Ben Reeves on how Death ended up with main character energy

Read a piece from Ben Reeves, author of Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt.

For me, a main character isn’t always the biggest or the loudest person in the room. They might not even be centre-stage. But they’re a character who interests us, usually because of some deep internal conflict, and we’ll gladly stick with that character until the end, because we want to see that conflict get resolved.

With Travis, I spent a long time thinking about what kind of person ‘Death’ would be. I knew, early on, I didn’t want the ‘hooded cloak and scythe’ type – I wanted just a normal guy. He’d be intimately connected with the world, with nature, with every tiny story going on around him. And I think he’d be lonely.

Imagine how difficult it would be to form close relationships when you know you’re going to watch each of them die. So Travis keeps himself to himself, though he loves people. He treats his job with absolute reverence and care. Each death is special to him, whether he’s dressing up as a house cleaner, or a solicitor, or he’s reading a bedtime story. I think this helps us connect with him, because he feels so deeply human. He has some vulnerability.

In any great story, it’s also important to see our main characters change. Travis’s change comes in the form of a little family who lives across the hall – in particular the single midwife (Dalia) and her daughter (Layla). Unwittingly, Travis falls in love with this family. He has dinner with them, he watches TV with them. They, in turn, fall for him (though they don’t know who he truly is). The man who mustn’t get involved with anyone, is getting involved! This leads to a delicious tension, and an inner dilemma for Travis, because he’s torn between his nature (being Death), and his feelings for this family. That kind of emotional tension can be so powerful, particularly in a main character. And especially when it’s not obvious how this dilemma could ever be resolved.

Throughout writing the book, I tried to inhabit Travis. I’d walk to work and try to see the world through his eyes, to pay attention to every tiny detail – a birdbath in the garden, a fence dripping with wet paint – things I’d normally ignore. And the world became a different place. I believe a great main character will change the reader in some small way. He certainly changed me. Travis was a delight to write, and it’s very satisfying to watch readers connect with him.

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Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt

by Ben Reeves

An astonishing and deeply moving novel about finding beauty in the brevity of life, as narrated by the one who knows it best: Death.

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