A part of writing fiction is introducing new characters, and also letting them go. Today I'd like to share some reflections regarding killing your our own characters.
Let's start with questions:
• WHY are you thinking of killing this character?
• What purpose will it serve?
• What kind of message does it send?
Character's death should be meaningful. Here is some advice how to do it right and what to look out for.
First thing I need to mention regarding killing characters is: if the character's death only serves as a shock to readers, or to make them upset, it's bad writing. Seriously, don't do this to your readers.
Next thing: unrealistic dead characters. For example when the MC has no parents, no grandparents, no uncles, siblings,... And readers get little to no explanation for it. WHY are all those people not in the picture? Another version of this is when the MC has parents, but no other family members outside of them. WHY are they not there? Don't just kill them all off, that's bad writing. Unless there is something that explains why things are the way they are...
Don't kill too many characters just because you can. If an important character dies it hits the readers, but when you keep killing the characters off, readers will numb down and not care anymore. And the moment the reader stop caring for characters you know it's bad.
There's this rule of killing characters: never kill a character if it doesn't take the plot forwards. Think about that when you kill characters. If their death doesn't progress the plot, it's probably bad writing.
In writing community there's also this phenomenon called FRIDGING. It's when you kill off a character purely to get a reaction from another character. Because what's better than traumatizing your characters? Just kidding, don't do it unless you have a solid reason. And try to avoid fridging.
Remember: there are many ways to "defeat" a character outside of killing them. You can instead make them lose a loved one, or their leg, or their home city. You get the message. Perhaps it's good to stop before deciding to kill the character to reflect on that. Is the death necessary?
Another thing is killing characters nobody cares about to start with. "Oh no, Jesinia just died! But who was she anyway? So moving on..." A similar thing is introducing a new character just to kill them soon after.
When killing a character, make sure you provided closure for their plot line. Don't leave stuff unfinished.
Good reasons for killing a character:
→ it advances the plot
→ it fulfils the character's personal goal
→ it motivates other characters
→ it emphasizes the theme
→ it creates realism in the story world
→ the character had it coming
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