Indie Authors Monthly Magazine For Authors and Readers discussion

What do you think about character death, especially a main and well liked character. Does it add to a story or take away from it?

I think it depends on how it's done and how frequently. If too many main characters in your books die, you'll be known for that. Is it what you want?
Personally, although I'm not a fan of killing the heroes, I don't mind reading something like that once in a while, but if I'd know the author does it frequently, I might not read anything else from that author.

On the other hand, you've got people like my son, who is a huge fan of this kind of ending. So that brings us back to the famous (or infamous) sentence: You can't please everyone. :P

Personally, I prefer a character's death to be totally unexpected, regretful, and shocking; as is the death of a family member or close acquaintance in real life.

Fans of the original Star Trek television series knew three minutes into the segment that the crew member wearing the red tunic, whose name was never mentioned, would be killed off before the first commercial. Everyone knew it and nobody cared. If a character's death has no emotional impact upon the reader, it is meaningless. A character's death should leave the reader sad, distraught, and perhaps, even angry; just as the death of someone they care about in real life often effects them.

I don't like it. After I've invested a lot of time and emotion in wanting to see how the character does, it feels like a waste when they die. It does depend on how it's done - if it's meaningful, and handled well emotionally, I can excuse it if it doesn't happen too often. Brandon Sanderson and Steven Erikson are examples of authors who handle character deaths this way; plus a lot of the time, death isn't necessarily the end - there's an afterlife that matters, or death is just a stop on the way to something else.

But the "another one bites the dust" approach *coughGRRMartincough* I don't like, and if an author does that, I stop reading them.

Mostly, though, from a narrative standpoint of telling the main character's story, death is boring. What's interesting is seeing how they survive and how they live on after everything that's happened.

Kyra wrote: "But the "another one bites the dust" approach *coughGRRMartincough* I don't like, and if an author does that, I stop reading them..."


I hear you. I never read the books but I WAS following the series (although a bit reluctantly).

(What a surprise. My son's favorite show. :>)

It seems that in this new season, a lot of important characters will kick the bucket. Characters who don't even die in the books. I don't know what the producers/writers were thinking but I refuse to watch the season, at least, not until I know who dies and then MAYBE I will IF and only IF I didn't like them.

When you know heroes are dying, it's hard to get attached to any characters in a book (or a show) and when you can't do that, you can't enjoy what you read or see. It just leaves you cold.

So back to what I was saying, a death, when necessary and meaningful might be accepted. A death just to shock people won't be. And if it's for no better idea of an ending it's definitely a no-no.

A Song of Ice and Fire is terrible about that. I'm really debating my character deaths because I think it will add to the story, but one is a main character. I'm just really conflicted. It was just kind of depressing whenever I realized that they had to go. This is the second in the series and in the first book only one important character died.

I've killed off a character in my latest. I blubbed when I wrote it.

I'll cry if a character I like dies.

A.L. wrote: "I've killed off a character in my latest. I blubbed when I wrote it.

I'll cry if a character I like dies."

I know the feeling.