Can you kill a character?

[3113]

I never had much liking of sympathy for anyone in the Trojan War out side of King Pryam and Cassandra.

I identify WAY too much with Cassandra...
"Don't bring in that horse! It's a trick!"
"Oh, Cassandra. You worry too much. It's just a gift to thank us for our hospitality and apologize for all the trouble they've caused us over the years."

Later the next morning....
"Oh, Shit! That horse was a trick! Who would have thought? I wish someone would have warned us!"

While Cassandra bangs her head against the wall.

 

[BlackShanglan]

That's the difference between Shanglan and moi. He grieves over the death of Achilles, I'm still traumatized by Old Yeller dying.

Rumple Foreskin

Like Carson, I am too traumatized even to mention him!

It's m,ore than just being horny. It's huburis on his part and, stupidity on her part. Neither is a particularly endaring trait to me.

Somewhere I read some author putting into the mouth of I think Achilles the phrase "pissant little pretty-boy who couldn't even draw a bowstring without a god to pull it for him." I think that pretty much sums it up for me.

 

[BlackShanglan]

I figured with a title like Hector, tamer of horses, he would be a shang favorite

Mmmmmmm. The Iliad as porn. Looks like I have some re-reading to do.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I wanted to show the oil baron's afterlife and reveal whom he truly loved, so I killed him.

May have to kill more characters in the future, such as General ...well, I won't say...

Oh, and watch out for "Stockholm Syndrome" and "How I Became Immortal". People die in those as well. I don't do snuff, but some people just have to die (in stories).

 

[Darkniciad]

I know there will be a few deaths pop up in my tale, some disturbing and a few that are well deserved and long coming. At least two of them will be major characters in the center of the story.

I'm probably going to get some flak for that, but fate is unstoppable and those characters are caught up in it as the story builds in my head.

Up to this point, I've only killed off a few minor players that are barely known, and the one supporting character I'm about to off is someone the readers will be glad to see get what she deserves. I like her, but she really deserves a horrible end, it is necessary to my main character's development, and thus she's worm food.

She can always pop up in short side stories if I want to play with her some more, or I can turn her into something worse and spring her on everyone again, that's always possible in the setting I write in.

I have no qualms killing any character in a core tale, there are always lots of spaces before, during, and after the tale you can write side stories with if you really like them. When the story tells me someone needs to die, they die. My like or dislike for the character has no bearing on it.

 

[FallingToFly]

I just finished a book where a pretty central character dies, and it upset me. Then I started thinking about authors killing their characters. The worst thing I've ever done to one of mine is maroon him under the dryer with a lovely and sexually voracious companion. I can't imagine writing a character for a long storyline and then killing her, I just can't!

Could you kill a character? If so, why did you do so? How did it feel?

I'm in the process (besides the one where I'm drunk-dialling this board, and I know I keep saying that but the mental image keeps making me giggle through the tears) of killing off a fairly major character in my major undertaking. He has to die, because if he lives the female lead will never actually -marry- her lover, but...

*sighs* I am so going to miss him when he's gone.

 

[patricia51]

Actually I've killed off characters left and right, including the leading charcters of my two long running series; Bridget O'Brien from "Bridget's Nights" and "Bridget's Days" and Pat and Mike Gibson, my married cops from my "To Serve and Protect" series. I will say that in both cases it was from old age and I've gone back and written more stories about both, however in both cases it WAS time to let them go.

Most recently I killed off BOTh leading characters in my Firefighter romance "Six Bells". No matter how I wrote and rewrote it, it was the only ending that fit. But darn it I cried myself when it happened.

 

[rgraham666]

But darn it I cried myself when it happened.

So did I.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I remembered it!

but isn't there a quote by SK somewhere about killing characters? I can't remember it... something like, I'll drop a house on a grandma if I have to? :x

It was "I'll drop an elevator on an old lady if I have to."

That's kind of how it is... you gotta do what you gotta do...

 

[zeb1094]

Y'all realize that according to Heinlein's Multi-verse when you kill a character in a story you actually kill a real human being in the multi-verse you created?

Y'all know that don't you?

 

[Recidiva]

Y'all realize that according to Heinlein's Multi-verse when you kill a character in a story you actually kill a real human being in the multi-verse you created?

Y'all know that don't you?

I did! I did!

I respect the ficton.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Y'all realize that according to Heinlein's Multi-verse when you kill a character in a story you actually kill a real human being in the multi-verse you created?

Y'all know that don't you?

My slave INSISTS that her characters are alive...in her head, that is.

 

[Recidiva]

My slave INSISTS that her characters are alive...in her head, that is.

Mine are. They talk to me when you guys go away. And are very witty.

 

[Evil Alpaca]

I just finished a book where a pretty central character dies, and it upset me. Then I started thinking about authors killing their characters. The worst thing I've ever done to one of mine is maroon him under the dryer with a lovely and sexually voracious companion. I can't imagine writing a character for a long storyline and then killing her, I just can't!

Could you kill a character? If so, why did you do so? How did it feel?

I killed a character in the "Run" series. It wasn't any fun to write, but it been something I had planned from the word go to expose all the dirty laundry in the group of characters.

 

[Guest]

 

[FallingToFly]

Mine are. They talk to me when you guys go away. And are very witty.

I know this feeling!! The one where you wake up at three in the morning because your male lead won't STFU about how the next chapter HAS to be written, and the female lead is bitching about your flat descriptions two chapters ago and the little green man is toking up in the corner and pointing out all the badly written things in the last SIX chapters that you really need to get up and fix...

*sighs, then looks around guiltily, blushing* Maybe that's just me... but my characters tend to invade my real life quite often.. Hey, you gotta have someone intelligent to talk to at work.

On a side tangent: I still haven't managed to kill off that character I mentioned earlier. I know I have to, and he's tapping his foot with impatience, but I keep dragging it out. And now I feel even worse because not only am I killing him off... I'm making it a long, drawn out death through my own refusal to let go.

This sucks big blue donkey balls.

 

[Recidiva]

I know this feeling!! The one where you wake up at three in the morning because your male lead won't STFU about how the next chapter HAS to be written, and the female lead is bitching about your flat descriptions two chapters ago and the little green man is toking up in the corner and pointing out all the badly written things in the last SIX chapters that you really need to get up and fix...

*sighs, then looks around guiltily, blushing* Maybe that's just me... but my characters tend to invade my real life quite often.. Hey, you gotta have someone intelligent to talk to at work.

On a side tangent: I still haven't managed to kill off that character I mentioned earlier. I know I have to, and he's tapping his foot with impatience, but I keep dragging it out. And now I feel even worse because not only am I killing him off... I'm making it a long, drawn out death through my own refusal to let go.

This sucks big blue donkey balls.

LOL!

It's not just you

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I just finished a book where a pretty central character dies, and it upset me. Then I started thinking about authors killing their characters. The worst thing I've ever done to one of mine is maroon him under the dryer with a lovely and sexually voracious companion. I can't imagine writing a character for a long storyline and then killing her, I just can't!

Could you kill a character? If so, why did you do so? How did it feel?

"Kill your darlings". Sometimes, whacking a dear character is vital to make the plot tie together in the end. JKR said she cried bitterly when she killed off Sirius Black, but she had to do it. I just wish she'd kill off Ginny Sleazy as well.

Personally, I don't know if I could kill off a character. I have a few that are like personal friends to me, and I just can't imagine killing them off. It would be - impossible! I might send them off to live happily ever after in a magic castle somewhere in the far east, where we'll never hear from them again, but I can't KILL them.

 

[FallingToFly]

I hear you, Svenska... I've tried... erm *blushes* six times so far to write teh chapter where this character dies... and how... and why... I can't do it. Physically CAN'T do it, I start getting violently ill at the attempt.

It's no more than I deserve, pouring someone I loved so dearly onto paper, but, he's getting tired, and wanting to die.. and I'm making it worse by dragging him through chapter after chapter without letting him go ahead and die.

Anyone else want to take a stab at killing him off for me?

 

[Svenskaflicka]

I never had much liking of sympathy for anyone in the Trojan War out side of King Pryam and Cassandra.

I identify WAY too much with Cassandra...
"Don't bring in that horse! It's a trick!"
"Oh, Cassandra. You worry too much. It's just a gift to thank us for our hospitality and apologize for all the trouble they've caused us over the years."

Later the next morning....
"Oh, Shit! That horse was a trick! Who would have thought? I wish someone would have warned us!"

While Cassandra bangs her head against the wall.

Don't forget the scene where they pat her on the head and say "yeah, yeah, now run off and put your pretty face on, little girl, and leave politics to The Men!"

 

[togitc]

I was reading this book a while back and I knew the character was going to die. She was seriously injured and there was no way to save her. So I'm thinking, she will die in his arms and at least he will get to say goodbye.

No. Next page, one sentance she is dead. I put the book down and couldn't pick it up for a day.

The weird thing was, I knew she was going to die, it was obvious, but she did not die like I thought she would.

Kind of like that book "I heard the Owl call my name"

 

[Edge23]

You know that feeling in the back of your mind, where you're working on something with a character and some part of your brain lets you know that character is going to die at the end? I've gotten that a couple of times with Violet from 'A Taste of Blood.'

I don't WANT her to die. I'm not even sure WHY she's going to die. Hopefully, she won't. I like her. She's grown up. I can see where her evolution is going next. I don't WANNA! Hehehe.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

In "Ghost Hubby Haunting", the main character is already dead. It made for an interesting twist.

 

[imalickin]

i am in the process of writing a novella, the main characters are lovers and in the military together. i haven't decided which, but one will die in the end, the other will go on in further adventures. it's the only plausible outcome for the story and it was dictated by the story line to begin with. not that you can tell who will be killed or if anyone will, just in my head as i thought about the story.