I Need a Red Shirt Character

Don · Dec 9, 2008

I don't know if I'm looking for help here, or just whining.

I've come to a point in my WIP where I know I'm going to lose a character. I'm having a terrible time deciding who's leaving the cast, so to speak.

I'm to the point where I'm considering back-filling a character into the story simply so I can kill him off, rather than destroy the dynamic between the existing cast of characters.

The risk, of course, is that if I write a good character, I'll decide he can't die either, and I'll go through this whole process again.

Any suggestions from those who have gone before?

Ol' Fashioned Girl · Dec 9, 2008

Be brave. Be bold. Kill one.

You have to care, or it won't matter... and then the reader won't care, either.

Red-Green · Dec 9, 2008

Yup. OFG speaks truth. If you put in a Red Shirt, your readers will know he's a Red Shirt. And did you ever care when the Red Shirts died on Star Trek? I didn't.

JeanneTGC · Dec 9, 2008

Kill someone you care about. If YOU care about the character dying, then your readers will care about the character dying. If you just kill "some guy", then what impact does that death actually have?

It's hard, don't I know it. I tried that, creating red shirt characters to kill them off. I fell in love with all of them, so even though some still have had to die, it's painful. If it doesn't hurt to kill them off, then why bother in the first place?

Only caveat -- do not kill the MC, or the obvious love interest for the MC if the "better" love interest for the MC is there, waiting in the wings. You don't want to kill your MC unless you have a "Psycho" type of twist going on, and you don't want to kill off Love Interest A so that Love Interest B can win, because that's winning by default, not by merit.

jvc · Dec 9, 2008

I'm agreeing with the above. I think you should kill 'em, and kill 'em good. I have done this with one of my characters that I have loved before, and I'll do it again. Don't be afraid to kill 'em off, make them afraid of being killed off, it'll add to the tension

.

Jerry B. Flory · Dec 9, 2008

Ever read a Mack Bolan book? Don Pendleton has written literally hundreds of them. Mack Bolan kills everybody. He's killed Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Ozzy Osbourne, countless rappers. When Pendleton finds someone he doesn't like Mack Bolan kills them and it's all good fun to watch them all fall down until someone close to Mack Bolan dies. Then, well, that's different...

ishtar'sgate · Dec 9, 2008

Don said:
I'm to the point where I'm considering back-filling a character into the story simply so I can kill him off, rather than destroy the dynamic between the existing cast of characters.

Any suggestions from those who have gone before?

I think you just have to close your eyes and do it. It's a good thing that this character matters, that readers identify with him/her in some way. I suspect that if you create a character-for-the-killing you won't invest much of yourself into them.
I had a supporting character who grew to take up more space than I'd originally considered for him. I liked him. I cared about him. I killed him. I wasn't planning on killing him but the very fact that he'd become an interesting character in the story made him the perfect target. Readers cared when he died. The death of a character needs to matter and it will matter a whole lot more if the reader doesn't see it coming and is sorry to lose him.

Duncan J Macdonald · Dec 9, 2008

Jerry B. Flory said:
Ever read a Mack Bolan book? Don Pendleton has written literally hundreds of them. Mack Bolan kills everybody. He's killed Clinton, Bush, Cheney, Ozzy Osbourne, countless rappers. When Pendleton finds someone he doesn't like Mack Bolan kills them and it's all good fun to watch them all fall down until someone close to Mack Bolan dies. Then, well, that's different...

Umm, Don Pendleton wrote 38 Mack Bolan books. The rest he licensed via Harlequin, and a stable of authors continued writing them.

Link

Jerry B. Flory · Dec 9, 2008

Yeah I looked that up. There's over six-hundred of them.
One of these days I'm going to find myself with nothing to do and count just exactly how many thousands of people Mack Bolan has killed.

NeuroFizz · Dec 9, 2008

I'm a little confused here. If your story demands someone be eliminated, why would you invent a totally new person to be the one eliminated? How does that serve the story? If it is just any old person who has to be eliminated, what kind of role does that elimination play in the plot other than some sensationalism or some kind of gratuitous dispatch. And if you can't decide which of the established characters you may have to eliminate, how well hatched is your plot in the first place? I'm really sorry, Don because I'm not trying to be a jerk, and I may be misunderstanding your post (or not filled in with enough information), but this seems really strange to me. I'm not against killing off (or otherwise eliminating) a character, but in most cases, doesn't the developing story dictate who will be eliminated and when? I guess it would help to know the genre and the nature of the elimination.

Smiling Ted · Dec 9, 2008

Kill one, save a thousand.

Gillhoughly · Dec 9, 2008

Any suggestions from those who have gone before?

What Would Joss Whedon Do?

TOP him.

Teena · Dec 9, 2008

NeuroFizz said:
...If your story demands someone be eliminated, why would you invent a totally new person to be the one eliminated? How does that serve the story?

I pretty much agree with this. It would seem that your plot should have already dictated which character will be killed and why that particular character...the death needs to be meaningful and progress the story or it's just cheap sensationalism.

Shaun M · Dec 9, 2008

There are so many writers out there that CAN'T kill a character (Anyone read red/green/blue mars?)

Kill a character.. life is about loss. DO IT!

Don · Dec 10, 2008

Teena said:
I pretty much agree with this. It would seem that your plot should have already dictated which character will be killed and why that particular character...the death needs to be meaningful and progress the story or it's just cheap sensationalism.

The plot is an 'us vs. them' situation, and one of 'us' has to die to move the situation from confrontational to ugly. That's why I have some leeway as to the choice of character.

After a bad night of sleep, it's obvious I can't go the red shirt route. Weaving another character into the plot to the degree that would be necessary would complicate things, and I wouldn't want to kill that character either, by the time I was that invested.

After chewing through the rest of the plot, it's now obvious to me that there's only one character I can lose whose death would energize rather than demoralize the community, and I'm fortunate that character is marginally less important to the end-game than the rest.

So, Teena, you're right. The plot has already dictated which character and why. I just hadn't figured it out yet.

It's sad, really. He's young and has a lot to live for.

Thanks to everyone for your assistance. Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date.

dpaterso · Dec 10, 2008

Sounds as if I'm too late to the funeral, but I'm firmly in "kill your favorite character" camp. Unless he or she is the pivotal lynch-pin whom an entire series revolves around, a James Bond or a Captain Kirk.

-Derek

Clarec · Dec 10, 2008

Gosh, we're a bloodthirsty lot! Kill! Kill! Kill!

If it affects you this way, hopefully your readers will be just as upset. Go on, pick a sacrifice for the greater good.

Clare

Jerry B. Flory · Dec 10, 2008

Death makes heroes, martyrs, saints, and justifies bloody vengeance.
The more powerful the death the greater the story.
Nobody goes off on a noble quest to avenge a red shirt. They're supposed to die.

Don · Dec 10, 2008

Jerry B. Flory said:
Death makes heroes, martyrs, saints, and justifies bloody vengeance.
The more powerful the death the greater the story.
Nobody goes off on a noble quest to avenge a red shirt. They're supposed to die.

Which ultimately is what led to my selection. The subconscious works in mysterious ways. I'm realizing more and more why the character I've chosen is the one that must die. It was just hard to see initially for all the reasons that will make it a powerful choice.

NeuroFizz · Dec 10, 2008

Sounds like a good move has emerged, Don. Keep us posted on how it works out.

Don · Dec 10, 2008

NeuroFizz said:
Sounds like a good move has emerged, Don. Keep us posted on how it works out.

I'm on a strange trip now, plot elements rearranging themselves in my mind, way too vague to write. That makes me a little crazy, but I'll be taking a long Trikke ride this morning, and I bet when I get back I'll have to BIC before I can even take a shower. My mind seems to work like that.

Gillhoughly · Dec 10, 2008

a James Bond or a Captain Kirk.

Actually, Ian Fleming killed Bond off at the end of From Russia with Love, but sales were so good for the book that he brought him back--with no explanation--in the next book.

Kirk's been killed off several times, but keeps coming back. For the present he's been slammed by a time warp into 21st century earth and is working as a lawyer to make ends meet.

HeronW · Dec 10, 2008

I realized at the beginning of book 4 in my series that an MC has to die--and I DON'T WANT TO! But this is needed for the characters to move on, for the resolution of some bad stuff the MC did whilst young and foolish, and to galvanize the rest into stopping more evil.

tehuti88 · Dec 10, 2008

For me, I usually either know from the start that somebody is going to die (even if they turn out to be a very well-developed and likable character along the way), or at some point the realization dawns on me that they're going to have to die. I might try to rebel against it, but it's inevitable in most cases. There's no point killing somebody off if I'm not going to care about it.

If I were to create a minor character for the sole purpose of being killed, I wouldn't care if they died, and their death would be pretty meaningless (i. e., unnecessary to the plot). Even when I know from the start that a character is destined to die, I work hard to make them a good, believable character, the same as always.

Anyway, good luck with however your situation turns out.

Deb Kinnard · Dec 10, 2008

Always knew James T would come to no good. He shoulda stayed in Iowa. And yes, of course I'm confusing Kirk with Shatner...what a nebbish that guy is said to be.

So if you're working anywhere in the Trek universe, by all means kill Kirk! Kill him early and often, and don't let him come back!

<pant>

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