After reading a post by @am_harte today I felt compelled to comment. Here is what I replied:
Character deaths are an extremely important part of writing and personally something which I believe is extremely difficult to get right. It mustn’t seem lamented or over produced, but must feel entirely natural, even if the ending is a total shock.
Though I love my characters immensely, during the writing of Emblem Divide, I was more scared of finishing the book than ending a single characters life. A death can give a character a whole new meaning, a whole new purpose in life. It’s not just about the next step in the story, it’s also about providing motivation and substance for the rest of the tale to continue.
During the preview readings for Emblem Divide, it was exceedingly satisfying when several members of the panel shouted at me for killing a character. It gave me the feeling that I had affected them in the way I intended, that I had not only shocked them, but left them feeling empty and angry.
