Professional killer

When to do away with your characters..

There are times in your life as a writer, when you have to make some tough decisions. I hate those times. I’m bad enough at finishing pieces, because I get too attached to my characters and don’t want to step out of the story, but these times come to us all.

Of course, I’m talking about when you have to make the decision to kill off one of your characters. Now, I’m not really talking about those nice, peaceful deaths, where the character has lived a long life, and then just falls asleep. I’m talking about one of those horrible types of deaths, where your character has barely lived, both literally, and in the context of the story.

Lately, I have had to ponder this exact thing. There is a character in my novel, who I haven’t actually written in at all yet, but I have a strong suspicion that somewhere in the story, this character is going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I don’t want him to. I like him a lot, and he is one of the truly good characters, and a very important mentor, but already, I’m getting the feeling that he will ultimately become one of the casualties of the QuickSilver.

I hate that fact. I’d like to keep him alive throughout the entire story, but I know that in order to move the story forward, this isn’t going to be possible.

So, if you’re like me, and you’re dreading this part of your story, all I can say is, I feel you. I know exactly what you’re going through. Just stick with it.

If, on the other hand, you take unbridled glee at the thought of killing off your characters, I can direct you to the twitter feed of one of my best friends, who I can assure you is completely sadistic when it comes to her characters. In fact, I have suggested that she take to prefacing her stories with a public apology to her characters.