Rarely is it that postponing a character death actually improves a story. It's rare... but it happens.
I've been going over my outline for The Preppy Suicides, looking at all the clues and plot points and becoming very upset that they all have just a little too much momentum. Now, momentum is a good thing, but I have reasons, and not arbitrary ones, that each volume of The Crossroads Chronicles has to span a school year. It's not a conceit I yoinked from Harry Potter or a vestige of when I'd planned to do this series as a TV show. There are legit reasons for it. And yet, there are only so many clues, only so many roads I can go down without getting redundant and adding filler.
And then I realized that a lot of that momentum had to do with a character death that occurs rather early on in the story, one in which the characters have a very personal stake. It's their entire purpose, and for them to dally around after this character has died would seriously leach credibility from the idea that this was their friend, that his death had a profound effect on them. Then, however, I realized...
His isn't the only death, and it isn't the first. If the first death piques their curiosity and gets them to start asking questions, they could begin their investigation without the immediate personal stake of the second death, and certain events put in motion by the second death could also be held off on. The rising action starts, but the story has room to breathe, to grow.
And then, when no one is looking... BAM! Death number two makes it personal. Death number two changes the game. It's the cue ball that sends every other ball on the table bouncing off the sides. This, of course, also has the added bonus of spending more time with the character who was supposed to die sooner. There is seriously no bad to this decision. Fo' shizzle!
Well, time to roll up my sleeves and get restructuring!
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