Jash's Writing Tips: Killing Off a Character

You know the feeling of reading something and are on the edge of your seat, worried for your favorite character's life, and then that character dies? I am not against killing off beloved characters, on A03 when I have a 'character death' warning just be aware that I mean 'character deaths' the majority of the time, but there is always a justification for doing so.

So for this part I will be talking about the happy subject of how you should handle killing off your characters.

What Characters Shouldn’t Be Used for a Shock Death

Now if what you're writing involves death, there might be some characters you'll need purely to show that there is danger. These would be the red shirt characters in you're story. And they are needed. If you kill these characters purely for shock it is okay as that's they're job.

In the second chapter of my Terminator fanfic The Eternal Heart Martin Bedell, whom the narrator thinks is a Terminator, is killed. So what's so shocking about that? Well...Martin Bedell is in the prologue of the fic (which I'm counting as the first chapter) and so having the first character to be killed in the fic having the same name was purely for shock value.

Okay, it was also sort of a joke between me and the person who roleplays Martin Bedell. But that's a story for another post.

Anyways, there are also characters that shouldn't be killed off for purely shock value. Think of it as a 'you have to be this short to have a shock death' sort of thing. So what characters shouldn't be killed off purely for shock value?

Any characters that have been around for a long time, or have a great importance to the plot, shouldn't have deaths that are purely for shock value.

Even though Elfangor (from the Animorphs book series by K.A.Applegate) wasn't around for that long, he played a very important part to the series as a whole. If not for him then the Animorphs (the main cast of characters in the series) wouldn't have formed. So him being killed by Visser Three in a gruesome manner is fitting as there is shock value to it but it also points out how fearsome Visser Three can be. And that's important as Visser Three is the main villain for the series.

Meg (from the tv show Supernatural) was given less than a respectful death. She was a character who had been on the show for awhile, but her death was both quick and unremarkable. That is a type of character death you want to stay away from.

Giving a Character a Respectful Death

If you've decided that one of your characters deserves a respectful death, you now need to get around to actually doing it. Remember that the death should be in equal proportions to how valuable the character is to the story. Making your readers scream out in a mix of anger and hurt must be justified.

In my Animorphs fanfic New Beginnings and Second Chances there is a decent amount of character deaths and one death that might happen after the story is hinted at. However, each death is earned and warranted. Marco dies as he has gotten too close to the truth and gives Tobias a final goodbye. In Animorphs canon Tobias lost his first love Rachel Berenson, so losing another of his loves hits hard. And, yeah, I wanted to bring him lots of pain in the final few chapters. Rachel Berenson ends up committing suicide in front of Tobias which helps to hone in how much she has changed since he last saw her (which is when she had originally died).

In The Walking Dead tv show, when Shane is finally killed it's an epic end to a very important character on the show. Whether or not you like a character doesn't fully determine how their death will go. Good characters have deaths that make you sad while villain deaths (with some exceptions) make you happy. So don't determine how big of a death to give a character based purely on likes and dislikes. You can have different intended reactions, but not the size and scope of said death.

Besides the scope of the death, you must remember to be respectful and not to cross lines that you didn't intend to cross. Such as be aware of issues such as racism, sexism, ect.

Be Aware That Certain Character Deaths Will Have Overreactions

Some deaths you will do remarkably well and will do an awesome job at being respectful, but people will still get annoyed. You will still run the chance of people blaming of you of racism, sexism, ect. and you will be in shock. You will go over the character death in question and look at how you did everything right. You were extremely careful to follow the rules, but some group of people will still loathe you for 'messing up'.

The problem isn't what you did, it's that sometimes certain character deaths are more likely to make people angry. These are usually minority and women character deaths. We are at a time when more diversity in fiction is being pushed and so people are more likely to nitpick certain issues. I'm not saying diversity in fiction is wrong as fiction is supposed to mimic real life in certain parts. Whether you like it or not, not everyone is straight or a Christian.

Bryan Fuller genderbent and racebent characters for the Hannibal tv show (currently on NBC). He even changed Margot Verger's backstory to give a better representation of the LGBTQ+ community. However, when Beverly Katz died in the second season accusations of racism and sexism started to flood the internet.

Some people won't ever be pleased, so be aware of that. So make sure any criticism about any minority/women/ect. deaths are valid before deciding to change things.
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