Wednesday links: Developing and killing characters

I love regularly reading tips and advice articles in certain subjects — particularly writing and publishing. I don’t always need the information right then, but I know that it’ll eventually come in handy. Or at least, I hope it will.

I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the same way I do, but sometimes it can be difficult to find every useful advice article that’s out there. So I thought I’d bring you a few.

Here are the tips and advice articles that jumped out at me the most over the past week.

1. 6 Key Things to Consider When Developing Characters, from Jody Hedlund: It doesn’t matter whether your novel is plot-driven or character-driven – it’s important that your characters are well-developed. Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can go about ensuring that you have characters people want to read about. Excerpt: “And one of the most important parts of my pre-writing process is developing my characters. I literally spend hours and hours thinking about them and shaping them BEFORE I type one word.”

2. How to Kill Off Characters, from Book Riot: Sometimes, a character (or multiple characters) in your book just needs to die. But if you’re going to kill off a character, then it’s important that you do so in a way that your readers will be willing to accept. (Also, fair warning: this article is full of spoilers.) Excerpt: “I decided (as soon as I saw the tagline for the end of the season) that if they kill off my favorite character, great. I don’t have to watch the show any more. Which got me thinking: What’s the best way to kill off a character? How do you kill off a character without pissing off the reader so much that they just give up?”