Killing People and Other Writerly Pursuits

So you have a character you're just dying to kill. Maybe he is a real villain and deserves to die. Or, instead, she is a sweet child and everybody cries when she slips away in the middle of the night. Regardless, there's a right place, time and reason to get rid of that character and it HAS to move the story forward.

This is a writing Master Class, with the dual benefits of digging deeply into the psychological reasons for killing a character, and of building a believable story structure around a death.

• Create a believable underlying reason for a character's death

• Create the perfect character to kill

• Determine which character needs to die and why

• Find the perfect time to kill a character. Even in non-fiction, timing is everything.

• Create a believable way for a character to die

• How accurate does a death have to be?

• How to create a believable reaction from other characters and, ultimately, from the reader

• How to make sure the death is a strong part of the story structure

• Determine if killing that character is the "right thing" to do

Lesson One:

• Why does someone need to die?

• Which character will die and why?

• Archetypes and how their deaths affect other characters

Lesson Two:

• Killing protagonists and why we do it

• Dealing with the structure of killing a main character

Lesson Three:

• Killing villains and why

• Dealing with the structure and consequences Lesson Four:

• Setting up a mystery

• Craft books

• Finding the perfect way to kill a character

Lesson Five:

• Research

• Resources

• Making a death believable

• The importance of accuracy

Lesson Six:

• How grief affects characters

• Creating emotional power

• Determining timing

Lesson Seven:

• Police procedural information

• How does it actually work?

Lesson Eight:

• How TV and movies get it so wrong

• Tips on how to avoid mistakes

Lesson Nine:

• How villains (and other characters) justify their actions

• Pumping up the tension for characters and readers

Lesson Ten:

• Dealing with structure

• Creating a timeline and grid to correctly place the death into perspective

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Sarah (Sally) Hamer is eternally fascinated by people and how they ‘tick’ and works hard to incorporate individual idiosyncrasies to create living, breathing characters in her many works of fiction. She writes in many genres—mystery, science fiction, fantasy, romance, medieval history, non-fiction—and has won awards at both local and national levels, including two Golden Heart finals.

A teacher of beginning and advanced creative fiction writing and screenwriting at Louisiana State University—S for over ten years, she also is a book coach, with many of her students and critique partners becoming successful, award-winning authors.

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