How to kill a Female Character without Fridging Her:
–Make her death be her decision, not because of some spur-of-the-moment reaction or emotional bond with a man, but because she’s thought it through and has deemed this path to be the one she wishes to follow (it can EVEN BE for a man, but there’s a lot to be said for a woman shoving the Hero down the passageway so that he can survive while she fights off an army alone, as opposed to leaping in front of a bullet or a sword for him)
–Make her death be the logical endpoint for her journey as a character; she argued “I don’t want to watch people hurt, I want to fight”, she dies as a warrior. She chooses to go to medical school and fight diseases, she dies exposing herself to a disease so others can study her. She’s spent her life running away from danger, she finally chooses to face death readily and willingly.
–Focus on her lady friends and their reactions, the men who didn’t have romantic interests or a need to protect her, the ones who relied upon her who now need to face the world alone, without her teachings or protection. Be careful not to make her death the trigger for their development, but rather, make it clear what her absence is going to do. If she had her finger stuck in a dam to keep the water from pouring in, what happens now that she’s gone? Does someone else stand there? Do people evacuate the city? What are the consequences of her absence beyond emotional trauma and revenge?
–Just kill her. Have her die like a soldier. One bullet, one explosion, she’s dead, the heroes move on because there’s nothing else to do, they deal with something else. Minimal drama. Minimal angst. Turn the eyes from “Boohoo she’s dead” to “We need to keep moving” as fast as possible.
–Make sure you’ve clarified all of her attachments outside of her love interests, and her goals, focus on her feelings, acknowledge the relationships she’s built with other people to make her absence more noticeable, and to gain a full perspective on what happens when she’s gone.
–Kill her like you would kill a man. Think of any famous man-death scene (”Clever girl”, “Fly you fools”, “There is another Skywalker”, “I don’t know how much longer I can hold this”, “Tell your sister you were right”, “Take her to the moon for me”), and just do that, put it on a level with that, and there you go.
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