Brandon Miller

Loved this article! I enjoyed your reading of it too, Grace!

Yes! Someone finally legitimizes my existence.

Looking forward to your next article, Brandon.

This is great. At first I thought you meant to kill your POV character (which has its place, but only VERY rarely and VERY carefully.) But you’re right about The Avengers… Now the stakes for the last movie are unbearably high, because now we know that literally anything is possible, based on the ending. I’ll keep this article in mind in my writing! Thank you!

Another one for the wall! I LOVE this article! Such excellent points and I’ve been contemplating a death in my WIP and this gave me some things to ponder in why I am contemplating her death. Super looking forward to your next article cause I am struggling with the how!

Thanks for this article! It actually sent me down the road of considering how to heighten the stakes and make my heroine sacrifice all she’s got… and somewhere in the process, I nailed my WIP’s setting and premise, which was a major encouragement for me in a story that has been kind of dead for the past few months. So even though I don’t plan to murder my MC anytime in the future, thanks!

*evil laugh* I just killed my MC at the end of a short story!! IT WAS AMAZING XD XD Specially because I had all my writing friends yelling at me and sending me a million crying faces. And you get that feeling of ‘wow.. I am awfully evil’ then shrug and laugh saying ‘well, i’m a writer’ XD 😉

Yes. All the yes. My life choices have been justified. XD

Looking forward to the next article.

This is great! I have always struggled with killing off characters in my stories. But now, after reading this, I’m actually wondering who I should kill, where I can fit it in the story, and how I should go about doing it! XD

Thanks for writing this article! So good to know that my characters’ deaths won’t be in vain. ;P

Yes. Yes yes and yes. Books… let people die.
Okay, I’ve ranted enough. Thanks for reading and sympathizing.

All the implied spoilers for Beta Sun… 😛 And now whenever I read one of your death scenes I’ll wonder, “Is this my doing?”

Yeah, cliches aren’t fun. I hope part 2 helps with that!

Heh, my brother read those and was not pleased. (He loved them though.)

I just read this for the second time . . . Brandon, my MCs don’t appreciate it!

Thank you for this post!

uh oh
It wasn’t me who gave you this idea, okay?

Don’t tell them it was my idea, okay? There is already enough blood on my hands as it is *scrollsthroughcomments*

How did I miss this???

I’m going to kill off my main character in my current WIP, even though it hurts me to do so- but this makes me feel a bit better about it. He’s willing to die for what he’s doing. Plus; if it hurts me it’ll definitely move my readers.

Brandon, this is an awesome article! Unfortunately for my MC it just solidified her lover’s death. I was already considering it very seriously, especially ever since I’ve had this in my bookmarks, but now it is solid. xD Not you fault, all my own just so you know. Completely my own. XD

Is the second part out yet? : )

I found the second part, don’t worry. I was a little too lazy to scroll up and see when this was published.
But both articles were very helpful!

Killing main characters needs to happen more often. That may sound brutal, and my heart breaks as I say it (thinking of all the main characters I love and will defend with my own life if necessary), but it is very, very effective and helps make a book have more of an emotional impact. My favorite books are ones that, more often than not, make me cry.

Great post!

Wow! What a great article, Brandon! Just last week I had been really pondering humor’s place in stories. Many of my favorite authors are particularly skilled when using humor, so it’s been on my mind. I will definitely be thinking about the excellent points you made. 🙂

Have you ever read Elizabeth Peters’ “Crocodile on the Sandbank?” Elizabeth Peters is a master of well-crafted humor in my mind. The story is amazing; if you haven’t read it, you should!

Good article. I’ve been trying to make my books funnier, but I think my funniest character is my main character.

I love this line: “So, instead of removing the character, let’s develop him into someone worthy of a spot in your novel’s cast.” I’m not very good with humor, but I do enjoy reading it in the work of others. I think humor is just as crucial an element to character and plot as any other. I love that you don’t call to tear it out, since I believe it is so deeply embedded into us as humans, but that you can to delve deeper. Going deeper and developing what’s only surface level is one of the most effective ways to produce better writing. Excellent point! Thank you so much for sharing!! Also, now adding that series to my to-read list!

Well… I had a lot of tears in the second movie, but they weren’t of the sad kind. 😛
And hey I’ll admit Mater is a pretty dear character, but man does he toe the line.

First off I’d like to say that I think these are great tips (I especially like the popping your story through contrast section) but that’s only if you already know the art of making a character funny. Some of my favorite books include humor and I was wondering if you had any tips on how to write humor? I would love to be able to write funny characters/ books and would really appreciate any advice. Thank you in advance.

Yeah, that’s right. As long as his role isn’t /just/ comic relief, you’re probably good to go!