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I was going to be serious and some of these suggestions will be in that category. Yet I find myself in a silly mood, which means we’ll see what happens. So what are some things to consider when killing off a main character?
- Make sure the readers will care. If a central character dies and there’s no reaction then something went wrong. Maybe you forgot to include them in the previous parts of the book? Perhaps you forgot to explain what the character’s purpose was besides getting shanked in the giblets. Either way, you might want some beta readers to make sure this doesn’t happen.
- Have it be memorable. Nobody likes a forgettable death scene.
- Have it be simple. Only so many ‘life story’ speeches a character can do with a gaping chest wound. Unless they’re in a Metal Gear game and then they seem to have all the time in the damn world.
- Irony can be fun when killing a villain. Though I might be thinking of blatant foreshadowing too. I can’t quite remember what irony is exactly because I’m part of the generation who listened to a popular song that muddied the term.
- Sacrificial deaths are great, but don’t overdo them. Also make sure the sacrifice is real and important. For example, don’t have a character run the bomb into the enemy forces that are invading a space station when the others are standing near a button that decouples the parts that the enemy has taken. Just hit the damn button.
- You don’t have to kill a character to make them suffer. Villains seem to enjoy torturing and it can be more interesting to see a character rise from the ashes. After all, dead characters don’t evolve.
- Be careful resurrecting characters and establish the possibility beforehand. Don’t do it if the only reason is because readers are mad at you.
- Please make sure people know a character is dead, especially villains during the climactic fight scene. If the reader has to ask you if that was a death blow or wonder where the bad guy went, you slipped up somewhere. Of course, this can be ignored if your intention is to leave the character’s fate a mystery.
Legends of Windemere 
Reblogged this on Jo Robinson and commented:
Yes.
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Thanks for the reblog.
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Good advice. I’m still wondering how well this event is received in my own fantasy story.
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Wonder if no death threats and screaming is a good thing. Hard to ask what people thought.
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My solution was to throw it out to the world and see what happens.
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That works. 😀
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I’ve killed characters before, but it always makes me pause and think about whether it’s right. For some reason, all I can think of now is the Monty Python bit about “bring out your dead.” No idea where that came from.
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It really does seem to work for some stories. Just a long list of bodies to be made.
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Good tips. I just killed an important ancillary character, and I was recalling the scene while reading your checklist. I’m confident that I got it right!
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Cool. I’m sure I missed stuff too.
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Great advice all around. Nothing worse than a main character’s death that elicits a shrug or defies common sense.
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Or enrages people because it seemed so pointless and random. *tosses Serenity back into the drawer of forgotten things*
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LOL! I loved this, Charles! My favorite one is #6. My final battle scene was worked and reworked until my brain was fried to get it perfect. 🙂
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I just work them very slow and take breaks if I think I’m slipping. One thing I noticed is that it gets really hard to do a main character death as you move on in a series. There’s a big temptation to draw out the scene even after the death, which kind of diminishes it.
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Great advice.There are times when you want the reader unsure of whether a character died or not. You make them think they should have died, but bring the character back later or in the next book. You do need to set up the plausibility for that to occur.
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True. Though I have seen some movies and read some books where that ambiguity is done in the grand finale. That’s when issues tend to come up.
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4 and 7 made me laugh so hard. In general, though, I absolutely hate main character deaths–especially if they were the other half of a One True Pairing.
…Yes, I am shallow.
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Never ran into the One True Pairing one. At least not as a mid-series/story event. Kind of like killing off one of the Wonder Twins and having the other go on somehow. I do think a lengthy series needs a few main character deaths, but I always look at those as ensemble casts instead of a central hero.
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Ah, I see. I don’t mind ensemble cast deaths–they might make me rage temporarily, if the author is good enough, but I can usually acknowledge the benefits to the plot. However, I don’t like it when the author consistently kills off the only bright spots, which is one reason I don’t want to read Game of Thrones. From the sounds of it, G. R. R. Martin does that a LOT.
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I heard the same thing. Also that other bright spots don’t rise up to replace the fallen. His series seems to be the trend right now though.
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Oh, so it’s even worse.
I can see why it’s a trend; most people are probably delighted to read something that’s “not their father’s fantasy novel.” I don’t like stereotypical fantasy novels either, but I don’t like endlessly dark stuff.
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I have to add number 9: Learn from the best -read A Song of Ice and Fire books. George Martin definitely knows his character killing business!
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This is really good advice, Charles. I especially think of number 8 in some movies, where they seem to leave room for the person to return (ala the Friday the 13th movies; the Sherlock Holmes series).
The sacrificial death can be powerful, but as you said, not so powerful if overused. I’ve never had a character go that route, but the notion intrigues me.
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I’ve done it once or twice. There are times you set up a sacrificial death and the character is determined to end it that way, but things don’t work out. One of my characters has something like that happen in ‘Allure of the Gypsies’. She/he went in expecting to die and managed to live. Those are fun.
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Since you mentioned the sacrificial death, I decided to go for it in the novel I’m plotting. One character in particular seems to be fitting for this type of death.
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Interesting when you have characters that simply scream ‘I want a purposeful death!’
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Love it. Short, humorous and to the point and so right. Thank you! Good job!
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Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
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Yes! This list is perfect. I really wish certain fantasy writers would read this, to avoid a lot of unnecessary heartache on my part.
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I sense that you have someone in mind. 😉
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Point 7 reminds me of the way in which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Holmes with (seemingly) no chance of bringing the detective back, then being forced to do just that due to the howls of outrage from the general public. Doyle, did, I understand end up hating Holmes owing to having to bring him back from the dead. Kevin
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I can’t blame him for that. I heard once that Goku was supposed to be replaced by Gohan in Dragonball Z. Fans were royally pissed, so they brought Goku back and had to keep stretching ways to make him stronger.
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Great list. Re. #2, I’m reminded of Jadzia Dax… 🙂
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I’m sorry to say I missed that episode. I stopped for a bit and then she was a different actor.
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You didn’t miss much. One minute she was there, the next she was gone. Darndest death ever!!!
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Wow. Really weird.
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I bet 6 and 7 are challenging points for a writer; sometimes worrying too much how some readers may react can influence good writing or not. I don’t have the talent for novel writing but I noticed in some of my poetry that may have a sad or tragic ending, I feel I need to soften the blow if some readers are sad and yet…
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They’re easier than one would think as long as you don’t let the audience direct the entire story. I always remind myself that one person might be happy with what I do while another hates it and leaves the series. So it’s best to just do what I feel is right, including the darker stuff.
Odd thing is that I still get a few ‘complaints’ that I don’t go the final mile to punish my characters. Mostly because there isn’t a high body count.
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Wow! body count!! I must start reading your novels! I get discouraged writing long stories but may start working on shorts…I like dark short stories leaving you wondering.
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I love writing long stories with subplots and character development. Honestly, I sometimes have trouble stopping. As far as the body count on my books, I’m more of a quality over quantity in terms of deaths. 🙂
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Oh good that’s a relief. I finished reading the Hunger Games (trilogy) and why so many deaths just made me put the book down for long periods of time.
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I haven’t read that, which apparently is a travesty. Though I’ve heard it’s another series with a high body count. Guess that makes sense considering the fight to the death contest.
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I read it since so many youths I work with read it. Many youths over 12 had read it…astounds me the violence and despair they read about.
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A friend of mine read it and told me to only read the first book if I was really curious. Said it had a bad third act.
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The first is by far the best…It took me forever to get through the other two. The first had me weeping on the Métro the first few chapters with the state of life then. Your friend is correct…first is the best.
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Does make me curious about what happened to the rest of the series.
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It could be a serial book actually Book 1 and 3 are probably the best. Just like Girl with the Dragon Tatoo…I have the trilogy but was recommended to space out reading book 2 etc. as we tend to have too many expectations from the first book.
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Mid-series books always seem to get a bad reputation. Too easy to make them nothing more than bridges.
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So true, I think the key is if you like the characters or a few, you are hooked for that reason. That’s what works for me.
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Contained stories can work too even if they connect to the main plot. Think about ‘Empire Strikes Back’ and how there still felt like there was the beginning/middle/end of a story.
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Good advice *gasp* Charles. I haven’t killed a character yet but when I do..*choke* this will make a good primer *sigh*
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Love how you say ‘yet’. 🙂
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Yeah well someday.
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Excellent advice.
Reblogging via pingback :-).
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Glad you enjoyed it.
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Lol, oh man, I really struggle with killing people off. XD I even used to have trouble making my bad guys bad enough. My villains all used to be slightly rude, and that was about it, lol. Thank you for sharing this! 😀
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You’re welcome. Honestly, I like the idea of a villain who isn’t evil, but just really rude. 🙂
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I thought I had a great idea for a novel twenty years ago, but one of the early scenes was grim, and I discovered that I didn’t have the heart to do that to a character. It’s not easy being a writer. 🙂
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It’s a rough career path. Gotta toughen your spirit for the harsh parts. Although not every book needs darkness.
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Those are the kind for me. 🙂
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Great post. I really like #6, make them suffer. Some of my most heart wrenching deaths were of characters who were already dead.
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I’ve never seen that outside of zombies and vampires. Now I’m curious how that works.
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Pingback: Wednesday Reblog | Leigh Michaels
Some really good points here! Character death is always a tough hing to pull off!
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And yet some people make it look so easy. 😛
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Years ago, I read an interview with Anne McCaffrey about her Pern series, and she was asked if there were things she wished she had done differently. She said that she killed Fax (the heavy in the first book) too soon. Then her editors asked her for follow-up books, and she had to come up with a whole new antagonist. So we do have to think beyond the emotional need for justice, revenge, whatever… to make sure we won’t need these characters again.
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Good point. One never knows if people will take to a villain better than they expected. We always think killing the hero is the big series ender, but destroying a good villain can be damaging too.
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This is brilliant I. Having just had the best time ever killing a villian, myself, it resonated too!
Cheers
MTM
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Great timing. Not sure I would say I had the best time killing my villain. It kind of dawns on me that it means he’s out of the story and all of the evil he brought is gone.
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Yeh, I waited until the end before killed him so there were only a few loose ends to tie up after the deed was done. And he was so completely vile and unspeakable that it felt brilliant but actually… I do really miss him. It was totally liberating writing someone that evil.
Cheers
MTM
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Mine was a second tier villain, so I still have a few more baddies for the rest of the series. This guy was pure evil though, which made it really easy to hate him. The others all have a positive aspect or two.
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Ah yeh, I’m guessing that can be a lot harder. I’m looking forward to getting to the point where I read it. It’ll take me a while but I will certainly be reading the series…
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It’s a challenge, but I’ll find a way. I couldn’t keep this guy going for too long. Otherwise he’d wear out his welcome and get ridiculous.
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🙂
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Great post. This is really one of the hardest things to do. I had to do it in the novel I am working on now. It was necessary for the plot, but it was tough to write.
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Usually requires that I take a break and go back to it for a double check. To me, death scenes always seem to need a little extra care.
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They really do. Just to make sure they ring true. You really don’t want it not to make an impact.
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Or to come off as forced. That happened with one death scene that took me a few attempts.
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Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
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Thanks.
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Reblogged this on MARSocial Author Business Enhancement Interviews.
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Great advice and points on this subject. Thanks!
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You’re welcome. It seems to be a popular topic.
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With a dash of humor you captured the dilemma of writing a character’s demise quite well. Couldn’t agree more. 🙂 Though now I will have to revisit my first novel! What does it say about the antagonist when he dies and no one mourns his passing, but instead, my readers ask me why the Corvette had to be wrecked?
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Sounds like they loved the car more. I can think of a few tv series like thar.
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