Found a statistic about character deaths that wrecked my outline

I was looking up how many named characters die in popular fantasy series for a new prompt I'm building. Turns out Game of Thrones kills off about 60% of its named characters by the final season. That number made me go back and look at my own outline and I realized I only had 2 planned deaths in a 400 page story. Now I'm wondering if I'm being too soft on my cast or if high death counts are just a GRRM thing. Has anyone else run into this and changed their whole plot?

3 comments

3 Comments

corablack24d ago

lol that's honestly such a relatable thing to stumble on. 60% is wild but it makes sense for how GRRM writes. It's more about what the story needs than a body count checklist though. Do you think your story would actually be better with more deaths or are you just feeling pressured by that stat?

hall.joel24d agoMost Upvoted

Nah don't force it. Deaths gotta earn their place.

anderson.piper24d ago

Heard that 60% stat for Game of Thrones and honestly felt sick to my stomach imagining that many characters getting killed off in my own book. Makes my 2 planned deaths feel like I'm writing a bedtime story.