I Feel Like A Professional Killer

When a writer has to do away with their characters..

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

There are times in your life as a writer, when you have to make some tough decisions. I hate those times. I’m bad enough at finishing pieces, because I get too attached to my characters and don’t want to step out of the story, but these times come to us all.

KILLING OFF CHARACTERS

Of course, I’m talking about when you have to make the decision to kill off one of your characters. Now, I’m not really talking about those nice, peaceful deaths, where the character has lived a long life, and then just falls asleep. I’m talking about one of those horrible types of deaths, where your character has barely lived, both literally, and in the context of the story.

Lately, I have had to ponder this exact thing. There is a character in one of my novels, who I haven’t actually written in at all yet, but I have a strong suspicion that somewhere in the story, this character is going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

BUT I LIKE HIM!

I don’t want him to. I like him a lot, and he is one of the truly good characters, and a very important mentor, but already, I’m getting the feeling that he will ultimately become one of the casualties of the QuickSilver.