Killing Them Softly

What kind of killing will you write?

I kill a lot of characters. I mean LOTS.

Lots of different kinds of characters die in lots of different ways. I have murders, even mass murders, accidents, heroic sacrifices, old age, combat causalities and even assassinations.

I had included a lot of friends in my novel that I would introduce and then kill. It was fun writing them. On the edit phase they were cut out though.

Every killing in my story has to be for a reason. Does it forward the plot? Does that murder develop the character of the murderer or even the victim or witness? Every different way people die can be useful in different ways.  Does it establish conflict? They can show the depth of evil of a character, they can show heroic sacrifice, fragility, victory, and many other things.

--In fact, every paragraph needs to be as meaningful.