Killing The Darlings
Perhaps youâve got this death scene all planned out. Itâs tragic, itâs sad, and youâre sure your readers are going to bawl their eyes out.
But hold up. A death scene isnât just one scene - a tragically beautiful death scene involves a good portion of the story whether you realize it or not. And it might be a tragic death that gets your reader to fling the book across the room and screech in pain like a pterodactyl, but if it was a character who died for the sake of dying, well, your readerâs going to learn to not trust what youâve written.
The goal of this post is to give some tips when writing death scenes . . . and when you should probably avoid a death scene.
What was the purpose of the death? Will this death serve a purpose later on? Does it act as a motivation for the main character? Does it get rid of an obstacle? Open the door to discovering secrets? Or does it only serve to play on the readerâs emotions and the death doesnât actually add anything to the story? If itâs the last one, itâs probably best to skip the death. If youâre looking to create an emotional response from your reader, you shouldnât have to take drastic measures to do so. If youâre trying to improve your writing, you should try to invoke emotion through the smaller things. Improving that area will make the larger things, like a death, so much more emotional.
Were you trying to get rid of a character? Got an annoying character and you used the advice âkill the darlingâ because that character just wasnât contributing anything? If a character outlived his or her usefulness, consider his/her importance throughout the story. Was s/he that necessary, or could s/he be taken out completely? Maybe another character could pick up the slack? Chances are, if youâre not connecting with character, neither is the reader. And by killing the character the readerâs response is going to be more along the lines of, âFinally. He couldâve just died at the beginning for all I cared.â
How much time have you spent developing the victim? Maybe you spent hours and hours into this character - you know him from head to toe, even his favorite flavor of ice cream. But just because youâve got him that well developed doesnât mean itâs well translated in the story. Maybe he doesnât have enough time with the reader. Or maybe you havenât developed him at all, either in the story or in your notes. Why should this matter? Because if youâre killing off a character who wasnât developed or gave the readers no chance to connect with him, his death is going to be as emotional as the lawn being mowed.
Is the manner of death necessary? Especially if itâs a character youâve grown attached to, itâs highly tempting to give her the death you think she deserves: An epic death that features a lot of drama and action. But a lot of the time epic deaths can go over the top and arenât as emotionally effective. Deaths that are simple are sometimes the more effective way. Deaths donât have a lot of flare and arenât drawn out can send a reader reeling. Drawing out a death can sometimes kill the moment (pun intended) and the character is dead to the reader before sheâs actually dead. Another effective method of death is the sudden death. However, a sudden death should only be used in certain cases. In the case of war death is going to happen suddenly all around the place. But in other cases, try not to make every other characterâs death sudden. It starts to lose its shock appeal. Sudden death also lacks any telltale evidence that indicates the characterâs last moments.
Is this the final death? Just as annoying, if not more so, than a death scene not done right is the character who just wonât stay dead. I am not referring to immortal characters or characters where there is a reasonable explanation for why he or she wonât die. Iâm referring the deaths where the characters come back time and time again. Perhaps he keeps faking his death. Perhaps the other characters keep assuming sheâs dead every time they see blood and sheâs gone. Perhaps the other characters keep bringing the victim back to life to the point where a meme is made out of him and the readers start to wonder why anyone would want to keep around someone whose main talent is finding a new way to die. When death is tricked time and time again in your story, readers are going to learn not to care if someone dies. Theyâre going to assume the character will come back, and even if the character doesnât, theyâve already detached themselves emotionally from your storyâs deaths that when they realize it, theyâll just say, âOh. Thatâs too bad.â If itâs a character that they like, they just might get mad that it was that character who remained permanently dead and not any of the others.
Have you lost count of the bodies? If youâve killed too many characters, even if itâs to drive the plot forward, death isnât going to have the same effect. It might seem nice to be the next George R. R. Martin, but is it necessary? It may come to a point where readers stop caring for the charactersâ well being because theyâve come to the realization that everyoneâs going to die.
Obviously, there are exceptions to the rules. But it would not be wise to just throw in the exception to a rule because you feel like it. The basics to writing a good death can come down to proper character development, developed reasons, and good story structure. Without these, deaths will hold no value to the reader.