To Kill or Not to Kill

To kill or not to kill. This is a question that my writer's mind has been contemplating lately. It may seem to a reader than killing a character comes easy to an author. After all, we need only type the act of dieing, in any way we can devise, and said character is officially deceased.

Be that as it may, an author is a creator of worlds and lives. We know our characters down to their souls, and believe me characters have soul.

When I began writing Ironic Dance, I thought it would be easy. When my fingers first pounded the keyboard, I had a plan; a death plan; and I knew just who was going to fall. They had to fall. It was logical that they fall. It was just. They were the bad guy. Then my characters began to do what characters do: they became people with thoughts and words, motivations and actions.

In short Ironic Dance has taken steps in surprising directions I never foresaw when it was first conceived. I am both an author and a reader as my story draws itself on the pages before me.

Someone IS going to die; but it isn't the person I thought it would be; in fact, the bad guy isn't who I thought they would be. In fact, in a story, as often as in life, it isn't about good guys or bad guys, its about loss. Loss of love, loss of direction, loss of self. It is human things that are lethal. Finally, my up-and-coming dead person isn't evil, just lost and dangerously frightened.

I love my characters, and I hate to send one off the edge into the grave, but for the character to fulfill their purpose, I must do so. So goodbye, sweet character, goodbye.