Should MC die at end?

amber_grosjean · Oct 5, 2007

All right. I am writing an erotica romance and I am left with this question as I draw nearer to the end.

Should my main character die? He has been told that he is dying of cancer which forces him to live......Because of this, he tells the woman he loves how he feels about her, learning that she feels the same way. He hasn't told her yet that he is dying and secretly visits the doctor. He decides to take kemo. The first appointment, he can't take his kemo because of complications due to the equipment so a new appointment is scheduled.

Then Joe (the MC) decides to take a vacation with his girl (he wants to live to make her happy). Its on day 3 of the vacation now in the story. During this time with her, he misses his appointment for the kemo.

I haven't decided if he really has cancer or not yet. I'm thinking maybe his medical folder got messed up with another patient whos name is similar. Not sure yet. If that is the case, taking the kemo would kill him. If he does have cancer, he could die anyway whether taking kemo or not. Being the MC is it a good idea to kill him at the end or should a miracle happen sparing his life? I don't want every book I write to have a happy ending but I get so attached to my characters its hard to decide which book should be happy ever after and which one should be more real with someone dying.

What do you think?

Amber

JoNightshade · Oct 5, 2007

In general, it's considered bad form for your POV character to die. If the story is from his perspective, the question is, how is he telling it if he dies in the end? If, on the other hand, your POV is omniscient or split between the girl and the guy... it might be acceptable.

Also, you could just leave it with the implication that he will die sometime in the future, but not actually have the event.

Devil Ledbetter · Oct 5, 2007

If he does have cancer, he could die anyway whether taking kemo or not.

Amber, it's not kemo, it's chemo. Short for chemotherapy.

Not everybody who has cancer dies.

Judg · Oct 5, 2007

I'm having a little trouble with the mixed-up files thing. Is that plausible? I'd check something like that out, myself.

stormie · Oct 5, 2007

A mixed-up file is rare, esp. when dealing with cancer patients. Yes, I do know of a child who had too much chemo given to him at one of his sessions and died. Again, rare.

Many, many cancer patients live, and they can live good lives. Even Stage 4 patients.

Just a thought: Maybe you should read-up more about cancer and treatments, or go another route all together.

As for MCs dying, it can be done if it's third person POV. First person, well, that's when the story ends.

MidnightMuse · Oct 5, 2007

Also, if you receive chemo and you don't have any cancers, you're not automatically gonna die. That's rare.

You'll be sick, and get a bit baldish, but then you'll recover just like the cancer patients who survive and go on to lead happy, long lives.

maestrowork · Oct 5, 2007

amber_grosjean said:
All right. I am writing an erotica romance and I am left with this question as I draw nearer to the end.
..... I don't want every book I write to have a happy ending but I get so attached to my characters its hard to decide which book should be happy ever after and which one should be more real with someone dying.

What do you think?

Amber

Ask yourself: What is your story about?

Also, if it's a genre romance, you've go to have HEA. So if you kill your MC at the end, it's not a romance anymore.

Ask yourself this, too: Why do you want to kill the MC? Just to make people cry? Why is it more real if someone dies?

It seems to me that you're not even sure what your story is really about. Maybe it's time to think on it some more.

blacbird · Oct 5, 2007

Devil Ledbetter said:
Not everybody who has cancer dies.

Well, at least not from the cancer.

caw

CaroGirl · Oct 5, 2007

Sure. Kill him. I never liked him anyway.

Seriously, I don't know your MC or your story so I can't say what will work. Only you can know. Write it both ways and see which one is the more fitting end.

Also, thorough research into your topic might reveal an as-yet unthought-of ending.

Ken Schneider · Oct 5, 2007

If these two people are in love I think it would be an awesome ending having him say he loved her just before he died.

Devil Ledbetter · Oct 5, 2007

blacbird said:
Well, at least not from the cancer.

caw

Blackbird, I think you are onto something. She should have him get cancer, struggle valiantly through chemo, then get killed in a spectacular collision between a train and a city bus.

Red-Green · Oct 5, 2007

A very wise writing prof of mine once opined that one must earn the right to kill a main character. Sometimes I think I understand what he meant...other times not so much.

amber_grosjean · Oct 5, 2007

The story is actually about what he does with his life after hearing he had terminal cancer, that was what the doctor said it was. I did ask about getting chemo if he didn't really have the cancer so that part would be right.

I like the fact that he doesn't die but I wanted to hear what others thought of the subject. The other file's name would have to be so close that the doctors wouldn't notice until the last minute or something if that would be the case. I didn't know if this would work or not.

Amber

LilliCray · Oct 5, 2007

I've usually heard it's a really Bad Idea to kill off a main character. One of my... er... sources, shall we say </shameless forgetting of sources> said that one novel ended with an impossible-to-survive situation </shameless forgetting of sources2>, and that the ending worked one drat of a lot better than ending with the MC's death.

But I guess it depends on the novel.

Sorry if I'm not all that understandable. I'm having an incoherent day today. (I had interesting results when trying to say my lines at the play matinee during school earlier...)

aadams73 · Oct 5, 2007

amber_grosjean said:
A
I haven't decided if he really has cancer or not yet. I'm thinking maybe his medical folder got messed up with another patient whos name is similar.

What do you think?

Amber

I wouldn't buy that for a second, sorry. It's not even remotely plausible. Doctors don't just take some blood and say, "ooh you've got cancer. Here, have some chemo."

But have you considered a "they lived happily ever after...for now" kind of ending? There's no law that says you have to tie it up with a neat bow for the Rest of Their Lives.

Judg · Oct 5, 2007

Amber, not only the name, but the height and weight and age, and presumably address would have to line up. It's just a heck of a lot to swallow. I wouldn't believe it, personally. And that's the kind of thing that makes me swear never to read an author again. If it's bad enough, I don't finish the book.

J. R. Tomlin · Oct 5, 2007

A bad idea to kill the MC? Then a heck of a lot of novels have ended with a bad idea.

He should die if it is the logical thing to happen and if it completes the plot. He should not die if it isn't logical and doesn't complete the plot. However in a genre, you also have to look at genre standards and whether you are breaking them.

In my own genre, fantasy, no one would blink at the MC dying if it was logical. (As a matter of fact that is exactly what happens in Jacquelin Carey's recent Godslayer which I highly recommend) In romance, I'm not so sure, but I don't read romance so I can't say for sure.

Edit: The file thing sounds cliched and pat to me. If you want him to survive, plenty of people survive cancer. I'd come up with something more plausible.

Danger Jane · Oct 5, 2007

Okay yeah the folders messed up just...isn't plausible, not unless you want to tie in some mafia/spy stuff and make your story a psychological thriller with romantic elements.

I don't see why he ought to die. I haven't read your story granted but like (I think it was Ray?) said...sounds like you need to figure out what your story is about. Is it about new beginnings?

Then don't kill him.

sneakers145 · Oct 5, 2007

I have characters die in my novels, but they're not the POV characters. They may have had a decent (large) role in the novel, but die anyway. I usually have 3 POV characters. I dish out all sorts of evil, but haven't killed one yet.

I don't recall ever reading a book where a POV character dies. Major characters yes, but they were never the POV character. With the exception of maybe in CH 1, we get the POV of a character who dies (plane crash, suicide, murder, whatever) and the rest of the book is from the POV of other characters who must solve the murder/mystery/deal with the death of that loved one, etc.

aadams73 · Oct 5, 2007

sneakers145 said:
I don't recall ever reading a book where a POV character dies. Major characters yes, but they were never the POV character.

I can think of several, including one by Jodi Picoult. ( I can hear ScarletPeaches screaming because she knows which book I mean.)

KTC · Oct 5, 2007

This is a question only you can answer. I'm seeing a whole pile of warning signs for plausibility here. I wouldn't believe the switched files. I wouldn't believe he could hide the cancer if he is in a stage where he needs chemo. And cancer is not a death sentence every time. I would research thoroughly to make sure whichever route you take...it's plausible.

J. R. Tomlin · Oct 5, 2007

Sneakers, ever heard of a book called Don Quixote? Guess what happens to him in the end. Yep, Don Quixote dies--and not in a plane crash in chapter one. Let's see that was (if I remember correctly) published in 1605--I might be a year or two off though because I don't feel like looking it up. Since then the MC has died in hundreds of novels.

The MC (and the PoV character for most of the book) in Godslayer dies at the end--no not in a plane crash in Ch 1 but in the last pages of the last chapter.

Other books in no particular order: The Time Traveler's Wife, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Metamorphosis, The Old Curiosity Shop, Of Mice and Men, Light in August, Death Comes to the Archbishop, East of Eden, The Road...

There are so many more I can't begin to make a complete list.

Edit: Let me emphasize that I am not saying that the OP's MC should die. I can't answer that. But there are many books where the MC does die, so it's not that unusual. I think an author has to decide what is right for their plot herself though.

Azraelsbane · Oct 5, 2007

JoNightshade said:
In general, it's considered bad form for your POV character to die.

Hmm... I'm feeling that I have very very bad form.

I have one novel I'm starting in on that's told from several first person povs, and at the end of the novel every last character is dead. *shrugs* I don't do happy endings.

But seriously, the thing I'm most concerned about with the OP is you're asking a writing forum to decide whether or not YOUR character should die. Only you can and should decide it. It's your story, not ours. If your character is meant to die, then that's what should happen. If he's supposed to live, so be it.

Gray Rose · Oct 5, 2007

Amber, this is just my IMHO, but you mentioned that you are writing an *erotica* romance. To me personally, an erotica romance with the MC who is dying of cancer and is going through chemo would be a huge turn-off. I have many friends who are cancer survivors, and while the struggle to overcome cancer is a worthy topic, it is hardly something that inspires erotic feelings in me as a reader.

Plus, I have no idea what kind of libido this person would have. During the chemo stage, my friends wanted to be cuddled, fed chicken soup, and brought good novels. But sex? I don't know.

Just my IMHO, as I said.

sneakers145 · Oct 5, 2007

Nope, never read Don Quixote.

I didn't say a main POV character never dies; I just said that in the books I have read, none have. I do have a Picoult novel in my TBR pile, though. Maybe that will be the one!

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