Alastair Rosie's Blog - Posts Tagged "plotting"
Killing Off Your Main Characters
A couple of months ago a friend asked me about my upcoming sequel to Angel of Mercy, which is tentatively titled Nosferatu although that may change. I admitted that I was struggling. She told me to kill off a main character and when I asked why she told me, “because it happened in the Game of Thrones Red Wedding episode.” I am probably one of the few people on the planet that hasn’t seen the series so I can’t comment on Red Wedding although I read about it in the papers. However that advice led onto a discussion about killing off main characters and I’ve been on both sides of the debate so here goes.
In The Deepening Dark I did kill off a main character, Emdahl, the only child of Rhianna. Prior to killing a four year old child I was struggling with the book as a whole. I couldn’t move anything forward without getting bogged down in world building and all the plot twists. I never meant to kill him, but I made the decision to write about the killing of Emdahl because I was really curious to discover the reaction of Rhianna. What would she do if her child was killed trying to save the faerie sword, if she was subjected to a mock trial, watched villagers hanged in front of her, had her hair cut off, was pack raped, whipped and taken out to die. What would she do when she was finally rescued by the elves? Would she bounce back or sink into the abyss? You’ll have to read the book to find out the rest but it had the desired effect in that it yanked the reader into the story suddenly and very dramatically.
In this case, Emdahl’s death worked well because it moved the story forward and you can probably point to any number of stories or films where the death of a main character hooks you in. If the character was a well loved protagonist then you want revenge, if they were a villain then you feel a release. Either way the death serves a purpose.
On the other hand once you’re dead you’re dead. There’s no coming back unless you’ve worked out a clever plan for resurrecting your hero/heroine and I’ve seen some good examples and some truly appalling comebacks. The death has to have a reason. Don’t do it because it worked for George Martin. Killing off a much loved character might move the story forward but then again it can have the effect of turning the reader off. Why keep reading if your favourite character is dead? In the end you fall into a well known trap of aping your favourite writer. Don’t try to be JK Rowling, you’ll only look silly, she’s as unique as you.
So where do we go with this? How do we know if we should kill off a main character? The answer will depend on whether that death will move the story on or kill it stone cold dead. There is no right or wrong answer. For Deepening Dark it was right, for Nosferatu it’s wrong, I know it’s wrong because I know it. I don’t need someone giving me advice on how to write this book and I’m not going to kill off a well-loved character just because George Martin did it, along with quite a few others: it’s become something of a British trend over the years. The same goes for the happy ever after ending, it doesn’t always have to end with a marriage. In other words, don’t fall into the trap of following a trend or fad, be true to your characters and let them tell the story.
For those of you who are on the edge however I can only suggest you experiment. Write the death of your favourite character and then save it and file it away. Come back to it later on and see if it still has the same effect on you. If it works then put it in and move on, if not then go back and keep writing. All writing is 90% hard work and 10% inspiration. There are plenty of times I look at a chapter I’m trying to finish and think I can’t do this, I’m a fake, I’ve lost the edge. Every writer if they’re honest goes through this, you’re no different.
So what are you waiting for? Get back to your book and write something, anything. Case studies, back stories for your characters and even the death of a well loved character.
Good luck!
Written by Alastair Rosie 2015
In The Deepening Dark I did kill off a main character, Emdahl, the only child of Rhianna. Prior to killing a four year old child I was struggling with the book as a whole. I couldn’t move anything forward without getting bogged down in world building and all the plot twists. I never meant to kill him, but I made the decision to write about the killing of Emdahl because I was really curious to discover the reaction of Rhianna. What would she do if her child was killed trying to save the faerie sword, if she was subjected to a mock trial, watched villagers hanged in front of her, had her hair cut off, was pack raped, whipped and taken out to die. What would she do when she was finally rescued by the elves? Would she bounce back or sink into the abyss? You’ll have to read the book to find out the rest but it had the desired effect in that it yanked the reader into the story suddenly and very dramatically.
In this case, Emdahl’s death worked well because it moved the story forward and you can probably point to any number of stories or films where the death of a main character hooks you in. If the character was a well loved protagonist then you want revenge, if they were a villain then you feel a release. Either way the death serves a purpose.
On the other hand once you’re dead you’re dead. There’s no coming back unless you’ve worked out a clever plan for resurrecting your hero/heroine and I’ve seen some good examples and some truly appalling comebacks. The death has to have a reason. Don’t do it because it worked for George Martin. Killing off a much loved character might move the story forward but then again it can have the effect of turning the reader off. Why keep reading if your favourite character is dead? In the end you fall into a well known trap of aping your favourite writer. Don’t try to be JK Rowling, you’ll only look silly, she’s as unique as you.
So where do we go with this? How do we know if we should kill off a main character? The answer will depend on whether that death will move the story on or kill it stone cold dead. There is no right or wrong answer. For Deepening Dark it was right, for Nosferatu it’s wrong, I know it’s wrong because I know it. I don’t need someone giving me advice on how to write this book and I’m not going to kill off a well-loved character just because George Martin did it, along with quite a few others: it’s become something of a British trend over the years. The same goes for the happy ever after ending, it doesn’t always have to end with a marriage. In other words, don’t fall into the trap of following a trend or fad, be true to your characters and let them tell the story.
For those of you who are on the edge however I can only suggest you experiment. Write the death of your favourite character and then save it and file it away. Come back to it later on and see if it still has the same effect on you. If it works then put it in and move on, if not then go back and keep writing. All writing is 90% hard work and 10% inspiration. There are plenty of times I look at a chapter I’m trying to finish and think I can’t do this, I’m a fake, I’ve lost the edge. Every writer if they’re honest goes through this, you’re no different.
So what are you waiting for? Get back to your book and write something, anything. Case studies, back stories for your characters and even the death of a well loved character.
Good luck!
Written by Alastair Rosie 2015
