If this is your first year, or if you weren't totally forum-obsessed in previous years, you may be wondering about this requirement you've heard about, which says that we must all "kill Cliff Brooks" in some way in our novels. The first post in this thread (this one) should help you understand the history of this edict. The rest of the thread is meant as a place where you can post a description of how you off Cliff in this year's novel. We're hoping to have a read-a-thon at the TGIO party this year consisting solely of passages in which Cliff is killed off, with the man himself in attendance for maximal enjoyment, so keep this in mind as you're writing those gruesome scenes.
Cliff Brooks is a real live guy, a really great guy who writes horror stories; he lived in the South Bay seven years ago and came to a number of write-ins. At one weekly write-in, my younger son Philip, 13 at the time and writing his own mini-novel, peered over Cliff's shoulder, read the scene he'd just written, and burst out laughing. Cliff scowled at him. "That's horror, that's not supposed to be funny!" But Philip insisted it was, in fact, hilarious. In a mock huff, Cliff wrote a character named Philip into the scene and killed him off quite grotesquely. The next week, Philip was eager to get to the write-in to show Cliff the scene he'd written, in which President of the United States Clifford Brooks morphed into a monster with multiple appendages and two heads, and then exploded. As a horror writer, Cliff loved it. Several of us decided that we, too, would kill a character named Cliff Brooks in our own novels, and from there the things just grew legs, as they say.
If you'd like to hear Cliff himself explaining this phenomenon, he called in to an interview with Chris Baty on NPR's Talk of the Nation with Neal Conan on Nov. 23, 2004.
You can find the intro article here: The Simple Art of Writing Novels
The interview itself is here: http://www.npr.org/templates/player/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist...
Cliff calls in at the 8:53 mark, and speaks with Neal until the 12:05 mark. (One error: Cliff says Philip was 16 at the time, he was not, he was only 13.)
Now. How did YOU kill Cliff Brooks this year, hmmm? I'll reveal my method once I've actually written the scene.
Go forth and murder! : )
--moot/Diane.
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45,853 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 11 53
Haven't decided how I'll off him this year, but I suspect it will involve a falling grand piano.
Some of my past murders included:
Fumbling goalie Cliff Brooks loses a soccer match, and is thus chased through the streets of Edinburgh, and then trampled to death by his furious teammates, and a lot of drunk soccer fans.
Mad scientist Cliff Brooks, the time-traveling Paleontologist crash lands his transportation device in prehistory, and although surrounded by fossil fuel in its early stages, he has no escape from his predicament and is consumed by a hungry dinosaur. Fossil Fuel, yes, but with a slight twist.
Senator Cliff Brooks comes out of the court house having been exonerated after his latest scandal. Thinking he's dodged a bullet, he literally slips on a banana peel and falls to his death down the steep stone courthouse steps. (I must credit Rich Thomas for that particular idea.)
Cliff Brooks Must Die! Mwhahahahahahaha!
Melissa
----------You can have a sound mind in a healthy body.... Or you can be a Nanonovelist!
Nanowrimo--Eavesdrop on the Voices In Your Head
45,853 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 11 56
Duplicate, Oops, (But he still has to die.)
----------Melissa
You can have a sound mind in a healthy body.... Or you can be a Nanonovelist!
Nanowrimo--Eavesdrop on the Voices In Your Head
27,129 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 14 45
Is this a pan-nano meme, or just SoBaNaNo?
27,129 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 14 48
Duplicate.
27,129 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 14 49
Triplicate. I just had to beat Melissa.
56,688 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 14 56
I know, it's just practice at padding your word counts, isn't it.
This started as a local SoBaNaNo activity, but rapidly caught on around the Bay Area, and is now pan-nano. Go forth and garrotte the noble Mr Brooks.
--Diane.
33,059 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 15 19
I never understood this until this year... thanks for explaining it last night at the meet-n-greet! I have forwarded the link to this forum to my other nanoing friends across the country, and they too will participate in Cliff's many demises.
I think he'll die in a racecar in my story. I'll post the passage when I write it. OH OH OH... he'll be crushed by a racecar... YES!!
Happy Nanoing,
----------Carol
1667 Words a Day!!
77,441 / 50,000
Oct 29, 2009 - 22 43
I've heard of this Cliff Brooks in previous years, but only in passing. Now that I'm living in the South Bay, it seems it is my duty along with everyone else to kill him off in a terrible fashion. Haven't given much thought to it yet, but I'm considering having him be a criminal in one of the worlds my MC visits. In that world, there's a city in the clouds with very strict rules on crime; criminals get thrown out of the city. Cliff Brooks will have a thirty thousand foot fall to regret his choices in life.
This could all change though. I'll post again when I've actually written his death.
Shiral: I like the dinosaur death!
----------Drunkard's Walk
A multi-genre collection of stories concerning Christopher Meriwether Livingstone Battersby: a historian and sometimes-inventor with the unfortunate tendency of randomly jumping to alternate worlds.
38,500 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 09 57
I have yet to kill Cliff Brooks. I did send him to jail for faking his death. I might do something else to him this year. I need to decide on my story first.
30,287 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 11 22
Hmm, perhaps Mr. Brooks (Brookes in my novel) shall fall victim in the first chapter to a behedding by an elf warrior. *sage nod*
----------Erondon's Prophecy: Blackthorne's Peace
77,441 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 17 10
So, I dunno if you can use this, but when I read your post, I got an image in my head of Mr. Brookes AS the elf, who somehow clumsily manages to behead himself. I . . . may have done something similar in a D&D game many years ago.
----------Drunkard's Walk
A multi-genre collection of stories concerning Christopher Meriwether Livingstone Battersby: a historian and sometimes-inventor with the unfortunate tendency of randomly jumping to alternate worlds.
50,153 / 50,000
Oct 30, 2009 - 18 57
In one of my NaNo novels Cliff Brooks is the husband of a female country singer. A very wealthy singer. She comes home after touring and finds him having a rowdy party and cheating on her.
He sits on his butt and and enjoys a lavish existence living off her wealth. Unbeknownst to the singer, her friend sets Cliff up with a beautiful, young scientist who works for the CDC. The beautiful scientist sneaks into the home gym and smears half of Cliff's rock climbing area with all kinds of nasty microbes and a slippery substance. Later she challenges him to a nude rock climbing contest. He's an arrogant fellow and has to prove his rock climbing talent.
Cliff ends up in the hospital with multiple abrasions and a broken leg. Then he comes down with multiple bizarre diseases. He survives all of the diseases and is discharged from the hospital. He's killed when hit by a car as he hobbles across the crosswalk in front of the hospital on crutches.
******
In another NaNo -- Cliff is at a Science Fiction convention in the gaming room. Some kids have a mini-trebuchet and are trying to knock over a model of a mini- Stone Henge (idea from "This is Spinal Tap"). They put a peanut M&M inside a marshmallow and launch it at mini- Stone Henge. It overshoots and lands in Cliff's mouth. He is saved by the Heimlich Maneuver. (fanfic cheat - Nigel makes a surprise appearance in the gaming room).
As he leaves the gaming room, he trips over somebody's "service turtle" and ends up with a badly sprained ankle.
Back in his hotel room he is icing his sprain and has a very large cup of soda on top of the tv console
He's in bed, turns on the remote and "Girls Gone Wild" ads are blaring at top volume. The remote batteries die, the people in the next room start pounding on the wall. He's embarassed. Tries to turn down the volume manually. Neighbors start yelling, "turn it down, you pervert!" He sticks his arm behind the tv console to unplug the tv. His arm gets stuck, tv is partially unplugged, soda falls off the console, he dies of electrocution while standing in a pool of soda.
TJ (Disclaimer - I have never met the real Cliff Brooks.)
----------(Proud Member of the Trebuchet Club)
2009 novel - genre jump, NOT time-travelling pirates.
Untitled Script - Time Travel/Pirate Comedy
45,654 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 16 29
I'm not sure i'll be able to kill Cliff Brooks, but i spread the meme to my native NYC forum. (Several people there are writing zombie apocalypses, and have plenty of room for another corpse.)
----------Not the sharpest clown in the happy meal.
5,200 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 16 36
And the unfortunate Mr. Brooks is once again killed...
A little background. My hero, Gideon is setting the charges to blow up the building as this is taking place.
~~~~
Cliff Brooks went about his business, eager to get the windows of the building. It was an all day job, and he decided to come in over the weekend. He wouldn’t charge overtime for it, but it was a bitch of a building and he wanted to get it out of the way.
It was much easier to clean the windows without anyone in the building as there was a tendency for those on the inside to think he was a peeping tom.
But this morning dawned beautifully in the heart of San Francisco, and by order of the building management, no one was to come into work today, so there wasn’t any chance of him seeing something inappropriate.
He went to the roof and got his rig ready. It was one of those catwalk devices with a set of cranes that lowered him over the building. All harness and cables were checked. He grabbed the remote and hopped into the catwalk basket. The hose with the soap and water was already in the basket. Pushing a button the crane lifted him over the edge of the building.
Cliff plugged in his music and went to work doing what he did best, washing windows.
A few hours into his shift, something happened, there was a jerking on the ropes of his rig. -removed- another earthquake. Yet the shaking didn’t seem to stop. He looked at the other buildings around him and there wasn’t any swaying of shaking. He hit the remote to raise the rig, when the cables on both cranes snapped.
Down he fell, at thirty two feet per second per second; gaining speed and momentum. An explosion overrode the sound of the wind in his ears and he barely had time to consider the gravity of the situation before gravity considered him. His last thought was that it was a good thing he was going to miss that modern art statue in front of the building. A gust of hot wind shifted his course ever so much and steel ripped through his soft middle as he was impaled upon the statue.
----------2006 - Star Fire - 65k
2007 - Demon's Desire - 100k
2008 - Dead Lines -125k
2009 - Gideon's Gambit - 54k
2009 - Just Desserts - 46k
The Beatings Will Continue Until Word Count Improves!
30,287 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 17 40
This happens in the prologue.
He hears a grunt and frowns, looking over at his captain. From his back is the shaft of an arrow, the fletching in the colors of the royal house.
He watches as Captian Brookes falls from the saddle, and swears softly as he’s trampled under the hooves of the retreating party. Kneeing his horse, he leans over, grabbing the regns of of the captian’s horse to keep it moving, not willing to loose a good horse, and a good man in the opening volleys of this war.
----------Erondon's Prophecy: Blackthorne's Peace
32,588 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 21 45
In my work, Cliff apparently dies falling off a train trestle across a deep ravine, plunging into the raging rapids of the icy cold river below. He was the loser in a battle of fisticuffs with my protagonist that starts atop a train making its way through a mountainous pass in the Rockies.
I say "apparently" because I'm writing in a two-fisted pulp style, and good villains (and sometimes even mediocre ones) don't stay dead long.
36,144 / 50,000
Nov 1, 2009 - 23 29
I have yet to kill Cliff Brooks in one of my novels, but I think this is the year to change that. The only problem I have is that "Cliff Brooks" is not a style of name that would work well in my fantasy world. So, I think that either a character named Brooke will die by falling off a cliff, or a character named Cliff will somehow manage to drown himself in a brook. We'll have to see, though. It's all still very tentative.
----------2009: Into The Fog
2008: Tarot Troubles (won)
2007: CP
2006: Shadows & Ash
2005: Strip Search (won)
5,565 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 00 00
Hey, I had a character's friend, Brooke, lose her doggie, Cliff, in one of mine a couple years ago. Poignant "he saved my life, my friend hates me" for many, many pages out of that scene!
Since I'm starting with my MC being a shipwreck survivor, I'm thinking I may have her father be Cliff, and let him die in the shipwreck or shortly after this year. Or maybe let her MOM be Brooke, the family name Cliff or Cliffs and let Mommy die later in the writing. Haven't decided yet, but the gender flip just occurred to me and I think I may have to go with it!
----------"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." - Kurt Vonnegut
2004 - Leena's Tale
2005 - 50K or Bust! (win)
2006 - Circling the Glen (win)
2007 - What Now?
2008 - You want me to do what? (win)
http://www.newworlds-rpg.
34,733 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 19 06
Well, at the Meet 'n Greet I said that I would be writing about murders and that Cliff Brooks would be killed under many names and in a number of ways. The dearth of deaths has begun.
Two patients at a mental hospital (oh, in Santa Clara, CA) in the very early 1900's decide that C. Brooks, an Administrator at the hospital who is abusing patients after hours in his office, is ill and needs to be brought to his senses. They have watched the "treatments" of other patients through the ground floor, small, barred windows of the basement in the Administration Building. After branding him on the forehead with a red hot iron (oops, they missed the first time and seared an eye), they proceeded to drag him to the basement and perform the continuous hot hydrotherapy bath. C. Brooks had passed out after the branding and came to, restrained in the bath and began screaming, writhing and shouting obsenities. One of the two patients muffled his screams until he passed out again. This patient remembered seeing the hospital's attendants choking a patient to stop the screaming. When C. Brooks came to again, he was choked. The obitiuary the following week noted the cause of death as heart attack.
Hhmmm...
I
wrote
THAT
???
5,200 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 19 53
Excellent! I knew you had it in you all along! *muahahaha*
Wonderful job! Keep us posted on the other deaths... :-)
----------2006 - Star Fire - 65k
2007 - Demon's Desire - 100k
2008 - Dead Lines -125k
2009 - Gideon's Gambit - 54k
2009 - Just Desserts - 46k
The Beatings Will Continue Until Word Count Improves!
7,200 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 22 52
I done kilt him. (don't tell know one)
http://nyarlitharn.blogspot.com/2009/11/six-fo-brooks.html
37,154 / 50,000
Nov 2, 2009 - 23 06
Never jog in the fog wearing grey. Cliff Brooks is going to find that out the hard way. The poor driver never saw him.
----------45,853 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 16 31
A little background. My hero, Gideon is setting the charges to blow up the building as this is taking place.
SNIP
Down he fell, at thirty two feet per second per second; gaining speed and momentum. An explosion overrode the sound of the wind in his ears and he barely had time to consider the gravity of the situation before gravity considered him. His last thought was that it was a good thing he was going to miss that modern art statue in front of the building. A gust of hot wind shifted his course ever so much and steel ripped through his soft middle as he was impaled upon the statue.
Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.......holds stomach and whimpers
Never get Steph mad at you!
I'm trying to think of a way to off poor old Cliff in this year's novel, but gosh, it's not easy. It may actually be that for the first time since hearing about this meme, Cliff Brooks might actually..... survive!
Melissa
You can have a sound mind in a healthy body.... Or you can be a Nanonovelist!
Nanowrimo--Eavesdrop on the Voices In Your Head
----------You can have a sound mind in a healthy body.... Or you can be a Nanonovelist!
Nanowrimo--Eavesdrop on the Voices In Your Head
5,200 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 17 09
Melissa - why not have some of the lights fall from the clouds and brain him while the techs are setting up? Or perhaps he could fall from the clouds as he is raising the lights? Impaled upon a supposedly fake sword that the prop guy actually got a real one for a change?
Many accidents can happen around the theater.. Oooh falling into the orchestra pit would be a good one as well!
And you could start a new trend in haunted theaters! (Just think of how many cliff brooks have died pursuing the arts!)
~ Steph
----------2006 - Star Fire - 65k
2007 - Demon's Desire - 100k
2008 - Dead Lines -125k
2009 - Gideon's Gambit - 54k
2009 - Just Desserts - 46k
The Beatings Will Continue Until Word Count Improves!
21,061 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 17 50
I just introduced him as a character, and in another couple thousand words or so there is going to be a prison break. On a cliff. With pirates. And Navy.
Last year it was being mauled and thrown down a steep incline, so I want to steer clear of a Cliff cliff death this year. Fortunately, there are many options. Pirates? Drowning? Magic? Maybe a shark attack? Or perhaps he slips on the deck and cracks his head open before the real battle begins?
*cackles* We hall see!
----------This year will see the official end of my first draught started in 2005 (fingers crossed!)
11,872 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 15 20
Cliff Brooks spent time and money for martial arts training and how to handle firearms. He changed his name to Ramon Montoya and pretends he does not speak English. It is rumored that he is moving to Laredo, Texas but he is, in fact, moving to the San Juan Islands off Bellingham, Washington. As his killers seek him, he is making plans to build a fortified position of sandbags and surveillance equipment. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
37,870 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 15 37
Haha, this is awesome. I'm writing a video game related story, in which characters in the game can die and come back to life... and die again. I think I found a good name to use for another character...
50,181 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 15 52
I do believe police officer Cliff Brooks will be bludgeoned to death by a crazy cult.
----------34,733 / 50,000
Nov 5, 2009 - 19 23
The dearth of deaths continues...
#2
Cliff silently walked up behind a co-worker. In a low voice he said "Hey" as he placed his hand on the co-worker's shoulder. Startled, the co-worker's response was an immediate self defense move learned the previous night at a martial arts class and then practised over and over, well into the night. The co-worker was holding a metal letter opener. One swift turn and strong upward movement ended with only inches of the letter opener sticking out of Cliff's chest.
Poor Cliff. He had only wanted to apologize for an earlier violent outburst.
37,154 / 50,000
Nov 6, 2009 - 23 39
Now that Cliff has been run over while jogging, he is one of the zombies that appear randomly throughout my romance.
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