Killing Off Your Characters

This instalment of Weapons for Writers is all about killing your characters. How exactly your characters die is your choice. But, be warned, characters’ deaths should either be instrumental to the plot or beloved characters whose death will have significant emotional impact on the protagonist. Otherwise they’re just space-fillers, and will not have create as much impact and drama as they could.

The Two Word Attack

Shakespeare got away with just, “He died.”

Which doesn’t seem like much; it almost seems lazy. But don’t be fooled. There was so much emotional lead up to that final scene that the two, simple words ‘he died’ had so much resonance and meaning that they worked better than if Shakespeare had written five trillion sentences all about the cold clutches of death grabbing his heart.

Without the lead up to the character’s death, the two words come off flat and meaningless so don’t just write “A stabbed B and B died.” The words are blank, lacking the emotional resonance and the we as the readers really don’t care.

We all knock off the occasional character. In novels centring about wars or apocalypses or have lots of battles in them, if at least one of your characters doesn’t get killed somehow or seriously crippled, it seems fake. That being said, don’t create a character just for the purpose of them dying; they won’t seem real and will have virtually no emotional impact on the other characters, the writer or the reader.

The Side Note Death

 Death is a powerful tool in any work of writing, and it is one of the most important things to get right. I know that I feel cheated if one of the characters – especially a favourite – gets knocked off in a side note, for example:

“And then A shot B, and B fell. C started shooting at A…”

That kind of death is just cheap. Is B dead or just injured? If the writer continues with C and A’s fight, and they both go their separate ways and B isn’t mentioned anymore, we have to assume that yes, B is dead. But it’s unclear and muddled, so even if B was a fully-fledged, round, important character, their death comes off strange and without the full impact it should have.

If B is not a very important character and C really needs to kill A, then the result should look something like this:

“The bullet ripped through B’s chest at point blank range. C could only look, shocked, as things rapidly took a turn for the worse. How could B be defeated? They had been so sure. B’s face was frozen in a twisted half smile lost somewhere between triumph and confusion.

‘Finish the job,’ B whispered, just barely loud enough for C to listen to his advice for the very last time.

C would honour B’s dying wish, and, his entire body trembling with rage he turned around to face A.”

B’s death is short, but it’s clear. His final wish is for the main character, C, to kill the antagonist, A and since A is still there, it’s a bit of an excuse to save C’s emotional anguish over B’s death for another time.

The Over- Dead/Revelation Death

The opposite of the Side Note Death is the Over-Dead. See an example below;

“A held B’s limp body close to his chest. Running streams of scarlet blood covered them both, mingled with salty tears. B was deathly pale; the wound in her chest was too bad for anyone to heal.

‘I love you!’ A sobbed. ‘Don’t leave me!’

‘I will never leave you,’ B whispered, ‘And even though I’m super close to death, I’m going to turn into a Mary Sue and talk for an obscenely long length of time all about the brother you never knew you had but I did know because I am such a Mary Sue. Also, there’s magic golden treasure on Isle Plot-Holia, you’re father’s your enemy, your beloved sister will go insane and your entire life will go to shit. That is all. Actually, I think I’m going to blather on for a while more because I am just that MARY SUE.’

A brushed his lips gently across B’s dry mouth. His lover gave one final, breathy sigh, before her soul left his embrace forever more.”

It’s so syrupy, it just drips with Mary-Sue ness. The majority of readers will just skim the whole soppy affair. Here’s a general rule for all death scenes: PEOPLE WHO ARE NEAR DEATH CANNOT TALK NON-STOP FOR 2+ PARAGRAPHS. I don’t even think someone seriously wounded could talk non-stop for even a single paragraph.  A few sentences, that is all pretty much anyone who is dying from a massive gaping wound can manage.

The Compromise

It’s a very delicate balance between an Over-Dead and a Side-Note Death , but work on it and you’ll get there. Edit, edit and re-edit; let your characters speak through you and really think about their reactions to the character’s death.

Also, after the character is dead don’t ignore them or forget about them.

Pretend that just for an instant your characters are normal. Their best friend just died – they would seriously miss the friend, and the friend would always be in the character’s thought. Your surviving character could:

·         Have nightmares about the dead character.

·         Reminisce about happy memories

·         Take care of the dead character’s pets

·         Forget and include them in group activities – “Me and Dead Character are – wait, never mind,”

Get creative and get writing!