Donny Bruso
Sage
So I was merrily writing along the other day when my characters began acting out on their own again. I have a particularly willful princess on my hands who is determined to circumvent patriarchal custom and inherit the throne for herself, and she has stooped to the level of combined regicide/patricide to do it. My problem is, she's taken it upon herself to kill off one of my three POV characters, and the only one on that continent.
Now it would be a fairly simple matter to simply begin writing from her viewpoint instead of his. She is an established character from his point of view, it isn't as if she is suddenly appearing out of nowhere and taking over the story. My concern is how people would react while reading it. I have had a lot of comments that people who have reviewed the work like my King, even if he is a politically motivated utter bastard.
I also know that killing off well-liked POV characters is not unheard of. Obviously anyone who is a GRRM fan lives in mortal fear for their favorite characters each decade when he releases a new book. My quandry with it is that I'm probably less than halfway into the story. It seems to me that killing the character after three or four chapters makes him seem unnecessary to the story, even though he is.
I guess my question boils down to what your impressions would be if you encountered this in a book you were reading. Would you just go with the flow (perhaps after cursing me out for killing someone you liked) or would it confuse the hell out of you and make you put down the book? Remember there are two other POV characters maintaining continuity for the rest of the story, who are NOT going to die. Well, at lest not until the end of the book maybe.
Now it would be a fairly simple matter to simply begin writing from her viewpoint instead of his. She is an established character from his point of view, it isn't as if she is suddenly appearing out of nowhere and taking over the story. My concern is how people would react while reading it. I have had a lot of comments that people who have reviewed the work like my King, even if he is a politically motivated utter bastard.
I also know that killing off well-liked POV characters is not unheard of. Obviously anyone who is a GRRM fan lives in mortal fear for their favorite characters each decade when he releases a new book. My quandry with it is that I'm probably less than halfway into the story. It seems to me that killing the character after three or four chapters makes him seem unnecessary to the story, even though he is.
I guess my question boils down to what your impressions would be if you encountered this in a book you were reading. Would you just go with the flow (perhaps after cursing me out for killing someone you liked) or would it confuse the hell out of you and make you put down the book? Remember there are two other POV characters maintaining continuity for the rest of the story, who are NOT going to die. Well, at lest not until the end of the book maybe.