EastEnders and Casualty script writer and YA author Jeff Povey, who’s murdered a few of his creations, reveals what it’s like to snatch life from a character you’ve loved
From the very first word of my YA series, I knew exactly who would have to die. I knew the time would come when I would have to take one of the characters that I loved writing and end their life. I knew it because I’m not just writing an adventure story, I’m writing a story that makes you, the reader, like my characters as much as I do. For any novel to succeed that has to happen. Fancy descriptions of clouds or brilliantly intricate plots are meaningless without characters you care about. But sometimes you have to kill characters, and to have the most impact you have to do it at exactly the right time. Preferably when they are at their most heroic, or they have just found true happiness, or any number of positives that make their loss even harder to bear. And that’s mainly because I want you to cry just like I did when I was writing the death. I’m not ashamed to admit that, because I loved that character like a son or daughter. In truth if I wasn’t upset then I doubt a reader would be either.
Related: Jeff Povey: how I write scripts for TV and books – top tips and insights
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