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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25028
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> What I'd like to ask, is about a method I can use as a rule of thumb, to get me started in the right direction, so I can begin to think about it more dynamically.

As soon as you develop a rule of thumb _method_ of grooming your characters for execution, your readers will see through it instantly. Give them some credit.

The unexpected death must be unexpected, whether the character you are about to kill is a likable goofball, annoying whiner, or a treacherous coward, and the only way to ensure the desired effect is through developing each one of them as if they are going to survive, and that survival is _believable_. How many stories have a really bad guy, who was doing really bad things all his really bad life, and who gets magically transformed by some emotionally charged event and sacrifices his life for the sake of others, he now cares deeply about? Guess what--from the very moment of his transformation it is clear as day that he is not going to survive, because he is already wanted dead of alive in all states of the Trans-Galactic Republic, and there is no possibility of happy ending for him, no matter how much he is transformed by the unconditional love of the scaled green puppy he saved.

Maybe this will help--not as a method, but just a technique--keep an alternative storyline in your head where your living on borrowed time character survives (I wrote that and then saw your comment where you mention this yourself, so you know what I am talking about). It does not have to be detailed and developed, only roughly sketched, but it should be acceptably realistic. Even the transformed bad guy, already sentenced to death, might find a dusty magic carpet in some corner, which can take him away from the imminent prosecution into a non-extradition paradise on the edge of the world.

If you are employing multiple POVs, make sure that your walking dead have an equal time under a spotlight with the few lucky ones who you decided to keep alive.

If it is a team heist story, make sure that all of the team members are equally important for the success of the plan...

And so on...

Original score: 12