WORD FOR THIS POST:
Firth (n): (From Websters dictionary): an indentation of the seacoast.
Since kids returned to school after Christmas Break I've been able to catch up on my writing. "Marked" is officially set aside and I plant to return to it to begin my edits next week. Then it goes off to my editor.
In the meantime I've been working on two other novels and guess what?
I just killed a character.
I will not go into the details of the project so I don't spoil it for anyone, but I must say I cried when killing him off (talking about the book now).
Why did I do it?
I really liked him and he played a large part in the story, but it was necessary. I have a weakness for writing stories with "perfect endings" and "perfect characters", but that does not explore all human emotions.
This person (whom readers will like because of his innocence and hate because of betrayal), redeemed himself through sacrifice. I didn't want to kill him because he had a cool personality and wicked traits, that complemented the MC.
Killing him was the only way out (I tried playing with different scenarios and none would fit). Because of his sacrifice, the MC was able to triumph aver the "bad guys".
Have you killed any of your characters? How did you come to the conclusion to do so? How do you feel when fictional and likable characters die in a novel?
9 comments:
I killed my most favourite character ever once, in fact I murdered him. I could see it coming, and I couldn't prevent it. It was horrible; I hated doing it. But, as with you, it was necessary, or the story wouldn't have worked. I almost considered changing the character entirely and saving this guy for another story. But again, that wouldn't have worked.
In general, people die, even the nice ones - so it has to be reflected in fiction. It's hard, but allows for a whole new range of emotions, and bleak graveyard scenes!
Yes, I killed off a very solid, likeable character, but if I hadn't, the other main character wouldn't have chosen the right path. It was tough to do and many readers have told me I made them cry with the death scene. Sorry!
I've killed off characters, and more will die in future books. Sometimes it is the only way to make the story work.
Oh boy, I kill characters in every book I write. I hope that doesn't make me evil. Sometimes, it's necessary.
Yep, I've killed off a character before. One particular character took me a week to decide because I loved him so much, but he had to go.
So happy to hear I'm not the only one. Well, I sort of knew that, but it's just so hard letting go.
Of my 4 major characters, I killed 2 of them. They were both sacrificed for the redemption of the hero, who turned into quite the anti-hero for a while.
I am working on revising a YA zombie novel, so yeah, I had to kill off a bunch of people. It got harder and harder closer to the end. There were people I really liked, but I knew from the beginning who would survive and who wouldn't. It was not easy to actually do it though.
Rachel, zombies are pretty cool. Did you read "Warm Bodies"? It was pretty good, but the ending a big confusing.
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