McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Kill them like a Joss: Musings on when and why to shiv a main character

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gatordave96:
Note to self:  Do not kill the pandas in story.

There goes the big idea for the story climax.

Paynesgrey:

--- Quote from: gatordave96 on March 02, 2013, 03:47:06 AM ---Note to self:  Do not kill the pandas in story.

There goes the big idea for the story climax.

--- End quote ---

I never, ever kill pandas in the story.

Just in real life, when I get a rejection letter. 

I'm not a monster, after all.

The Deposed King:

--- Quote from: Paynesgrey on March 02, 2013, 03:58:42 AM ---I never, ever kill pandas in the story.

Just in real life, when I get a rejection letter. 

I'm not a monster, after all.

--- End quote ---

I had to take my main character out of play for about a third of the book involving most of the main battle and I also kill off a couple of pivitol secondaries due to the fall out.  I'm having fun writing it, and I think I'm writing some interesting stuff but am not entirely sure how the reader is going to feel.  The book is taking longer than I thought also.  So I'm just not sure how its going to play, with an extended absence of the main POV up until this point.

I'm definitely not looking to turn anyone off but the parts of the books taking place without him are turning out bigger than I originally thought.


The Deposed King

LizW65:
I guess what much of this boils down to is "internal consistency". If you're reading a straight-up murder mystery set in the real world, it would feel like a cheat to have a wizard introduced at the eleventh hour who solves the murder through necromancy. And a light and fluffy romantic comedy that ends with a pile of slaughtered bodies on the floor will likely have the reader going, "WTF?" (I understand that the Dexter novels, a straight mystery/serial killer series, introduced a fantasy element in one book that left many readers scratching their heads, and the author backtracked rather quckly.)

Also, some books are just victims of bad marketing and end up disappointing when they turn out to be something other than what was represented.

arianne:
I think it's just that when someone we like dies in a book, we want it to mean something, and not just be pointless ("Oh, by the way, the guy you like just died. Deal with it. Haha."). Trying to give a death meaning by being "profound" or "moralizing" just makes it worse in a way.

I'm worried that a lot of fantasy sagas with the "someone important will DIE in the last book!!!!!" plotlines are making some writers think that they somehow HAVE to kill someone at the end of the book to prove something, and then they're left wondering what to do with the rest of the book, so they might as well add some profound bits to round it all off....

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