Let me start by saying this is my second blog of the day. To all those who commented on my earlier attempt, thank you.  But I decided I didn’t want to keep that one up.

From my title I’m sure you can figure out our topic for today – dead characters.  Now, I do not mean characters who are deceased when the story begins.  Nor do I mean all those hapless victims in Romantic Suspense.  I mean killing off characters that are established in the story.  Writing deaths by accidents, natural causes, or some other medical reason.

In my WIP, I do have a character that dies about half way in.  I say about because I haven’t gotten there yet, so I’m not sure exactly when the event will occur.  But I do know this character will die and I’ll be honest and say I have a very good reason for the death.  It’s a major turning point in both the story and in the life of one of my characters.  It throws this character into another gear, forces them to deal with things they’ve long buried and hopefully, serves to bring this character closer to my other character.

Am I being vague enough here?

Anyhoo, we’ve all heard never to kill the pet.  That’s pretty much a given.  But what’s the rule on other characters.  In Sugar Daddy by Lisa Kleypas, a somewhat main character was killed off and I’ll admit, I never saw it coming.  But I think that character had to die for the same reason I mention above.  It’s a major turning point in the story, forces the main character to grow up, and brings that character closer to someone else.  Plus, it makes the main character’s life all that more difficult.

What’s your take on killing off characters?  We’re not talking the hero or heroine, but what about the trusted sidekick?  Or the mentor?  We all know HP will come up right here.  If you’ve killed off a character in a non-RS novel, how did you do it?  What books have you read that included a death that took you by surprise?