Making Character Deaths Meaningful
by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
I recently read an interesting novel—I won’t say which one, since I’d be spoiling the ending. The most important character in the book was killed in an ending I didn’t see coming. The death was a bit of a plot twist in itself because of what it said about a separate character in the story.
After finishing, I was curious to see what other readers had thought about the book. I braved Goodreads—a site I hate as a writer, but sometimes enjoy as a reader—and found several discussions about the novel. And…to my surprise, most readers slammed the ending.
The readers said they thought the death served as a “cop-out ending”. One reader commented that the ending “felt like a cheap shot.” I hadn’t felt that way at all. In fact, it seemed like a very thoughtful ending to me…and a surprising one.
Around the time that I read the book, I got an email from my editor at Penguin about the outline I’d submitted to her for the next mystery in the series. She liked the outline in general, but had several reservations about the second victim in the story. She wanted to make sure that the second victim’s death wasn’t gratuitous. From a mystery standpoint, she also wanted to ensure that the sleuth wasn’t relying on the second murder to solve the case…that the second murder helped, instead, put the other pieces of the puzzle together.
Back in January, I wrote a post about why we might choose not to kill a character. I mentioned that some characters have a certain star quality about them—something that resonates with readers. And readers can get very protective of their favorite characters. Now I was trying to justify killing a character to my editor.
My fix was to go back to the outline and change things up a little. I added more clues and red herrings to the first murder and then changed the victim’s personality a bit. In this version, she was a more complex and possibly irritating person…someone I didn’t think readers would really miss much. And I changed the clue that the second murder provided the sleuth. This time, the clue just helped the sleuth make sense of the other clues instead of allowing her solve the case immediately. And my editor signed on.
Here are my thoughts about when readers might accept character death easier:
When the death is vital to the plot and isn’t acting as a placeholder because we weren’t sure what other direction for the book to take.
When the death acts as a catalyst in some way for other characters’/our protagonist’s behavior. The death resonates and provides real impact.
If this was a viable direction for the story to take. If it doesn’t seem like a lazy approach.
Other questions I considered:
Does the placement of the death play a role? I think it does. It seemed like many readers of the book I’d read objected to the character’s death because it occurred at the end of the book.
Might genre make a difference in terms of reader acceptance of a character death? Again—I think so. In mysteries, we can usually get away with deaths…but what if we murdered a sidekick? Or the detective’s wife or child? Would readers be as accepting of a death of a main character in a more upbeat romance, for instance?
As a reader, how accepting are you of character deaths? Are there circumstances where you accept it easier than others? As a writer, have you killed off main characters in any of your books?
Image: MorgueFile: FellowPacker
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