Killing off a MC

The first time I killed off a MC, I was cursing myself as I wrote her death seen. I called myself every name in the book, and I have a very large book of names. When I finished the scene, I stepped back from the computer and paced back and forth. My daughter thought I was crazy. I told her to read it...when finished, she got up and called me a bastard and then walked off.

In another book, I brought one back to life after finishing the book because I was not done with him yet. He was needed in the second book of the series. But I feel differently about him now, knowing he is vulnerable, and so he is not the top MC in the second book, and may die again, for good this time.

I've never killed off a MC, but that doesn't mean I won't.

I think that if the novel needs the MC to die, or it ties everything together with their death, then it doesn't matter. If your story was in first person, then you could do so much with it. The pain or the darkness, and then just letting go.

But I don't see a problem with killing off a MC if the story needs that to happen. If the story is leading towards that, I don't want to be disappointed because the author can't let the character go.

Does that make sense?

Sage said:

I have killed many major characters in the past. Two were MCs. One stayed dead.

The one who died for good was foreshadowed throughout the novel. And I tried to save him. I had so many times I gave myself other options... when I got to the end, he died.

And that's how I ended it. With his death. He had just saved the girl (who was also an MC) and blew up a building, lol. Everything seemed like it was going to be okay, except for that stupid heart problem I gave him. He dies in the last few paragraphs.

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<sobs>

<sobs more>

I call it late!

I late you, Saaaaaaaaaage!

Beta is here.

As for killing off the MC, do what has to be done for the story. You'll never have to worry about a cliche ending, at least. ^_^

kyva said:

How much time in a novel should we be hanging out with our main character?

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as much time as it takes to get to know them and their story.

Also, if you have killed off your MC in the past, how did you do it? Why? Did it move the story along?

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I killed off one of my two MC's midway through the second book of my trilogy. Half of the story was told from her POV, so it was a bit of a shock. But it was well thought out, and I knew from the start that I was going to do it. Her death was important, but not important to the story as such. It moved things along in that it changed the dynamic of the group and made some people reasses things they wouldn't have otherwise.

However, it also meant that another character had to step up and take up that side of the story, so that took some planning, and easing her into the MC role long before the MC was killed off.

Is it okay for us to start the story with a character besides the MC? Like having scouts discover something and then in the second chapter, informing her about it?

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Sure. try reading the start of any michael crichton book. They generally start with joebloggs and his adventures, until something happens and ourt MC has to come in.

How about time frame? How many weeks, months or years should pass between the beginnings of a problem and the resolution (in your own book i mean)?

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How long is a piece of string?

kyva said:

Touche! Do you think it would be wrong or unwise to write it in a short time frame? Most books I read seem to be months long and make you feel somewhat exhausted once the end is reached (in a good way). So would writing something that takes place only for a few weeks to two months possibly hurt us?

I guess it's not really a question that can easily be answered, but something I am curious about.

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Not at all. The piece should take place over the course of time that it needs too. For instance, the harry potter books took place over the course of a year each, right. But then a book like Airframe takes place over the course of a few hours. books like James Mitcheners sagas take place over DECADES, many generations of the same family.

There's no hard and fast rule. The series that I'm working on now for example. The first book took place over the course of a couple of weeks, the second over the space of one weekend, and the third over the course of about six months. The fourth which is in the writing stages will take place over the course of one night.

My books are first person, so there's no way that I can kill of my main character. Almost everyone else is expendable.
There are a couple of deaths on book #1 (major characters. Both deaths shoved the story along), book #2 has another couple of kill-offs, and book #3 is sort of a bloodbath. When I killed off a particular character in book #3 (she became a major character, and was in the story from the beginning), I actually hadn't planned on her going. I just woke up one morning, and saw the scene so clearly in my head. I wrote it very quickly and was biting back the tears the whole time.
I've only written one scene for book #4 up to now. There is one death in it (innocent bystander), but I keep thinking about something that's going to happen in that book. I don't want it to turn out the way I'm picturing it up to now, and I'm trying to think of a way around it. I'll get there.
The death of any character, even a main or major one, is acceptable as long as it moves the story along, and if youve done the job properly, any death should affect the reader emotionally -- either bringing tears for a character they've grown to love, or a whoop of delight when a baddie kicks it.

shaldna said:

Not at all. The piece should take place over the course of time that it needs too. For instance, the harry potter books took place over the course of a year each, right. But then a book like Airframe takes place over the course of a few hours. books like James Mitcheners sagas take place over DECADES, many generations of the same family.

There's no hard and fast rule. The series that I'm working on now for example. The first book took place over the course of a couple of weeks, the second over the space of one weekend, and the third over the course of about six months. The fourth which is in the writing stages will take place over the course of one night.

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Thinking about time frames, I think the story will be as long as it has to be for events to play themselves out.
My series (3 books up to now) take place, from start to end, over the course of a year, with each book set over a couple of weeks. That sort of timescale feels right to me, especially book #1, which is a race against the clock.

*SA*

*SA* said:

the story will be as long as it has to be for events to play themselves out.

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Exactly