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Does it ever bother you to kill off a character? It always bothers me, despite knowing very well that I’m being silly about it. After all, these people don’t exist except in my imagination, but somehow it still feels wrong.
Case in point, I’ve been working on a scene where a fairly minor character is betrayed by someone she trusted and given over to the enemy for torture and eventual sacrifice. Her death seems a bit pointless, but it sets the stage for later events. Even so, I found myself avoiding the scene and still am playing with the idea of rescuing her before she’s killed.
Crazy, isn’t it?
Anybody else hate doing awful things to your characters?
Justin
I certainly hate doing things like that and the older I get, the less I like it. If a similar situation showed up in my story, I’d be likely to have most of the bad stuff happen offstage.
On the other hand, I’m writing a murder mystery with a serial killer and a ghost, so feeling bad about it doesn’t usually stop me
Yeah, I have difficulty deliberately hurting my characters, but my current main wip, a fantasy project, seems to have turned into some sort of experiment to drag at least one of my MCs down into the depths of despair. I need to do this, because I’ve got another story set in this world, and the one MC will be dragged even further down (he’ll actually lose his hope), so I guess I kind of see this current project as practice for really hurting my characters.
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~Yes, I hate it, too. If a character is evil enough, it doesn’t bother me as much, but normally, I don’t like hurting my characters. That’s not to say I don’t do it sometimes; it’s pretty hard to write stories where none of the characters ever suffer. But that’s the part of writing I enjoy the least.
This even holds true for me when I know the character is doomed before I start to write; simply the process of writing them will cause me to get to know them, then, of course, I don’t want them to die…
I’m trying to think about this. I don’t know that I’ve ever killed off a character unintentionally yet. And no major characters. Yet. I suspect that it might bother me more if I did a bit more of that. Perhaps I’m too nice. I’ll have to hang out with George Martin or something, get a bit of that bloodthirsty approach to rub off or something.
On the other hand, I don’t seem to have a problem beating up characters, making them break limbs, twist ankles, get shot or beat up etc. Wonder what that says about me. I’m nice, but not too nice?
Surely, if she can be rescued she doesn’t need to die. Would not a rescue lead to more drama? Of course, you could have it both ways, by having her killed in the rescue attempt, or perhaps later like the arab who fell from his horse in the desert and Lawrence of Arabia rescued him only to have to shoot him for theft later.
Perhaps a writer should shelve any conscience while writing as it makes for more realism. No regrets while writing.
My latest thing was to have a mother abandon her newborn to the wolves (need for a wolfboy) and then go and drown herself.
Another conflicted writer here. At least, I don’t have a problem killing off characters (as long as they’re minor and the death serves a purpose), what I have a problem with is describing the method of death, particularly if it’s not as simple as a swordfight or getting shot. I write them, but… I can’t help but wonder how much darkness is hiding just below my surface if I can come up with this stuff in the first place. :S
I love putting my characters in painful situations, but I really don’t like killing them. It soemtimes is neccessary for impact on the MC. So you really have to figure out if it’s worth the growth in the character or conflict in the story to do this. The alternative is if you keep her, can she add more depth the story later or in another way?
I’m actually dealing with two short stories this week, both involving either a main character or the MC’s best friend dying of a fatal disease. It’s brutal, and I can’t wait to work with something happier next week.
I’m writing the first couple of chapters of a novel and some people get killed. This affects the MC strongly since he knew them well, but I’m not feeling much. This has made me think that if he knows them so well and is upset about it then I should make the reader know them a little better too so that they can feel sad with the MC. In order to do that, I need to know these characters better.
Thanks for making me think of it.
E_Finley wrote:I’m writing the first couple of chapters of a novel and some people get killed. This affects the MC strongly since he knew them well, but I’m not feeling much. This has made me think that if he knows them so well and is upset about it then I should make the reader know them a little better too so that they can feel sad with the MC. In order to do that, I need to know these characters better.Thanks for making me think of it.
I was just about to make a similar comment having thought more about the problem. If the author doesn’t feel for the characters, how can the reader be expected to have feelings for them.
i have a series of novels that i’ve been working on. Wrote out the outline and got to the end and realized that there was no way that some of these main characters were going to make it through the series alive.
there has to be a reason, it can’t just happen out of thin air.
I haven’t written the novels yet of those death – maybe that’s why i haven’t gotten to them yet.
Isn’t it almost as bad to play god and make it harder for your characters to become more real?
I mean, I write poetry, so I kill off characters all the time, but I think it’s hardly the same.I tend more towards the emotional-torture end of the spectrum when I finally get down to hurting my characters. I don’t know why.
Ashe Elton Parker
"Just love me, fear me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." ~ David Bowie as Jareth in Labyrinth
~*~
Member since 1998.
~*~I think I’m the opposite, really. I throw the characters toward death and challenge them to avoid it. Case in point, one of my presently working sci-fi novels. A character is in a metro station, nearly gets blown up, is thrown across the platform and onto the tracks, just inches from the third rail. She survives with two broken ribs, but still has to get off the tracks before the next train comes in two minutes.
Weird Jim:
I read your post again after you commented on mine. It reminded me of something I heard… I think it was on the movie Galaxy Quest. They said red shirt characters die to prove that the situation is serious. If that is the only function of a character and they are never developed, (or only to the point of showing someone a wallet picture of their wife and kids, which if someone does this in a movie pretty much seals their fate as far as I’ve seen), then their death might show plot seriousness, but not emotional consequences. (They try with the wallet picture, but really it’s not enough for us to care that much). If we can make readers care about those minor disposable characters, then we can come closer to portraying the real impact of violence and loss and what is at stake with each life.
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