30 Days of Writing Questions - Day 24

24. How willing are you to kill your characters

if the plot so demands it? What’s the most

interesting way you’ve killed someone?

I am totally willing to kill characters if the plot demands it. I'll kill character even if the plot doesn't demand it -- no that's not true. A lot of the characters are like my children so it hurts to see them die, but at the same time there are a lot of stories and plot lines that just require a certain character to die for whatever reason. Killing Esteban and Balthazar in Destiny III was hard but good because it was really time for both of them (although how they'll die is different in the book). Probably the hardest death to write was the death of the PB characters in Episode 24. I really like the characters. However I actually barely knew them at that point since the final episode was written and filmed as episode #5 out of 24, so I can only imagine how painful it would have been to write those scenes after having written so much more. I might not have done it by then -- no I would have because it works so well.

There are characters that I have really enjoyed killing, because they were utter bastards. I remember having a lot of fun writing Namtaru's death in Eidolon because he was such a smug bastard that he needed to die. I had fun writing, filming, and editing that scene and I still love to watch it because he destroyed so many lives it was just cathardic to see him finally destroyed. Killing his pseudo twin - Morpheus - was hard cause Morpheus was totally kill, but killing Namtaru was good.

The most interesting way someone has died in my stories? Gosh, I don't know. A lot of it is pretty standard stuff like swords, and guns, and magic, and stuff like that. No falling anvils. A couple of drownings I think...maybe. Frumpy died face first in a birthday cake so that was kind of fun. Let's see...I can't really think of any unusual or bizarre deaths in my 'verses. I clearly need to change that. I think the most interesting thing about the deaths of my characters is that death doesn't really stop them. If I like a character I'll usually bring them back as a ghost at some point. And one of my newest characters - Becky Flynn in State Line Road - dies by breaking her neck falling against a tombstone while being chased by ghosts in the first chapter/scene. The whole book/series is about her being dead and becoming Death's messenger, so the book/series starts with her death.

Because I'm a huge mythology buff I don't see death in the same way other authors might. Death is a natural and neccesary part of human existence and death is necessary for a lot of heroes in order to fulfill their journey to become a hero. And death, in mythology, is just another rite of passage - it's the beginning of something new rather than the end of it all. I also see Death as a tall blonde woman with DD's wearing a black trench coat and sunglasses and speaking with a southern hick drawl. But that's just me.