Many of the submissions I've received have involved killing, sometimes in gory ways.
Obviously death is a serious business. We wouldn't like our friends or family to die. And in the real world, most people consider death to be too severe a punishment for any crime.
However, the real world doesn't contain terrors such as the deadly lumipoo momp or the frightful snaggy boop. Most people think that killing is acceptable in self-defence.
We need to think carefully about whether or not any baddies are going to die. Killing can add drama, but it can also upset people.
One way to include death without offending too many people is to make is a bit ridiculous, for example in The Enormous Crocodile, Trunky the elephant kills the crocodile by swinging him around in the air by his tail and letting him go until he flies into the sky and crashes headlong into the Sun.
When death in story books is ridiculous, it makes it different from death in real life, and is less likely to upset people.
When death is realistic or graphic, like monsters bleeding to death, it is very likely to upset people.
There are alternatives to killing the bad guys. However, it takes a really clever writer to come up with ways to dispose of or contain a monster without it dying. For example the bad giants in The BFG are put in a deep pit and forced to eat snozcumbers.
I'm not saying that the heroes can't kill the baddies, but consider my points very carefully before writing about death.
Obviously death is a serious business. We wouldn't like our friends or family to die. And in the real world, most people consider death to be too severe a punishment for any crime.
However, the real world doesn't contain terrors such as the deadly lumipoo momp or the frightful snaggy boop. Most people think that killing is acceptable in self-defence.
We need to think carefully about whether or not any baddies are going to die. Killing can add drama, but it can also upset people.
One way to include death without offending too many people is to make is a bit ridiculous, for example in The Enormous Crocodile, Trunky the elephant kills the crocodile by swinging him around in the air by his tail and letting him go until he flies into the sky and crashes headlong into the Sun.
When death in story books is ridiculous, it makes it different from death in real life, and is less likely to upset people.
When death is realistic or graphic, like monsters bleeding to death, it is very likely to upset people.
There are alternatives to killing the bad guys. However, it takes a really clever writer to come up with ways to dispose of or contain a monster without it dying. For example the bad giants in The BFG are put in a deep pit and forced to eat snozcumbers.
I'm not saying that the heroes can't kill the baddies, but consider my points very carefully before writing about death.
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