Wednesday, April 8, 2015

How To Kill A Character: Or Rather, Why

Welcome to yet another post from AM Station for the A-Z Challenge...no, kids, we're not done yet! Still have...a lot more days to go...so...much...blogging...

I am TIRED. So much blogging lately. I have to admit, my MS has been suffering this month due to my attentiveness to my blog. But that's fine, as I've definitely neglected my dusty little corner of the internet in the past, so I suppose I'm making up for it. I'm certainly proud to have made it this far, and it's been such a blessing to have interacted with so many incredible bloggers!

So, How To Kill A Character, as told by Anne Marie Schlueter.

First of all, consider your motive(s). Why are you killing your character? Because it's fun? You morbid person...I like you ;) Is it because J.K. Rowling killed Snape and you just have to take your anger out on SOMEONE and ruin his/her life like Rowling ruined yours?! SAME. Or perhaps because it's just something that's done in writing? I can relate.

Like everything we write, we need a reason. We need a good, solid, realistic reason for every single action that our characters make, for everything we authors throw their way. We need to take into account how this one action is going to affect each character and, of course, the story in its entirety. Basically, we need a pretty good reason to oft a character.

The reasons previously listed are not good reasons. I confess, I've bought into them before. Especially the second one (*whimper* But Snape....). However, they are quite shallow excuses for ending a life(even a fictional one). Our stories deserve better, as do our characters. I used to just kill my characters just because, perhaps for the shock factor or something. While death is a part of life (which is what books are about typically, right), there is a time and a place for death.

When I decide to kill a character, I consider a few different things. First, am I doing this just to surprise my readers? Second, is this furthering the story in some way, in particular, is it furthering character development? Third, is it necessary for the character to be alive in order to advance the plot? Fourth, is the death realistic?

If the answers to these questions lead me to the murder of a character, then I begin to consider how each character will react in a way that suits their respective personalities. People do crazy things when in grief...the craziness can be turned up or down, too, depending on the timing and gruesomeness of the death. Be sure to take that into account. Also, if cheesy dialogue is something you struggle with (my dialogue is the worst when my characters find out about a death), try reading it out loud to see how it sounds.

Lastly, I figure out how my characters will each handle the baggage of the death long-term. Pretty self-explanatory.

As previously stated, death is a part of real life. Therefore, for our writing to be realistic, we must have a place for death. Just be careful not to overuse it, and to think through the reasons why. The book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is a great example of how death affects characters differently. It is definitely worth a read, for many reasons, but certainly character development being one of them.

While we're on the subject of death, here's a cool infograph on how to cover up a murder.

What are some reasons you kill your characters?

14 comments:

  1. I've had to kill characters before, just because there was high danger in the story and it wouldn't have been realistic otherwise. It depends a lot on the overall theme and audience of your story; you're not going to kill off really main characters in a middle grade book.

    I can't believe you liked Thirteen Reasons Why, though, I thought it was filled with extremely low sentimental emotionality and was a lacking piece of writing, as I explained on my blog. I'd be interested to know why you liked it or what you would say to my criticisms in that review.

    Anyways, good post and good luck with your writing.

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    1. Thank you for your thoughts, Daniel! I'll be sure to check out your post. My thoughts are too numerous for but a short comment, but this is good encouragement for me to write a review on it (probably in May). Thanks again, I really appreciate it.

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  2. This is a great post!

    It's interesting how readers and we writers always think that we are malicious and scheming and just dying to kill a character. But it's so rare that we actually think of the gravity of it. What the aftermath of that character death should/will look like.

    I do have to kill characters sometimes. And usually my reason is the aftermath. The aftermath of the death moves my protagonist along in the story in some way or other. It's like it's a major turning point for them, and therefore part of the plot.

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    1. Yes, major, exactly. Thank you for commenting, Ashley!

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  3. *whimper* (But Snape....) Oh, how I love you, Anne Marie Schlueter.

    This post is so great. Killing characters is definitely something I've struggled with. Not the actual killing part (I find that part rather fun. Maybe I'm a psychopath????), but finding good reasons to kill a character. Like you mentioned, I liked to do it just for the surprise factor.
    But after I learned more about killing characters, I realized you really shouldn't do it unless it moves the story forward, motivates the main character to do his job, or develops the characters in an important way.

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  4. I'm nearly resigned to Snape now, but I'm still whimpering about Lupin...
    Good post, Annie! I've had to kill off a character or two, but I try to be very, very careful about it. It's too easy to hit a dull point in your ms and decide, "Huh, maybe I should knock someone off about here for drama" a la Anne Shirley's childhood writing club. I did end up resurrecting a couple characters when I realized their deaths were cover-ups for my own plotting gaps. :)

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    1. Hahaha, ohhh Anne. And goodness, don't get me started on Lupin...*happy thoughts happy thoughts happy thoughts*...too late...

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  5. I have at least one person per novel that dies or was already dead and relates to the story somehow. But I write upper MG, so I have to do it as tastefully as I can!

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    1. Oh, I feel like writing MG would make murder much more difficult! Thanks for commenting =)

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  6. A long time ago I posted a blog post about how to kill of your protagonist. It's a big decision to make, that's for sure. And it shouldn't be taken lightly. For any character. I've killed off characters. In my unpublished supernatural-thriller series, I killed off characters I really liked, but the story called for it.

    Great post! All excellent points.

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    1. I'll have to check that post out, it sounds super interesting. Thank you!

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  7. Thanks so much for your daily visits to my blog, Anne! Wish I had more loyal followers like you. ;)

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  8. My decision is more in the form of "why should they stay alive?"

    I kill off an inordinate number of my characters - especially in my short stories. In fact, the story I consider to be my happiest ending, ends in a death, but hopefully when people read it they understand why.

    I also killed off my absolutely favourite character ever - I battled with myself over that one for a long time. But in the end, it made sense to the story. All my killings-off make sense to their particular story.

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