The decision to kill off a character is a weighty one, but how does it come about in your writing. Do you plan from the beginning that a certain character will get killed off? Or is it a spur of the moment decision? _________________ Violet "Violanthe" Kane
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Joined: 31 Oct 2007 Posts: 203 Location: Vancouver, Canada
How do you kill off characters?
Posted: Tue Jul 29, 2008 3:01 am
Killing off villains or faceless enemies is easy, and hardly counts as a writing problem. As long as the situtation is realistic, it usually works.
Killing off someone important to the reader is much more difficult, but it goes back to the usual rules. If whatever happens to a character is true to that person's personality, and true to the theme of the story, then it will work.
Example of poor killing: disaster stories always set you up with a certain number of sympathetic characters, to be wiped out when the plot needs an emotional kick. Reader feels manipulated.
Example of good killing: character demonstrates personality flaw which ties in with theme of story. ie, greedy mouse gets caught in trap. Of course, don't be too obvious, or reader scoffs at you.
Example of overused killing: in spite of everything, and contrary to expectations of characters or reader, a character gets killed. Only possible reason is thematic: to demonstrate the random cruelty of the universe.
Of course, I rarely kill off sympathetic characters, because I like them too much!
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