a novel that brought tears in my eyes....

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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by karenbb » November 10th, 2010, 5:59 am

hey now, everybody's going to get me in trouble with cheeky. It's a very difficult club to get into to, the one where you get to read her book, and it's not for the faint of heart. It involves a finger prick, a dance around a fire, virgin sacrifice (and let me tell you, it was not easy to find one of those), and other things that are simply unsuitable for polite conversation. I was merely trying to acknowledge that someone else who'd made a comment in the thread has created characters that make other people cry--that's the trick, right? It's one thing if they make you cry, but it's something quite different when they can make other people cry.

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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by Quill » November 10th, 2010, 9:37 am

Okay, karen, you're off the hook. :)

(And definitely let's not beg cheekychook for pages this month while she's going for the gold with NaNo :)

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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by cheekychook » November 10th, 2010, 10:51 am

karenbb wrote:hey now, everybody's going to get me in trouble with cheeky. It's a very difficult club to get into to, the one where you get to read her book, and it's not for the faint of heart. It involves a finger prick, a dance around a fire, virgin sacrifice (and let me tell you, it was not easy to find one of those), and other things that are simply unsuitable for polite conversation. I was merely trying to acknowledge that someone else who'd made a comment in the thread has created characters that make other people cry--that's the trick, right? It's one thing if they make you cry, but it's something quite different when they can make other people cry.
A finger prick, a dance around a fire and a virgin sacrifice? Where was I during all of that? I miss all the fun. And good God, woman, what did you do to the virgin?

I'm glad my characters make you laugh and cry. And you're not in trouble. Not for this anyway...
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by sierramcconnell » November 10th, 2010, 10:56 am

karenbb wrote:virgin sacrifice (and let me tell you, it was not easy to find one of those)
I resent and resemble that. I'm 29 and proud to be a virgin, who's only really been pecked on the lips, thank you. :3
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by cheekychook » November 10th, 2010, 11:05 am

Quill wrote:Okay, karen, you're off the hook. :)

(And definitely let's not beg cheekychook for pages this month while she's going for the gold with NaNo :)
So you're saying December 1 it's fair game to start begging me? I'll mark my calendar...
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by cheekychook » November 10th, 2010, 11:06 am

sierramcconnell wrote:
karenbb wrote:virgin sacrifice (and let me tell you, it was not easy to find one of those)
I resent and resemble that. I'm 29 and proud to be a virgin, who's only really been pecked on the lips, thank you. :3
Not to worry, Sierra, Karenbb was referring to a male virgin sacrifice----your virtue is safe with her.
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by cheekychook » November 10th, 2010, 11:07 am

Quill, BComet, Mira---Flattered by the interest, but I'm afraid I'll have to see some ID... :)
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by sierramcconnell » November 10th, 2010, 11:17 am

cheekychook wrote:
sierramcconnell wrote:
karenbb wrote:virgin sacrifice (and let me tell you, it was not easy to find one of those)
I resent and resemble that. I'm 29 and proud to be a virgin, who's only really been pecked on the lips, thank you. :3
Not to worry, Sierra, Karenbb was referring to a male virgin sacrifice----your virtue is safe with her.
LOL. Yeah, this day and age it's impossible I think. I keep hoping to find me one.
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by Margo » November 10th, 2010, 12:15 pm

bcomet wrote:Yesterday, going deeper into Donald Maass' Breakout Novel Workbook, once again I was astounded at the power in these exercises.
They're great, aren't they?

Of course, the trick is to get the readers to cry.
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Re: Ever Have A Character That Made You Cry?

Post by Sommer Leigh » November 10th, 2010, 12:56 pm

I'm good at crying at books, movies, television shows, very nice commercials...so I like it when a book makes me cry. I like to feel the emotion built up in a story that has the power to break my heart. Most of my own stories, however, are not very sad.

Three books come to mind that had me all wrapped up emotionally so that when a particular moment of the story came, I couldn't stop with the sobbing which inevitably had my husband running up the stairs sure something horrific was happening to me only to discover me clutching the book and bawling into its pages. These books win, in my book, when I'm crying so hard I can't read the pages anymore.

1. Feed by Mira Grant has a deceptively heartbreaking twist. Generally zombie stories shouldn't bring the tears. This one did.
2. How to Say Goodbye in Robot by Natalie Standiford sort of has the warning right there in the title, but when it hits you in this book, it kind of knocks the breath out of you. I had to put this book down and walk away to have a good cry before I could even continue reading.
3. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson is actually pretty special in that I cried pretty much from page one to the acknowledgements. How a book manages to hook you into fate of the MC on page one is a sort of writing magic I'm really jealous of.
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