Thursday, October 22, 2020

How Will Your Hero Die?


by Henry McLaughlin @RiverBendSagas

Today I want to discuss how to add more depth and suspense to our stories. It doesn’t matter what genre you write; this title question applies to all of them.

The question of my hero dying rose in me as I was reading a detective novel recently. The protagonist was a female private investigator. Her character was believable and complex. The plot held interesting twists and turns. Throughout the second and third acts, the detective faced physical death several times. But she was never in any danger of physically dying. Nothing in the writing told me this. The cover of the book gave it away. Under the title were the words, “first in the (detective’s name) series.” There will be other books, so it’s highly unlikely she will die in book one. Sure enough, she didn’t. Her facing death in book one didn’t have the tension and suspense it should have.

When I started writing, one of the first lessons I learned was don’t give away the ending. I thought it meant as we told the story. And it does. It can also happen on the front cover too.

This experience reminded me of something I first heard from James Scott Bell. He teaches our hero needs to face death in the story, ideally at the climax. Physical death is obvious. Bell also teaches about professional and psychological death. I would add emotional and spiritual death.

In his Harry Bosch novels, Michael Connelly has Harry face physical danger with the potential for death. But even more often, Harry faces professional death—he could lose his job as a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department. This is a death Harry faces in almost every book in the series. Harry also faces emotional death because his dedication to his work stresses his relationships with his wife, his daughter, and his partners.

In my first book, Journey to Riverbend, my hero Michael Archer faces physical death. At the climax, he faces spiritual death because to achieve his goal and save a man’s life; he has to kill someone to do it. The question at the climax is which will he choose.

Writing instructors and books on the craft tell us to give our heroes meaningful stakes to strive for. This will keep the reader engaged as he or she roots for our characters. What is more meaningful than life or death? Not just of the body, but the heart and mind and soul as well?

As you work on your story, look for ways your hero can face some form of death. Whether you’re writing romance or young adult, science fiction or fantasy, middle grade or spy novels, ask yourself, how can I raise the stakes by having death raise its ugly head at the crucial moment in the story? Even Terry Pratchett in his humorous fantasies has his characters face death in some form. What type of death best fits my genre, my story, and my characters?

Happy writing.

TWEETABLE

Henry’s debut novel, Journey to Riverbend, won the 2009 Operation First Novel contest.

Henry edits novels, leads critique groups, and teaches at conferences and workshops. He enjoys mentoring and coaching individual writers. 

Connect with Henry on his BLOG, TWITTER and FACEBOOK.

11 comments:

  1. Harry, more great advice from you. Had not considered emotional and spiritual death. Thanks, once again.
    Jay in SC

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    1. Thank you, Jay. I'm blessed the blog gave you new insights.

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  2. You've given us great advice. I hadn't thought about emotional or spiritual death for our characters, either. Thanks!

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    1. Thanks, Roberta. I'm blessed you found the post helpful. I know, for me, realizing there are more kinds of death than physical really opened my eyes to more possibilities for my stories.

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  3. Now I'm wondering, I have published the first in a series of three (at present) novels, but they are stand alone books. The first and second have many of the same characters, yet the stories focus on different characters. In the second it is Seth and his wife, and the third is Michael and Ruth. The title of the first is 'If I Should Die', and the MC (Julius) faces death several times, but since the other books don't focus on the first MC have I still got enough question so the reader doesn't know? Donevy

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    1. I'm not sure I understand the question. What do you mean so the reader 'doesn't know?' So the reader doesn't know what? If each book focuses on different main characters, the types of death are unique to them. If two characters face emotional death, one could face it in the sense of not being able to trust anyone ever again. The other could face emotional death in the form of depression or suicide. The thing is to make each main character as strong as possible so the reader doesn't get confused. Strong characters will face different situations and different forms of death in their own unique perspective. Our task as writers is to make each character believable and relatable.

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  4. Part of the story is that Julius has faced death many times in his line of work. And this story is no different, but in your above writing you said- Under the title were the words, “first in the (detective’s name) series.” so you knew she didn't die in that story. I don't have that under my title, only that it is the first book in the 'Ebenezer' series. And the second book is to be about another character not about Julius the first book's MC. So readers of the first novel can't look at the second book and know Julius survived the first novel or not? Did that come out right? Donevy

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    1. OK, here's my read on this. You've started a series, but you have not identified as a series about a detective named Julius. I think that helps you maintain suspense in the first book that he might actually die. In the book I referenced, it was kind of a cheat for the author to say is was the first in a series about the hero and then have her face death several times in the first book. We knew she was not going to die unless the author was really clever and somehow brought her back to life like Doyle did with Sherlock Holmes. In your case, it sounds like there's going to be something common across each book like the setting for example. I don't think you'll confuse the reader at all because they will identify with the main character in the second book.

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    2. That's right. I almost missed this second reply. The characters are common and some of the settings. So, yes that's what I'm saying. It made more sense the way you put it. Thanks a bunch. Donevy

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