How To: Kill off a Book Character

The Iron King by Maurice Duron is the most recent book that managed to catch me off guard. Before reading it I had never heard of this book or of the other seven books which compose The Accursed Kings series. If it had not been by the pool of tears A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin left me in I would have never found it. Before reading it, of course, I did what any other millennial would do...I googled it. The description blew me away, here laid another backstabbing royal drama, with meddling nobles, knights, and a kingdom at stake. All thumbs up for me since I LOVE fantasy and fiction, yet this book was NOT fiction, The Iron King is based on real fourteen-century French History. Every character was born, lived and most importantly died in the same way it is described in the book.

You must be thinking "Daniel is such a nerd. Who reads historical drama.... BORING!" Well, in the past I might have agreed with you. However, when I read of the glorious yet terrifying scene where the Knights Templar is burned alive, on a small island in the middle of the Seine River, staged in a theater-like atmosphere, and witnessed by no less than all of Paris, I was hooked on this series. This moment from book one is the pivot of the entire series, because here Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay being burned at the stake, curses his accusers: Pope Clement V, Guillaume de Nogaret and non-other than the king of France, Philip the Fair. Not only does de Molay curses them to die a worse death than his, but also curses their families to the thirteen generation, yes 13th!

By this point, I knew Pope Clement V, Guillaume de Nogaret, and King Philip would die at some point in the series, so I put my curiosity on time-out and abstained from googling how these men would meet their fates. As of now, I am on the book five of seven, and oh boy have I been surprised! Mr. Duron is a genius at killing his characters, no wonder George R.R. Martin calls this book "the original Game of Thrones" and it's evident from where and how Martin these series as inspiration in style and in the method of killing characters.

1.1 To Kill or Not to Kill

Let's be honest, we can all write a death scene, yet not all of us can do it well. The idea of killing off the hero, or that villain whom finally finds redemption from sin, or that annoying little fart of a character that we wish had just died like before you even took the book off the shelf. This notion of whipping away the loved or hated character is very tempting especially when you think it will make a huge impact. You write and write and can't wait to just kill them off and show your readers what an amazing writer you are, yet you kill them and it falls flat. It is also important to think before we kill, touché! No, really it does matter!

Before you kill anyone in your story here are some pointers to help you chop those imaginary heads off right.

1. First, think of all the good reason why you should kill your character such as:

a. Does it advance the plot?

b. Does it motivate another character?

c. Does it emphasize your theme?

d. Does it fulfill a character's personal goal and is that a fitting prize for his/her actions? Will death achieve a greater level of realism in your story?

e. Or does it help you remove unnecessary characters?

2. Now think of all the BAD reason to kill:

a. Shocking readers just for fun.

b. Making readers sad just for fun.

c. Finally, killing off to remove the extra character.

You might have notice that there are better reason to kill a character than there are a bad one, yet these two categories share a common trait: killing to remove an unnecessary character. My rule of thumb always is if you have to kill a character that does not belong in your story, who does not help achieve any purpose at all, why include him in the story, to begin with?

Remember that every single character in your story should be there for a specific reason, when deciding when to kill, think about the specific function this death will achieve. If you discover this death will serve no purpose, then don't bother, yet if this purpose is found and its accentuated by death, now think who will fulfill that character's role?

1.2 authors Melanie Anne Phillips and Chris Huntley explain:

"Unless the functions represented by the discontinued player reappear in another player, however, part of the story's argument will disappear at the point the original drops out. In the attempt to surprise an audience by killing off a major player, many an author has doomed an otherwise functional story form."

Now do not worry! Sometimes certain traits of your dying character are carried by some of the others, and that's where you find continuity. In short: when you kill that annoying little fart, their death does not need their role will leave empty for the rest of your story.

Remember that at times death can rise a simple story to unprecedented heights. If you manage to justify death, then go for it!