flemmings: (Default)
flemmings ([personal profile] flemmings) wrote2012-11-08 11:20 pm
Entry tags:

(no subject)

Reading Aaronovitch's past entries, I come across this filk. "I was once again contemplating the problem of pushy minor characters and how they can encrust the bottom of your narrative like barnacles"

The problem is all inside your head
She said to me
The answer is easy if you take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle
To be free
There must be fifty ways
To ditch your character.

She said remember you’re the author
of your work
And playing god with them has
Always been a perk
You don’t want imaginary people
Treating you just like a jerk
There must be fifty ways
To kill your character

Just nuke them from space, Grace
Make a new plot, Dot
Pretend they got lost, Joss
Just get yourself free
Put 'em on a bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just let them fade, Jade
And get yourself free

It really is pathetic that your own
creations cause you pain
I wish there was something I could do
To make you smile again
I said I appreciate that
If you’d just repeat the refrain
About the fifty ways…

She said why don't we both
Just sleep on it tonight
And I believe in the morning
You'll begin to see the light
And then she edited the chapter
And I realised that she was right
There must be fifty ways
To kill your character.

You just stab them in the back, Jack
Get them all hitched, Rich
Don’t need to justify, Tye
Just get yourself free
Let them ascend, Brend
It don’t need to make sense much.
Put them in a coma, Rona
And get yourself free.

Have them fall ill, Jill
Stuff them in fridge, Bridge
Have a psycho make a call, Paul
And get yourself rid.
Marry them off, Joff
You don’t have to explain much
Nail them to a tree, Dee
And get yourself free.

Not that I have this problem myself, at all at all.

[identity profile] i-am-zan.livejournal.com 2012-11-09 05:47 am (UTC)(link)
*smiles* - thank you, I needed that I think. ^_^

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2012-11-09 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
No problem, love.
chomiji: Cartoon of chomiji in the style of the Powerpuff Girls (Yuan-LOL)

[personal profile] chomiji 2012-11-09 12:57 pm (UTC)(link)


Hee! A friend of mine in university made a filk very like that called "50 Ways to Off Your Budgie": "Just poison his seed, Reed; Step on his head, Fred; Make sure that he's dead, Red ... ."



And I understand what he means, though I don't have the problem much in fanfic. If minor characters can't run amok in fanfic, where can they do it?


[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2012-11-09 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
True, it's not really a fanficcer's problem. Major characters who won't do what you wnat them to, OTOH...
incandescens: (Default)

[personal profile] incandescens 2012-11-09 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Drop them in a flagon, dragon...

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2012-11-09 06:22 pm (UTC)(link)
And watch them bubble. A scientifically-minded dragon.

[identity profile] yumiyoshi.livejournal.com 2012-11-10 04:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Haaaaaaa

... except Joss does not get them lost, he kills them hard for maximum emotional manipulation wattage, leading to tears in some people but massive outrage on my part XD

[identity profile] flemmings.livejournal.com 2012-11-11 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
Caught that the first time it happened, in Buffy, and have never watched any of Whedon's oeuvre afterwards.