Meme - Day 24

A really interesting question today.

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 actually realized through answering this question that I kill off someone in pretty much everything I write.

The first character I killed off was in Sandy Cove, and it was because when I had originally conceived of the series and wrote it, I had more characters than I knew what to do with. I ended up editing one out completely, and another I felt I could do a good job with if I killed her. I didn't feel it was so much that the plot demanded it, but that it would get rid of a character and also give the ones sticking around something to react to. It worked out well, I think.

I killed some characters in Brookline University as well, but I have not edited that part of the series yet, so there is a chance I might change things up a little bit.

I even managed to kill someone in my Christmas-themed novel, 'Tis The Season. There were suspense elements in the story, so it wasn't totally weird. I enjoy writing a lot of crime and suspense, and it naturally lends itself to deaths of characters. Out of sixteen novels, only one had no deaths.

I don't thnk anyone has died in an interesting way. I've used car accidents, murder (stabbing, strangulation, gunshot wound). Most have been conventional, in a manner of speaking, because I have focused on mostly realistic writing.

I did have the experience in writing something wishing I had killed a character. I see now it would have been a lot better for the story to have done it.