Stephen King famously said, "Kill your darlings." What he meant by that was that sometimes you have to shake things up in a story that has gone flat, and one of the best ways to shake things up is to kill a main character or five. King's biggest example is in The Stand, where he wiped out almost everyone who was part of the Boulder Free Zone Committee. King felt that his story had no direction, and he needed a way to move it forward, so he had Harold Lauter use a bomb to blow up several main characters.
This is a great technique, and it's absolutely useful at times, but it has grown so prevalent that I wonder if writers know how to do anything to add drama beyond killing off folks. I don't have an issue with folks dying in books if such dying advances the plot, but I'm running more and more across those who seem to be doing it just for the sake of shock. Here's a handy tip - the more you do something for shock, the less that shock will register on each succeeding occasion.
There are ways beyond death to add drama and shake up a plot. A character finding out that a past event was all a lie and that he or she has been fighting on the wrong side shakes up a plot. A terrifying assault, be it through mob violence, rape, or the beating of a child, can shake things up. Folks can go off to new cultures or have to confront aspects of their past. All of these things create drama and tension without the need for death.
I'm not saying to keep every character alive during your story. Keeping people on the edge of their seats by wondering if their favorite characters will all make it through can be useful, but it should serve a purpose in your story. Most readers will accept a death that makes sense and moves the plot forward, but they will also be pissed off if you kill a character just for the sake of "shock." Readers get attached to these characters, and randomly killing them makes them mad, especially if it means nothing. Yes, random death happens in real life, but most of us read in order to escape the real world. Throwing too much "real world" into your novel will get you discarded. That's why I rail so much about keeping politics out of writing - people have no choice but to encounter that in everyday life, so books and other entertainment are where we go to get away from that mess.
Introducing random death was creative when first done, but like any overused plot device, it has run its course. If you want to be seen as creative and innovative by your audience, you have to figure out ways to drive a story that don't involve randomly killing folks. Remember, it's not creative to do what everyone else is doing.
This is a great technique, and it's absolutely useful at times, but it has grown so prevalent that I wonder if writers know how to do anything to add drama beyond killing off folks. I don't have an issue with folks dying in books if such dying advances the plot, but I'm running more and more across those who seem to be doing it just for the sake of shock. Here's a handy tip - the more you do something for shock, the less that shock will register on each succeeding occasion.
There are ways beyond death to add drama and shake up a plot. A character finding out that a past event was all a lie and that he or she has been fighting on the wrong side shakes up a plot. A terrifying assault, be it through mob violence, rape, or the beating of a child, can shake things up. Folks can go off to new cultures or have to confront aspects of their past. All of these things create drama and tension without the need for death.
I'm not saying to keep every character alive during your story. Keeping people on the edge of their seats by wondering if their favorite characters will all make it through can be useful, but it should serve a purpose in your story. Most readers will accept a death that makes sense and moves the plot forward, but they will also be pissed off if you kill a character just for the sake of "shock." Readers get attached to these characters, and randomly killing them makes them mad, especially if it means nothing. Yes, random death happens in real life, but most of us read in order to escape the real world. Throwing too much "real world" into your novel will get you discarded. That's why I rail so much about keeping politics out of writing - people have no choice but to encounter that in everyday life, so books and other entertainment are where we go to get away from that mess.
Introducing random death was creative when first done, but like any overused plot device, it has run its course. If you want to be seen as creative and innovative by your audience, you have to figure out ways to drive a story that don't involve randomly killing folks. Remember, it's not creative to do what everyone else is doing.
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