Why you never want to be one of my characters.

Because there's a good chance I might kill you.

The idea of dying literally scares the crap out of me.  I believe in Heaven and Hell and all that stuff, but the fact that one day I will not be here on this Earth freaks me out. I know there are some people out there that are totally cool with dying. For that, I say hats off! But for me, it send me into this crazy panic attack.

So you would think that maybe I wouldn't write about death as much as I do, but that's not the case. I honestly didn't really notice this until I started brainstorming for Fairy Tale a while back, and my sister pointed out how I have the habit of killing people. It got me thinking: Do I really kill characters that often?  I started going through all my stories and sure enough whether it was a short story, fanfiction, or wannabe novel attempt they all have something in common: Someone is going to die.

I've read a few blog posts via book blog that talked about how not everyone has experienced death in their lives and they wondered why it was such a common thing to have dead friends/relatives/etc in a book. I guess I honestly don't have an answer to it. I have no idea why I like to kill characters! I'm not even for sure if I enjoy it (unless it's an evil character) but because I find it semi-normal to have death in life. Growing up, I've lost a lot of grandparents at a pretty young age. Not just grandparents but other relatives, a couple classmates, and here recently an old friend. Am I just used to knowing that I've lost people and it lingers its way into all of my stories?

So to my dear characters, I'm sorry for killing you. I'm sorry that I make you up in my imagination, give you a life then when you're least expecting it, I slaughter you. Sometimes you die nicely, like in your sleep or of old age. Other times you die in car accidents, freak floods, or just get stabbed, shot, or trapped in a burning building.

I know I'll never write a friend or relative into one of my stories. They have a very good chance of having to bite the bullet, and quite frankly, I don't want them to die.

What about you? Do you have some trends you keep noticing you do while writing? Do share!