McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Killing Characters

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Quantus:
This is something that has been nagging me for a while now.  I don't really understand his need I seeing that readers seem to have for random character death.  Its a complaint I keep seeing about the Codex Alera, and in other places.  People seem to be pissed off that more of the named characters didn't get killed off by the end.  I argue that plenty did, or that more would have been needless, or that when the guy they thought was dead didn't stay dead it had good logical and thematic justification, but they don't seem satisfied unless they get slapped in the face by the death.   Normally I would just dismiss it as just stylistic differences and a person who is expecting more horror genre survival rates than what you normally find in sword and steed fantasy.  But I keep seeing the same thing pop up, and I just cant figure out its source.  Usually I am able to understand someones point of view, even if I don't share it, but I can't seem to get my brain around this one. 

I understand killing a character for plot progression, for the death itself or the lack of that character, and how it affects the remaining characters/story.  I understand killing a character to raise the tension and a sense of uncertainty and mortality.  I understand the value of slapping the reader with a sudden death for the shock value of it after they have become invested.  I think a properly crafted (self)sacrifice can be a truly beautiful thing.  But I don't really like it when a named character, one Ive spent time on, gets whacked simply because the opportunity was there, or because they were no longer vital to the shape of the story or whatever.  And just because the world has faced a war that killed off a large majority of the population does not mean my knot of heroes has to receive the same mortality rate.  If they are going to end in death I want there to be some sort of purpose to it, be it plot, reading experience, or otherwise.  Maybe its not purely realistic if the whole party survives, but then again its all really just a statistical argument; somebody has to live through it, and usually the named characters are more formidable than average, and so have a better chance.



So I ask you, from a writers point of view, what do you think of character death?  When and how do you do it, and most importantly why?
   

Gruud:
I'm not really in a position to help you, at least not at this time, becase I basically share your predicament.

I'm building a cast of chracters that yes, will turn ino "the Hero's party" so obviously, I can't kill any of them off just yet.

And, depite the oft quoted advce to "kill your darlings" I'm going to need these folks to be around for quite some time ... through several books, if things go as planned.

But, folks have to die, somewhere along the way, right? Otherwise, the evil isn't evil enough, the bad isn't bad enough, etc.

So, for now, I'm casting about for some minor characters that I can add, just so I can kill them.  :D

I've already killed a few nameless townsfolk, a few evil minions, and of course some critters, but before too long I'll need some more folks to kill ...

So, as an addendum to the previous question, who do you kill?

PS. esp. if you're doing long form fiction *coughneurovorecough*

Starbeam:
I think the complaint with CA is in comparison to other contemporary novels, like SoIaF, where it's grittier and based more in realism.  I'd say you could probably compare CA to the Star Wars novels in that you pretty much expect all the major characters to survive and get through, no matter what happens, and I think some people dislike this because it takes away tension from the story.  I've seen people say this about some of the episodes of Castle, since the show got renewed for another season--you expect Castle to survive no matter the situation.  The other side is GRRMartin, where you get attached to a character, and you have no idea what his fate is going to be.  But at least with Martin, you know that the decisions are plot/story based, and they aren't trivial.

Snowleopard:
I don't like killing off my lead characters but if I must then it will be for a good reason not just because
I can or I think I should. 

comprex:

--- Quote from: Quantus on May 05, 2011, 03:53:43 PM ---But I don't really like it when a named character, one Ive spent time on, gets whacked simply because the opportunity was there, or because they were no longer vital to the shape of the story or whatever.  

--- End quote ---

Every character in a narrative has, almost by definition spent time on himself, caring for himself, no?   The reader's sympathy losspainhurt is only a reflection, a shadow, a ghost, of the in-narrative losspainhurt the characters themselves undergo.  

Let's say that reader losspainhurt  is in some proportion to in-narrative character losspainhurt.



--- Quote ---And just because the world has faced a war that killed off a large majority of the population does not mean my knot of heroes has to receive the same mortality rate.  If they are going to end in death I want there to be some sort of purpose to it, be it plot, reading experience, or otherwise.  Maybe its not purely realistic if the whole party survives, but then again its all really just a statistical argument; somebody has to live through it, and usually the named characters are more formidable than average, and so have a better chance.

--- End quote ---

But it's still chance, meaning there's a chance your most formidable character is going to be the only one of the group to die, or there is a chance that none of the knot of heroes will survive (they, after all, encounter more danger than the less formidable characters unless they are formidable evaders and are we really interested in reading about those?)

Going back to the reader sympathy losspainhurt vs. the in-narrative losspainhurt, what you're really asking for is that the author should artificially lower the proportion of what the reader feels  for what an average INC feels.

Then, I ask you, why bother setting up a major losspainhurt narrative scenario in the first place?   Why write about a societal cataclysm and then insulate the reader from it?    When writing about a mere upheaval and keeping the proportion of losspainhurt accurate can create just as much emotion in the reader?

IMO, setting up major losspainhurt narratives and then emotionally insulating the reader is just indirect MarySueing of the knot of heroes.

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