Killing Main Characters ...

[Damiynn]

Killing main characters, hmm I personally am doing this myself, its hard but maybe you can look at, what purpose does his or her death serve. Will it motivate other characters in your book to become main characters themselves. Will it inspire the others to do something about it, or is it just cause they are annoying or in the way. If you do it, you have to look at the other characters around that one and think to yourself, how will they react and how will it affect everthing else. Its a touchy situation and a lot of it depends on your plot.

[ctg]

With me being game-master, I wouldn't blink an eye on killing main characters as I know that other characters can keep up with the story. Writing a novel is bit different as you devote such a long time for these characters. I already have maimed and killed characters, but killing a main character in novel kind of storyline eats my confidence on how to pick up with the threads. Even though I have made sure that there are characters behind them that can and really would logically pick them up. Still at the end, like with this character that I've kept close to my heart for so many years. It's kind of hate to lose situation, but its the right thing to do (when I get to that point with the editing).

[Commonmind]

I tend to write organically and find myself killing characters when the story dictates rather than when I do. I've tried it the other way 'round, but I found if I allowed myself to interrupt the natural progression the plot was taking, the end result was contrived and disjointed. As for killing characters simply to create drama or to be evocative -- and this may sound pretentious -- I feel that if the story and characters are strong enough you should never have to compromise either for cheap thrills or to keep your audience's attention.

[CharleneHaines]

I plan to do something to this effect at the end of my 2nd installment. It's a very strategic and imperative move though... very important to the story.
I think people will be upset about it... but, they will understand why I did it later on.


I, myself; however, hate it when main characters die... especially if it's a series I am seriously into, and the main character is someone I have grown attached to. But, I understand the effectivness of it though.

[JDP]

I'd agree with Commonmind in that you should kill off a character when the plot kills off the character rather than engineering a little 'accident' for them . You can simply have the next book not involve the character so much rather than killing them off just to avoid writing about them.

I'd also say that if the character is bugging you that badly, you might want to look at your characterisation; why are they annoying you? Would they annoy a reader? Is their character supposed to be inherently annoying, or are they annoying because the characterisation has become repetitive/boring/dull?

As a reader, I'm quite happy (yet sad!) for a main character to die, as long as it is part of the plot.

[Aes]

^ That's actually a good point. I don't think I've seen anything in this thread yet that explains just why your characters annoy you. So I'll ask right up, what specifically annoys you about the character(s) in question?

[ctg]

But it wasn't engineered accident, it was deliberate move where I collided story-lines together. This character (Inspector) would have found what antagonists were doing and he was put out by an assassin. The 'assassination' provided material and thrill to the main other (main) storyline.

[Ghost of Harrenhal]

I like it when main characters die. It pulls you into the story and you suddenly understand how other characters start to feel whether it be joy at the death or sorrow.