By AnnetteDashofy
I’ve once again
delved into my list of questions posed by my street team at Zoe ChambersMysteries & Friends. This time, Jolee Jank asked if it was a good (or bad)
idea to kill off a regular or semi-regular character.
I’d have answered
this sooner, but I’ve been pondering it for several weeks.
Killing off a
regular or recurring character is always tricky business. Fans feel these
people are friends. If we, as writers, have done our job well, our readers
genuinely care about the characters who populate our books.
I’ve been known
to weep as I’ve killed off a character who only appeared in that one book, and
who I knew had to go from the moment I opened the document and typed “Chapter
One.”
So the decision
to permanently end a character who has been around awhile doesn’t come
lightly.
Like readers,
television viewers become attached to characters in their favorite series.
 |
| Cait meets her end after one season |
Major characters
“die” in television more often than in books. Actors choose not to renew a contract.
Sometimes the actor playing the part dies in real life leaving producers with
the decision of whether to kill off the character, too, or recast.
 |
| Hannibal Heyes before Pete Duel's death |
(For the love of
all that’s holy, guys, do NOT recast. Please!)
 |
| Hannibal Heyes recast as Roger Davis |
In books,
characters can live on, even after the death of their author.
Twice in my
series, I started a book with the intention of having a regular-but-secondary
character die at the end. Twice I changed my mind. Or to be more accurate, the
story changed my mind for me. However, I’m not ruling it out in the future.
(How’s that for a
tease?)
Here’s the thing—like
my readers, I also feel that my characters are real. They live and breathe
inside my head and my heart. I try to make them real and place them in real
circumstances for my readers too. And in real life, no one gets out alive.
Tragedy and illness happen. Only a cartoon character can have an anvil fall on
their head and pop up to foil their nemesis another day.
I don’t write
cartoons.
So, is it a good
idea? Probably not. Will it happen anyway? Probably.
Fellow writers:
have you ever killed off one of your secondary (but regular) characters? What
kind of reaction did you receive? Fellow readers: which characters—in books or
in TV shows—have you mourned when they died? Did you continue to read or watch
the series afterward?
I haven't killed off a regular character. It will be hard.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of any series in which one of the regular cast dies. But if that were necessary to the overall series arc, I think I'd try to have the character change from great friend of the main character to a turncoat. The ramifications would effect the main character's character arc--make her wiser, stronger, etc.
ReplyDeleteI think television deaths tend to be lousy because they’re less organic than deaths which occur naturally during a story. Think of how effective Beth’s death was in Little Women. I prefer that they find another way to move the character off-screen.
ReplyDeleteRE: TV. I sorely missed Ned Stark (GOT). Re: writing. As a writer, I know the rule that says the hurdles faced by the protagonist should keep increasing. The stakes need to continually rise. So as a reader, when an author does something as extreme as killing off an important character in order to create a plot hurdle for the protagonist, I the reader fear what will happen next because it will surely be even worse. I’ve read a couple books where something so unspeakable happens part way through the work that I’ve had to set the book aside for a few days just to prepare myself for what must come. But...I’ve ended up loving these books. So if you must kill off an important character, then make it worth it, and don’t fail in ratcheting up the stakes in the rest of the story.
ReplyDeleteI think what we all want to avoid is the necessity to resurrect a character after apparently knocking them off (Sherlock Holmes comes to mind.)
ReplyDeleteOh, KM, I so agree. The old "it was only a dream" excuse totally doesn't work for me. At all.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth George's Lynley books haven't been the same since she killed Helen. I wouldn't have minded if she'd killed Deborah, but Helen was my favorite character.
ReplyDelete