Killing off Characters. Oh! the joy!

I know that I'll be considered extremely cruel when I say this but...I couldn't agree more with that guy! :D

Now, I'm aware that there are many types of writers out there! I swear, I even have an entire bucket list on them. I already created one about three writers who treat their characters differently.

Just copy and paste into your search engine to see!

(Link here-https://isaneprimlon.wixsite.com/aspiringwriterblog/single-post/2017/06/15/Types-of-Writers-Characters)

Meanwhile, this blog post taps into one of them (well sort of.)

Reading and Writing it. There's a difference.

Reading

When it comes to Killing off Characters my reactions are completely different when it comes to reading and writing.

Now let's be honest here, if we are reading and the author ends up murdering our best characters we will want to riot! Like that is not acceptable it is NOT! It doesn't matter the circumstances and it doesn't matter the significance of the event, it's not okay!

The number of times I've thrown my book at the wall or have been tempted to fling it out the window whenever my favorite character get's killed off is like. . .I can't even count.

Every time it happens, I always have an urge to hunt down the author and interrogate them or make them suffer severe consequences because of what they've done. As dramatic as it sounds, I'm being entirely honest.

Now for some people, whenever this happens they can let it slide (I assume most don't), vent about it through ranting (I do that a lot), or burst into tears, and so on.

But because I have the luxury of being a writer, I get to vent out my emotions by getting revenge through my writing and turning into a sadistic, and merciless person.

How you ask? Easy! By killing off my OWN characters and making my OWN readers suffer!

Why, you ask? Because I want to prove that those authors aren't the only ones who can play that game.

I know I am an amazing person! ;D

Writing

Now, when it comes to writing, I don't usually just turn into "The Sadist" (well I sort of do but not to an extreme version of it) I only kill off my characters when necessary especially for the plot of the novel. Because well, if I killed off my characters for the fun of it not only would it make my readers angry but annoyed as well! (and as a reader, trust me, I've been there.)

Of course when speaking logically, I get why authors slaughter their beloved creations. Like I established before, it's for the sake of the novel, so it's understandable (or they just want to do that, because they're having a bad day or want to get revenge on their enemies by naming a character after them and making that character suffer the worst possible death. (and the character named after their enemies ironically is the one person that becomes the readers favorite.)

Because of this, I fortunately do not slaughter my characters that often, in fact it's quite rare! Well I wouldn't say 'rare', more like. . .not in a way that makes me trigger happy. But hey what's the difference!!

But when I do find myself in a situation where killing off my character is one of the many choices that could benefit my book, I usually go through that particular road, and my reasons for that vary. If you're wondering yes, getting angry about a book is one of those reasons.

What's so great about Killing off characters!?

Um . . . BECAUSE IT'S FUN! (Just kidding, Just kidding. No there's a more mature reason for that.)

For me to be honest, killing off your characters as a writer is like a way for you to find out if your beautiful, and wonderful creations are three-dimensional rather than one-dimensional (and yes, supporting characters/side-kicks, count as well.)

If your reader, whether it's a true-reader, a beta reader, your mom, a friend, etc, ends up crying their eyes out when a character dies, or threatens to strangle you to death. . . or actually does strangle you to death, (that character not being the antagonist, unless you make the reader like them at the end) then that should mean something good.

One time a friend of mine who actually took the time to read my novel (which meant so much to me by the way) was FURIOUS at me when she found out I slaughtered off one of my characters, because apparently it was her favorite one. She confessed to me that she was depressed and crying about it all night about it and all day and when she told me that I was overjoyed!

I mean, I wasn't happy that I crushed her poor soul, but I was happy because she gave me the reaction I wanted! Which was her poor soul being crushed!

The reaction she gave me, showed to me that my character build was done well which is an essential part for a good book. So therefore if my character build was utter garbage, then I doubt she would've wasted her tears on their death.

How do I feel about Killing off Characters?

When it comes to writing I feel like people should be wise about choosing which character to murder, as well as when they should do it, the purpose behind it, how they do it, etc.

Like I said before, as a reader I hate it, but through my writing eyes it makes sense to me. Putting aside my emotions and when speaking logically, I believe it should be done when it's necessary.

I have actually met a few aspiring writers, usually those that are beginners who just randomly murder their darling creations without a purpose, and sometimes in the most ridiculous way possible to a point where I found their death more humorous than sad.

Then there are other moments when unfortunately, I've come across books that I've read when a character dies for no good reason and it's more frustrating and infuriating than emotionally devastating, because a poor character's life was wasted and it didn't serve any purpose towards the story!

Word of advice?

I have no control over what you type on a computer, or write down on paper involving a

character's demise but like I said before do it when necessary.

For example

-if one of your side characters is suffering through an illness and they only have a few days to live

-or one of your characters sacrifices their life to save another character

-or your main characters are in battle and there's a sudden plot twist that involves death (it doesn't have to be their own)

-or the book your writing takes place in the afterlife so your character is supposed to die

-or your character's beliefs change because of the death of another character

The list goes on really.

But in the end there can actually be moments when sometimes all your characters can live happily ever after. And when I say that I mean, NO ONE has to die!

Everyone can be free to continue on until nature takes it's course! Yup that's right! There are books/you can write a book when character's don't have to die!

If you weren't aware of this fact-CONGRATS! You learned something new today!

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So am I the only one who has strong feelings about writers slaughtering their characters or BEING the writer that slaughters off characters? Please relieve my stress by commenting below about your opinion! :D

#writingadvice #writingrants