Writer's Workshop: Get In the Fridge! · 6:05pm Jan 25th, 2016
"Nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes." ~Benjamin Franklin
Death is very sad, be it in real life or in a story. Nevertheless, it's a part of the human experience, so it has its own special place in storycrafting. Perhaps right now, you like to write goofy comedies about Pinkie throwing parties or thrilling adventures about Rainbow Dash fighting pirates or whatever. In time, though, you'll probably find yourself driven to write a tragedy, a suspense story, or a mystery, some kind of story where death is a definite possibility. The point I want to get through to you in this workshop is that writing a death is easy, but making it matter... now, that's not so easy.
One of my clients writes reviews on their spare time, and they alerted me to a terrible story that was based off of the Alien franchise. After chapter 3 or so, there was literally a death every chapter, but there was no weight to it. My comment to my client was, "Oh no, Applejack died. What a tragedy. :|" Seriously, I had to go back and read it a couple times to make sure I'd actually read it right, because it was so boring that I skimmed right past it without actually noticing it. That's definitely not how you want to do it. Death should have weight, should have purpose. So let's talk about how to get it right.
(Actually, before we jump in, quick sidenote. Hereon, when I say "death," I'm not solely talking about a character's mortal life ending. After all, some stories have a character effectively "die" but technically still be alive [like a character moving to another city], while other characters physically die but are still engaged in the plot [like a character becoming a ghost and haunting the main characters]. Understand that when I say "die," I really mean losing their presence within the narrative.)
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There are two main ways I've come up with where death can matter. First, death can be used to spur another character's arc; second, it can represent the end of that character's arc. (Or it could do both.) The first is also called "fridging," hence the name of this workshop, while the second is usually what happens when a character "goes out in a blaze of glory." In contrast, I've got are two ways in which death doesn't matter. First, the character's death can be ignominious or unfair (sometimes called the spoiler-y name "dropping a bridge on them"); second, the death can happen to a character that has no arc, thus having no impact on us (which I call "writing a snuff film").
So, "fridging." This is killing off one character to push the arc of another character forward. For example, suppose you want your Main Character to learn to take action when the situation calls for it. You might decide to have them choose not to act, only for someone they care about to die because of their hesitation. This would eat away at their conscience and force them to consider that if only they had acted, they might have been able to save the dead character.
Generally speaking, this isn't a bad thing. As I said before, death is a big deal, so showing that someone paid for the character's mistakes with death is an immediate punch to the reader's gut. However, there are three main cliches that you may want to think twice about before using: killing guardian-type characters, killing off love interests, and killing innocent, cheerful types. The first is just ripping off the Hero's Journey, while the second is problematic and arguably sexist, considering it's one of the few things of interest that happens to female characters. But I could probably write a whole workshop just on "damsels in distress," so let's keep on topic. Last, killing the kind-hearted, perfect sidekick is a lazy way to show that the world is harsh and only the good die young and all that. I love TVTropes' term for it: "Too Good for this Sinful Earth."
Right, next is ending that character's arc. When killing off a character, it should generally be pretty clear that death is an option. (I'll talk about that more when I get to the next section.) One way you can do that is to show that their death demonstrates that they've finally learned their lesson, or that they still stand by what they believe. For example, suppose we have a character who believes firmly that everybody deserves a second chance. That character struggles with that belief throughout the story, but in the final battle, they run through enemy fire to save the bad guy from certain death. The character may die, but they've demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that they still believe in second chances. That belief may be enough to sway the villain from their evil ways. (Hey, a death affecting another character's arc! Look at that.)
'Course, this can be cliche, too. Perhaps the most well-known is the "two days until retirement" guy or the "I'm hoping to get back to my wife and kids, here's a photo" guy. In both cases, these characters are demonstrating their arcs of service to the force before all else, even though they die for it. However, these are so well-known that you might as well slap a "DYING IN 3, 2, 1" label over their heads. Seriously, unless you reeeeeeally need this kind of character in your story, maybe put a character in that's a little more original?
All right, now we're on to the bad. First, consider the unfair or ignoble death. Death should be a celebration of the character, not a drag through the mud. I'm trying to be very careful not to use spoilers, so let's just say that making everything look fine, only to suddenly see that character die for no particular reason other than to tug on heartstrings is stupid. It's like seeing a leaf about to fall into a fire get picked up by the wind, only for that wind to carry it into a wood chipper. I mean, c'mon. Why even do that? Killing characters offscreen or killing them in a scene that had no foreshadowing of the possibility of death is also unfair. Remember, death should have meaning, so killing them out of the proper context most likely means the character's arc wasn't done yet. Just dropping heavy objects on them out of nowhere or listing them as casualties in an off-screen battle really undersells the value you had given them.
Well, that's assuming the character had any value to begin with. Which brings me back to that terrible Aliens fic I read. I'm not giving the name because I don't want people to go hunt it down and give it downvotes, so suffice it to say that the story didn't properly give the characters narrative weight before throwing them into the meat grinder that is the Xenomorph. I think the writer may have just assumed that since we know the characters from the show, we'd automatically be sad to see them die? I'm sorry, but that's just not how it works. Making a death compelling requires that the character have some weight to them. The author tried a little; for example, Applejack was Rainbow Dash's marefriend, so the implication was that we were supposed to feel sad because Rainbow Dash had lost her love interest. But, well... Rainbow Dash didn't have an arc yet (or at all), so again, it was pointless. If you haven't developed your characters enough that they're ready to die for themselves or for somebody else, kill a different character, then! That's what Red Shirts are for! 
In all seriousness, death takes a lot of work to engineer correctly. It needs to make sense both emotionally and narratively, not just one or the other. If your characters are just stock archetypes or bland ciphers, killing them won't spur any emotion. But just because you've built up this character and gotten us attached to them doesn't mean we'll appreciate their death if you just kill 'em off whenever you feel like. Congratulations, you're the author. You can kill characters. Good for you. But if you want it to mean something, show that it comes as the end of a meaningful character arc, or as the impetus for another character to grow.
After watching Stranger Than Fiction I'm always nervous about written death. Meta-fiction paranoia.
Yep! Just because it's an Xenomorph story doesn't necessarily mean "GO crazy and kill every character!"
To make someone's death matter, as AlicornPriest has stated, you truly have to make one of the character's move forward. Or in a sense, move on from one character's arch after death and follow a promise he/she may have made. Like let's say this. What if Shining Armor died in some tragic or horrible way? How would Twilight or Cadance react? Just because it's the end of his arch, doesn't necessarily mean it totally "is" the end. Twilight and or Cadance would definitely be those next protagonists to carry out a promise that both of them might have made.
Stop writing blog posts that cover a topic directly related to my current writing project, which then cause me to self-consciously re-examine every aspect of that story.
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Lol, whoops.
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