First read this. And now I can talk about my own experience as a writer with the conundrum of when you know you have to kill off or otherwise cause your favorite characters distress, and then I ran across this article which seemed to tie in most excellently as well. I'm in the middle of the fourth 'On Eagles Wings' book, a series I never planned to write in the first place, but something that pretty much demands me to write it (and you thought authors wrote books when actually it is the books forcing the authors to write them?), and in it, I had to put a favorite character through something rather dreadful, and I really struggled with that, why Lord? For his good and Your glory, ah! Remember the cross? Ever watch The Passion, yeah it isn't a pretty or easy story, but where would we be without it? And why is it surprising all lesser works shouldn't echo just that? I really struggled with this when I first started writing back in 2007, I had a main character I really liked and I knew I had to kill him off. If I hadn't I'm pretty sure my creative train would have derailed then and there and I would have given up writing for good in frustration, but in doing as I knew the story demanded, I not only 'received back my dead' but I also ended up writing a ton more stuff, far more than I ever dreamed possible. And as life is a story, His story, don't be surprised when disasters happen, but hang in there and remember it truly is for your good!
