Character Deaths

Have you ever read a chapter with a tight chest? As you skim over the pages as fast as you can, your lungs ache from holding your breath. Your favorite character is caught under knife point and everything stops. Once your emotions break, you’re sobbing over the page and internally screaming. This is the effect that a well written character death can have on a reader. Welcome to the Homestead, writers! Today we will be discussing the importance of character deaths and how to execute one in order to have your audience writhing in pain.

First, not all genres are suitable for character deaths. A cozy romance for example may have an offstage death that is impactful to the main character, such as a family member, or a missing parent, but usually none of the main cast dies. This trope is usually found in Mystery, Thriller, Horror, Fantasy, and a few other genres in which the plot is heavy and the character conflict is supposed to tear the reader’s heart to bits. The first step then is learning your genre. Now if you’re like me and you wrote the book before you chose the genre, you may have to study a few types to figure out which box your book fits into. Maybe it fits in a few boxes. Personally, my genre changes depending on who I’m talking to! If it’s my parents, it’s an Adventure Fantasy Novel; if It’s my brother it’s a Sci-fi/fantasy; if it’s my horror enthusiastic it’s a Dark Fantasy; if it’s an agent, it’s a Speculative Fiction. Versatility and marketing will decide what genre your book is as much as the tropes and rules will. Something to remember is that genres are just suggestions. It can be seen as either “originally creative” or “out there” to put a murder in a romance novel depending on who you’re talking to. The market is subjective and with good marketing, there’s always an audience for your specific idea. 

Once you determine your genre, decide if killing the specific character is an earth-shattering event that changes the entire book. If you can cut the scene, or even character, and have very little to edit to make the book still flow, then cut it. A character should not die just for the sake of it. The death needs to have a significant effect either on the character or the plot. If not, it’s  filler and the audience might skip it for something more interesting. Before you kill the character, the audience needs to understand why they exist. They need to have a solid purpose that isn’t just “the plot needs to plot”. If you were writing a villain redemption story and, say, in the first chapter we see the assassin main character on a mission, in order to avoid action for action sake, give the reader insight into the effect that this night has on the protagonist, or the effect the target has on the protagonist. If the audience knows why they should care, it’ll hook them when the action starts.

So far we’ve discussed the first of the three steps in writing such a heavy scene. The three steps are setup/cause, confrontation, action, outcome. Setup is the why. Confrontation is the moment when the two characters meet. Their goals clash either through witty dialogue, a few chilling words, or just a hard look, then the action happens, either a fight or a surprise stab. The outcome is the effect the death has on the surrounding characters. With these four steps, the scene will feel vivid, easy to follow, and rewarding. 

To wrap up our time together, don’t forget the four steps to writing a smooth character death. As always, thank you for visiting and stay tuned, friends!