When to Kill (a character), an Open Book Blog Hop post

 

Welcome to Open Book Blog Hop. You can find us every Monday talking about the writing life. I hope you'll check out all the posts: you'll find the links at the bottom of this post.

Have you ever regretted killing off a character? Or not killing one off? 
 ______________________

Interesting question this week! 

Killing off characters has really ranged for me. There have been times when I didn't even blink. It was obviously what the story needed. Other times, I'm waffled and written several versions trying to decide. 

People die in my horror stories all the time. They are, after all, horror stories. The stakes are high and violence is expected. You're just as likely to end up in the afterlife if you start a horror story as a hero or a villain, since both endings are common in the genre.  I do try to make these deaths matter, though. I *hate* stories where one character is killed off solely to motivate other characters or for shock value alone. 

In my superhero work, though, I have a much lighter, more optimistic tone, and I've mostly avoided killing. My heroes are not the grim-dark sort you find in some superhero stories, but the true-heart, noble-bright sort for the most part. Even Patricia, the most reluctant of heroes, doesn't use her power indiscriminately. 

Patricia "Lizard Woman" O'Neill, as drawn by Charles C. Dowd

In the field more generally, characters do die in superhero stories, but it's usually not the heroes, or at least not without a LOT of hoopla and the possibility of undoing that later in some fashion. 

I've recently turned in the series ender for the Menopausal Superheroes series. There is a death of a named, recurring character in this last one, and I feel it was the right choice for the story. But, there's another character who was on a trajectory that might well have led to her death and I chose not to kill her off. It didn't feel right. 

I think that's the key for me. This is a decision based on what feels right. Does it serve the story? Is it necessary? 

I guess we'll find out how readers feel next summer when the book comes out! 

How about you? If you write, have you killed off any characters? For readers, have there been any character deaths that you thought were handled well or badly? 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter