Hey al1! Long time no… blog? Apologies for that. In the last few months, life’s gotten a little out of hand. My remedy for that? Writing.
Or at least, writing a blog post. Don’t worry, Sovereign Soul: Serpentine Empire is still coming along nicely – more nicely than I could have expected. You’ll be hearing news of it soon, I promise. In the meantime, I’ve been working hard all summer to get into the industry of game design, something I’ve been pressing hard for during the past few months. Again, more news might come on that soon. One is far more definite than the other, but the good news? While we wait, there’s blogs.
And on a gruesome topic, loss sucks. Today I wanted to talk about how to write a good (?) character death – a way to rip the heart out of your reader’s chest and make their pain feel almost real. Is it not real? Do we not feel loss for characters in a similar way? It’s why reaching the end of a good book series is so hard – we suddenly and abruptly stop hearing about characters we fell in love with. An epilogue can attempt to lighten that grievous load, but a character’s death does the opposite. It cuts it off, and we get to read about how the other characters handle it.
So without further ado, let’s get into it. How do you write a good death? And as a quick mention, if it weren’t obvious: I’ll be referencing some popular deaths in fiction, so here’s your spoiler warning for: Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and my own book, Sovereign Soul: Akin Minds. If you haven’t read my book, I’ll be using a death in late Book One as an example in many spots!
- 1. Make the readers and characters fall in love.
What makes loss sting the worst? When you’ve fallen in love. This isn’t always in the typical Clark Kent/Lois Lane sort of way. Maybe it’s the Frodo/Sam way, or a way even quieter and subtle. We fall in love in different ways all the time, and it’s up to you to sort out how your characters, and the reader, might fall in love with your character. Is your hero selfless? A happy-go-lucky individual with a bad stroke of luck?
How could we not love Hedwig from Harry Potter? Her death was a sudden and tragic loss that hooked many of us and left us with stinging eyes as we read the coming passages. She was a selfless character, a beloved pet, and frankly didn’t deserve such an untimely death. Not only did Harry love Hedwig (although he didn’t treat her right often), but us readers certainly did.
As an important note, love might not always happen before their death. Think of Boromir in Lord of the Rings. Most people thought he was a piece of sh*t before he died. It wasn’t immediately apparent why he was being such a tool and tried to steal the ring from Frodo. He earned quite a bit of redemption by using his last moments to protect Merry and Pippin, but not all were convinced. By Frodo and Sam going to Gondor and learning about his father and brother, it offered a retrospective look on Boromir and why he did what he did. Learning reasons to love a character afterward aren’t always a bad thing.
**In Sovereign Soul, there’s reasons to love and hate Loki. He comes across immediately as vain and self-serving, but there’s also something selfless about him beneath his rich and pompous exterior. A devotion to family runs deeper in him than anything else. In his final moments, he does something completely for the sake of someone else.
- 2. How do your characters react?
Grief in all people is different, and your characters will all likely react in different fashions. It is important, though, that they do react. In the same breath, a strong character might shoulder the grief and act as a support to the others, only to eventually crack themselves. So how do your characters react?
Reactions depend on many variables. The relationship between the two is important. Were they close? Did the one left behind wish they were closer? Were they frenemies? Lovers? Does this remind your character of recent loss, whether it was similar or not? New wounds can reopen old ones, and some characters may grieve over completely different things. A diverse group may even conflict over how the grieving is handled, especially with confrontational types. Gender, age, and religious backgrounds can all affect how they grieve.
Characters (and people) can feel grief physically, emotionally, mentally, behaviorally, socially, or even spiritually. One character might fall ill or be unable to eat. Another grieves emotionally, going through phases of sadness or anger. One may struggle with things like memory, lack of concentration, or general confusion. Your sleeping or eating patterns can change, you might want to go out and be with others in a social setting, or the opposite. Being a social butterfly normally can lead to seclusion. Friends could avoid a character they don’t know how to help, while they could even be struggling themselves. A character could feel a need to present themselves as strong and an emotional support to the others, even if they feel weak on the inside. It’s also common to question strong moral or religious beliefs in time of loss.
- 3. Do they accept death?
This is a powerful tool. If the character realizes death is coming, how do they react? How do they fight back, or do they accept it?
Death can come in many ways, as we all know. Maybe a strong enemy arrived in battle and the character was cornered. Do they scream for help? Does anyone come? Or do they act stoic, standing their ground while knowing they’re fighting the good fight? This can tie in with the previous point if there’s a witness besides the reader. Are they forced to watch their friend die? Do they arrive first on the scene, before or after the character’s dying breath? If the character gets a chance to talk to anyone before they completely die, what do they say? What are their last words? Are they coherent, or does loss of blood leave them piteously asking for a loved one already gone?
This can lend well to character personalities and really impact the reader in their last moments. It’s the chance for a normally arrogant character to break and beg for help or forgiveness. A weak character can summon their gall and try to overcome failure, only to be taken down just as easily. A character might embrace death by stepping in to protect their friends, especially if it’s out of character for them. But, keep in mind that there is usually some kind of hint to this beforehand, or it might just confuse your readers and seem like something pulled out of thin air.
- 4. Give them a reason to live.
Your character should already have a reason to be with the group, or at least present in their decisive moment where they finally die. This is just simple character building. If you have to question why they ended up at that battle, chances are your readers will, too.
Everyone has some kind of goal. In many cases, you would want your characters’ missions to end resolved. If they sought out their lost sibling, maybe they found them only to die afterward. Usually, if they’ve accomplished their goal, their death can feel more meaningful and like they’ve fulfilled their goal. Sometimes, their goal comes to fruition with their death.
Sometimes, though, it’s even more powerful to leave it unfinished. Whether it was a personal or worldly goal, maybe they died in battle without accomplishing what they set out for. Maybe a character sought out their missing sibling, only to die in battle long before they could uncover anything substantial. This can also give the other characters a solid reason to divert their cause and shoulder the burdens of the lost. Either way, this can be a truly heartbreaking thing to do to your readers. That’s why you want to do it, right?
- 5. Reflect your own loss. (at your own risk)
This one can be hard to do. As writers, we often project little bits of our life into our work. It can make our scenes more powerful when we have experienced the emotions first-hand. All of us have written when we’re feeling the fresh stab of heartbreak, of loss, of uselessness. It puts power into each scene we write, and we can only make them stronger over time.
When writing, sometimes I pick deliberate times and scenes to write. Recent rejection? Project it into a scene. It’ll often be written raw and come across raw, in a good way. Sometimes it’s even therapeutic. I’ve done it, and I’m doing it now.
Imagine writing your loss out in a scene. Raw, tear-filled, grievous loss, though it might not be word-for-word what you experienced. Maybe it’s the main character coming undone after shouldering everyone else’s grief for some time. But, in order to continue writing the story, your character will have to overcome it somehow. Maybe they’ll stand over the character’s grave and say their piece. Maybe, over a late-night campfire, they’ll properly say goodbye. Their process and reaction to grief will slowly fade to a mere sting, just as everyone’s does. So will yours.
There are many tools you can utilize to write a meaningful, painful, and realistic character death. I hope my list can offer you motivation or help you write that one tough scene. And of course, stay tuned for more blogs! I’ll be continuing my character posts shortly, and there are sure to be more writing tips to follow. If you have any requests for what to tackle next, whether in writing, D&D, or game design, please comment or contact me! Until next time.
Sovereign Soul 