Killing Off My Main Character.

[Steerpike]

I disagree with all the "can't" and "must" comments, above. There is no such thing in fiction.

 

[Mindfire]

I disagree with all the "can't" and "must" comments, above. There is no such thing in fiction.

In this context, "can't" means, "it probably wouldn't be wise".

 

[Ivan]

It worked, because it was planned that way. So if you decide to kill off your MC you must write the whole story around that fact. That also means that you must have other characters to take over the killed MC's duties.

You can't, as an example, take the proverbial farmboy-becomes-king and kill him before he's gotten an heir. That would defeat the whole purpose of your story.

I think that would be a heckuva good twist- just when you think it's done and everyone is about to live happily ever after, it hits the fan bigtime and people are scrambling for the throne. Though, I guess your point is there has to be some reason for the reader to care what happens now that this dude is smoked.

 

[SlimShady]

You can't, as an example, take the proverbial farmboy-becomes-king and kill him before he's gotten an heir. That would defeat the whole purpose of your story.

Why not? Doing this would twist the clichés around and drastically change the story. Who would save the world now? Who would become King? What would the heroes friends do? What about his mentor? So many plot threads left to be resolved.

This is a bad example in my opinion. You can't just say a story would be bad because so-and-so happens. You have to judge it on the execution of the idea, not just the idea itself.

 

[Steerpike]

As writers it seems to me we can type what we mean. If someone says "can't" it is reasonable to assume they thought about it and said what they meant.

 

[Dan]

You can do anything you want.

People may not like it, but you can still do it.

There is a lot of sensible advice in this thread though. It is worth weighing up the pro's and con's that it will have upon your stories impact.

 

[Anders Ämting]

Currently sketching up a concept that would involve killing exactly half of the main cast at once.

Of course, being dead isn't going to stop them from being active in the plot, so maybe it doesn't count.

 

[Kit]

being dead isn't going to stop them from being active in the plot, so maybe it doesn't count.

LOL..... shades of Buffy.

 

[Anders Ämting]

LOL..... shades of Buffy.

More like "blatantly inspired by reading too much Homestuck."

(In which a main character recently commited suicide via decapitation as part of an improvised plan to save the lives of his entire team, including himself. It's... a pretty odd story.)

 

[JacobMGibney]

I almost threw the damn book across the room. That guy was the only reason I'd stuck with the story up until that point and even after finishing the entire series, he was still easily my favourite.

It was a nice twist though, I'll give Sanderson that.

Agreed, I had to stop reading, I just put the book away and fumed. But at least it wasn't for nothing

@Graylorne I wouldn't be killing her off for shock effect, even though it will be a shock. What I want the character to do would most definitely result in her death, for the Gods to allow her to live after committing such a crime would be out of place with their laws.