How to Kill a Character
The ins and outs of character death and how I learned to perfect it
As a writer, you get to witness the beautiful birth of your characters. You get to watch them grow and change throughout your story. You get to throw obstacles at them and see them come out the other end, stronger than ever before. As a writer, you spend hours mapping out every little detail and feel the love of your creations pour into your heart.
Unfortunately, as a writer, you also must occasionally witness the death of a character.
Character death is a well-travelled road for me. Three out of the four books I have written so far have included the death of a character.
Why so many character deaths, you may ask?
Well, I don’t execute them without a reason (pardon the pun), nor should any writer. Every death is pre-planned and happens in a way that will affect the progression of the story or the character’s growth. And that is where there is room for mistakes, like killing a character when you don’t need to kill them.
There is a point in every fiction novel where a type of death must occur. This could be the death of a relationship, a habit, or a dream. Every writer has to create a form of death in every book. But what about when it must be an actual death?
