Killing Off Characters

So, you need to kill off a character? Do you really?

"Well, yeah."

You sure?

"Yeah....?"

Will this character's death change the plot or other characters? Killing a character and having no one and nothing react means that they're basically not important in the first place. Cut them out entirely.

"Well, I'm killing my MC's best friend, and she's absolutely devastated, so...."

Good job! Now, does the character's death reinforce the theme? Deviating from your theme to kill a character is like veering off the highway to kill a hitchhiker. 

"Well, the best friend's death helps my theme of overcoming obstacles...."

Yay! But do your readers care about the character you're killing off? If your readers don't care, they'll just be annoyed when that character dies. 

"I think I did all that..."

Awesome! Now send it off to your beta readers, to see if you actually did all that. Sure, you care about this character and her death, but you need others to care about it too (including the characters who know about it). You have to have beta readers to make sure that this character's death is impactful, meaningful, and tragic.

Happy fictional murdering!