Write Better Characters: How Death Will Bring Your Story to Life

If you’re struggling to flesh out a character, one of the most useful things you can do is kill them. Well, kill them, then fill out their death certificate. Here’s why.

Life in Reverse.

To fill out a death certificate, you need to know things about your character’s life.

This includes how old they were when they died, when they were born and where, if they were married, cause of death, whether they served in the armed forces, occupation, etc.

Paradoxically, as you fill out the death certificate, you’re forced to create a life. Here’s an example: I had a character once whose son fell in love with a drowned girl. (It makes sense, I promise.) This father was flat to me and all I knew was that he had a bad relationship with his wife.

To try and learn more about him, I filled out a death certificate. The biggest hurdle I ran into was trying to decide if his marriage could survive the events of the story and the test of time. But in the end, I decided he was still married, and not only that, he died together with his wife, a romantic end that would probably have disappointed both.

Make it Work for You.

There are levels of granularity to this exercise. For example, when the certificate asks you where your character was living at the time of their death, you can get down to the nitty gritty. Were they living in an apartment? A dive, a nook above a pizza joint? Were they living on the same street where they were born? Every choice has implications for your character’s life.

Or not. If you don’t find value in a particular section, skip it. But don’t avoid a section because it’s difficult. Put yourself in your character’s shoes and really think about who they are.

Learn to Love Bureaucracy

Our world thrives on bureaucracy. Forms in triplicate, referencing subsections, filling out the information in a resume section that was supposed to auto populate. This is to say that if death certificates are off-putting to you, other forms can be equally revealing. The next time you’re at a big box store and they have applications sitting out, grab one and fill it out for your character.

One of my personal favorites is writing a college entrance essay in your character’s voice. Are they applying for med school? Trying to break into the trades? There are so many micro decisions you have to make about who your character is before you can even fill out the simplest forms.

Wrap Up

This kind of work falls under the category of “Writing that Won’t Make the Final Draft” but it’s worth it.

Another way it helps me is to keep my characters in the front of my mind. I find myself asking questions like, “If they walked into this restaurant right now, where would they sit? What would they order?” It’s mundane stuff, but it’s a way to start to reveal who your character really is.