Death by words...
By: Kyle D. Dobbs
Writers kill characters every day. No two deaths are the same.
Some are in sight of the narrator from the very beginning of the story.
Some are not found until the middle or even the end of the story.
Some are done peacefully. Some are done violently.
Some are done in a matter of words. Some might be done in a matter of pages or even chapters.
Some are done beautifully in sync with the landscapes or settings.
Some are done like paintings with words thrown across the canvas; letters are exploding on impact like abstract art screaming; words are chucked across the background like a dictionary poured recklessly; punctuation is only an afterthought; the writing must beat the due-date; the deadline—the line where the corpse is lying across asphalt like a bastard child; a body that nobody will ever forget yet never miss; posing like a model in an unthinkable position; the words are in tone like paints thrown by the buckets; grammar is thrown out the door as Faulkner killed his bear. Fuck punctuation! The writing must beat the cutoff date; the poundings are getting rougher, sloppier; clues are lying all around; the plot is forming like graffiti thrown across a brick wall as the signs are being hidden in layers—this must meet the closing date! The murder will be done like Jack the Ripper, all through the night, with corpses in the damnedest places. The primary colors are being thrown together to hide the evidence as adjectival and adverbial phrases combine with prepositional phrases in the unthinkable locations. The bloody closing date is hitting like a hammer to clay, beating and crushing the story like a scrap yard crushing old cars. The liquor is getting heavier as the words are pouring by the gallon.
Death by words…
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