For most (but not all) of us the big thing that we write about that we haven’t actually done is killing. My main character isn’t a killer by nature but by the end of my novel his body count is in the double digits. This was a problem for me because I’ve never been there. I know how to fight; I’ve spent a lot of time studying martial arts, I’ve fought in the ring and I was a nightclub bouncer for a few years.

But I’ve never killed anyone.

There’s a big difference between knowing how to throw a punch and knowing what it’s like to take a life. Short of actually killing someone (please don’t) writing authentically about killing takes some research. I’ve hit the books, researched online and spoken to the few soldiers I know about their experiences.

I’ve learned a few things. The first thing I learned was that no one kills without there being consequences. Killing, even for those trained to it, always costs the killer. Even sociopaths and psychopaths are affected by it, albeit differently from the rest of us.

It’s those effects on the psyche that authors need to pay attention to. The technical details on how to kill are everywhere online and in books (some of them are wrong too). We can be as creative as we like with the death itself but our research needs to include the psychological cost of killing, because if our hero doesn’t feel anything when they kill another person, then they’re not the hero anymore.

The best book I’ve found so far is called On Killing by Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman. You’ll learn things you never wanted to know about humanity and the cost of killing, but your story and your characters will be stronger for it.

Every death has a consequence, even when it’s just fiction.