Joined: 31 Oct 2007 Posts: 203 Location: Vancouver, Canada
Untimely Death
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:25 pm
Is there a bad time to kill off a main character in a story? Almost any time. Way too many authors kill off way too many characters way too often. It's a sure sign of bad writing when it is obvious why they killed them off.
For example, my main complaint about disaster stories, especially movies, is that there is always a certain number of characters who are only there to attract audience empathy, so that they can be killed off later for the emotional impact.
If a character, even a supporting one, is to be killed, there has to be a really good reason, thematically and logically, why it should happen.
So I guess it's the "why" not the "when" that really counts.
Annoys me when a character is too-carefully built up only to be 'moidered' because casualties were required for authenticity. Suggests author has a 'D&D Random Character Generator' to hand...
Also annoys me when a good character is summarily zapped because author --and reader-- realise the 'supporting actor' is becoming a serious scene-stealer...
Way too many authors kill off way too many characters way too often.
Clearly, we've been reading very different books. I've most noticed that writers can't kill characters or even bring them back from death.
Nik wrote:
Also annoys me when a good character is summarily zapped because author --and reader-- realise the 'supporting actor' is becoming a serious scene-stealer...
I'd be interested to see this. Could you give an example?
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