I write darker novels so writing about murder or death comes with the territory. But when an author writes about murder, I find, a lot of research has to be done before we write it. Because accuracy is important for it to have a sense of realness. However, it can be off-putting to research murder, I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea (sort of speak).
Okay, how do we write about murder? Well, for me the first step is to look at who we want to die in my book and see what kind of death I want. This is the first step because how do we know what to write or how to write it if we do not even know what kind of person and death we want.
I will look at who we want to die first, which means the character that is to die and what kind of character they are. So we have to look at the physical traits the character has, such as if this character is in a wheelchair, well some forms of deaths may be harder to write as well not be realistic. Such as a person in a wheelchair may not be seen jumping off a tall building (not impossible, just improbable). I feel that physical traits can play a role in how a person dies. Also, their mental state can play a role. Such as a person who is not a coward, maybe unrealistic to have them die in a cowardly fashion. As a writer, we need to look at these details. It is important to look at these different aspects of a character because I find, it can be off-putting to a reader to read about a character, and the death does not fit the character.
How do you write the death of a character?
In my next blog, I will go into detail about the kind of death.