McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Do they exist?
LizW65:
Many classic noir novels of the Forties and Fifties end with the POV character dying or about to die--The Postman Always Rings Twice comes to mind, and there are several others. Double Indemnity, maybe? While downbeat, this is usually seen as justice, due to the POV character's own choices over the course of the novel.
(FWIW, I recall reading somewhere years ago that The Maltese Falcon ends with Sam Spade being shot and killed by his mistress Iva Archer, though in fact the book ends with her simply arriving at the office; a confrontation is implied but not shown.)
library lasciel:
Spoilered for people who might not want to know ahead of time: (click to show/hide)Brandon Sanderson in his Mistborn trilogy does it in the end, but that's not quite what you're going for as it's the end of that story-arc, not the beginning.
An amusing (in a dark sort of way) death of LOTS of main POV characters is in The Last Battle in the Narnia series. The precipitating incident is a train wreck where everyone who ends up in Narnia dies.
I have to say I personally hate when POV characters are killed off for what I perceive as no reason, or just to show that the author "has the guts to do it" (where the most biting example would be killing Chewie off in Salvatore's debut into the Star Wars universe.) If it's for an actual plot-related reason that isn't contrived, then I am usually sad, but don't feel peeved at the author.
I am a very emotional reader, however, and get snippy when I suspect an author of being heavy-handed with the emotional tugging - simply because I also suspect it's easier at times to lay the emotions on thick than to bother with careful plotting, and it upsets me personally.
Starbeam:
--- Quote from: library lasciel on November 13, 2009, 12:07:07 AM ---I have to say I personally hate when POV characters are killed off for what I perceive as no reason, or just to show that the author "has the guts to do it" (where the most biting example would be killing Chewie off in Salvatore's debut into the Star Wars universe.) If it's for an actual plot-related reason that isn't contrived, then I am usually sad, but don't feel peeved at the author.
--- End quote ---
From Wikipedia:
--- Quote ---At the time of its first publication, Vector Prime was extremely controversial among Star Wars fans in that its plot called for the death of Chewbacca, making the Wookiee the first major character from the original trilogy to be permanently killed off in the Expanded Universe novels. The concept of killing such a character was the decision of the book editors, who sent a list of characters they would like to kill to George Lucas, with Luke Skywalker at the top of the list. The response was what characters they couldn't kill, and Chewbacca wasn't on the list, hence his selection. This is covered - in some detail - in the round table interview with the series editors published at the end of the final New Jedi Order novel, The Unifying Force. Opinion was sharply divided as to whether this death of a beloved character was a cheap ploy to boost sales and interest in the new series, or if it served the dramatic purpose of declaring that not even the core characters were necessarily "safe" anymore. However it was George Lucas who told R.A Salvatore to kill Chewbacca, not R.A. Salvatore himself.
--- End quote ---
Nawlins34:
--- Quote from: library lasciel on November 13, 2009, 12:07:07 AM --- If it's for an actual plot-related reason that isn't contrived, then I am usually sad, but don't feel peeved at the author.
--- End quote ---
And as narrow of a target that may sound, I'm trying to aim for that impact. For the storyline i'm looking at, the MC story will stretch out into a series of books. but as I look at the outline of her story, and the actual story i'm telling, she'd be going against her beliefs and the very thing she's fighting for if she lived. The storyline as well as her POV would lose credibilty at the end of the series if she didn't die.
But I digress, I'm pretty far away from that ending. I'm sure plenty of ideas will jump into my mind on how to end her story.
I'm grateful for all this feedback, alot of you are throwing stuff I haven't thought of so it's helping to get the creative juices flowing.
I don't see myself making it a habit, but for this particular storyline, it may have to happen, we shall see ;)
library lasciel:
I suppose instead of author, I should have written 'creator.' I know it wasn't Salvatore's fault that Chewie was picked, but that whole back-room "lets pick someone to kill off" type discussion by editors and universe creators is exactly what I disliked about the idea. And the way it was plotted seemed very unrealistic to me. That part WAS Salvatore's fault.
That particular case, where it seemed obvious that reasons from outside the realm of the story are causing the death - that's was what I was getting at. It seems callous to the readers who are trusting you as an author/creator to stay "in character" and true to the world you developed. It also seems unprofessional to sloppily apply the 'tricks' of an author. I know, as a reader, that you are using tricks and you have to - you have places to go and things to accomplish with your story. It simply should be done well, so I as the reader don't notice them.
It just bugs me that it was so obvious, and so pointless. There was no overarching reason for the character to die (in that particular situation) that couldn't have been served by a lesser fate. I suppose that it was a valid way to re-energise the franchise, and that they've gone on and killed off other main characters as well (at least I think so - I haven't read a SW book post-dating Vector Prime, and never will.)
And the above parentheses shows at least one reader's reaction to a poorly executed character. I know there are lots of other people out there (some are even my friends! ;)) who really enjoy the direction that the expansions have taken. I simply didn't, so they've lost a reader. But there is only one of me, so it's isn't the end of the world. I'm sad, because I very much liked the SW universe before that book, but now I don't, so there's nothing new there for me to read now. *shrug* My loss, I suppose.
In the end you have to write the story you want to write, and understand that some people are going to really love it, and some people will hate it, and some people won't understand what you were trying to do.
Just aim for more of the first kind. (and no, I have no idea how to do that. ;D)
I do know that if you try to be honest with your story and not force it into some particular desired shape or other, you'll probably be better off. Or, conversely, be technically skilled enough to start with the perfect desired shape, and then mold the story into that shape from the beginning. To me it seems the second option is a whole lot harder to manage, but it may depend on the author.
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