Ellen Mulholland––writer, dreamer
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characters - why someone must die

3/22/2015

4 Comments

 
Picture
Fiction is the one place you can get away with murder. The trouble begins with caring too much for your characters that you simply don't want to see them dead. You have birthed them onto the page, and you can't imagine staging their funeral. Are you really that heartless? Do you lack the very soul that your mother and father nurtured in you long ago?

Of course not. You're a writer. You create. You can also destroy. They are two opposing forces that provide balance to your story. What you need to understand is that getting rid of a character is more than murder.

I write YA, so I don't kill many characters. Well, that's not true. Characters die in my stories. Oh god, I'm a liar and a killer.

Welcome to the world of fiction, I tell myself.

Every story must have a death. Real. Metaphoric. Multiple. Single. Someone. Something. Must die. It's how you move from the world that was to the world that can and must be.


Every Shakespearean play features one or more important death scenes. Take "MacBeth", which is riddled with murders, most notably Duncan's.

In "Gone With the Wind", the old Tara must die in order for there to be any hope that Scarlet will change.

In William Golding's "Lord of the Flies", we find more than the death of childhood when Piggy goes.

Whether your story revolves around a single death of a beloved character or someone important to them, someone/something must die.

Death symbolizes the end and the beginning. Harry Potter's whole story is wrapped around the death of his parents. Until he unravels the mystery that is his early life, he cannot move on into adulthood. That's a nice seven books worth of soul-searching.

In John Green's "Looking for Alaska", our protagonist is in search of the Great Perhaps. He cannot locate this until he experiences a heart-wrenching loss of his own.

Consider what or who must die in your story. What loss will propel your hero into his or her necessary transformation? Besides people, you can kill or destroy ideas and things.

Not ready to kill a character? Here's a list of possible symbolic deaths:

Natural Disaster - burn down a home, school, landmark; destroy a memento; flood a town; crack a bridge in an earthquake

Loss - literally get lost (in the woods, on the road, at sea); lose something important (item, memory, person)

Ideals - give up on something (love, honesty, deceit, jealousy); change sides (political parties, sports team, nations, families - think Hatfield and the McCoys or Romeo and Juliet)

We could go on and on, but you get the idea. Death in your story places your character right in it. He must choose to do things differently now. What will that be for your hero?

Share your thoughts below.
Write on!

4 Comments
Jess Alter link
3/23/2015 03:35:33 am

"Death in your story places your character right in it. He must choose to do things differently now. What will that be for your hero?"

I love how you present this, as death is truly a doorway to change. Often sudden shock for the characters who remain after another character dies, they are left completely changed and assessing their own existences. Metaphorical deaths also work well, when a character cannot sustain life-as-usual because of events far beyond a character's control--as death is.

In my own writing, I use both. Passing through that doorway of ultimate change is the greatest conflict opportunity tool we have in our arsenals, even when we must end the existence of a beloved character.

Kudos on a great article, Ellen!

Reply
Amalie Cantor link
3/23/2015 05:55:17 am

Loved the post! My almost complete WIP has two literal deaths at key moments in the story, but there are a host of opportunities in any fictional work for metaphorical deaths as well. It's almost the definition of a turning point.

Thanks so much for the post!

Reply
ellen mulholland
3/23/2015 08:02:31 am

Well said, Jess. Besides what our characters learn, think of how much the reader could get from this.

Thanks for your feedback!

Ellen

Reply
ellen mulholland
3/23/2015 08:06:09 am

So true, Amalie!

I bet if you read through your story, you will discover more metaphorical deaths than you realized you'd included.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Let us know about the journey of your WIP.

Ellen

Reply



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  • Home
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