Message Board Topic For 2/18

[Comsie]

Occassionally, in the plot of a story, there can be a tragic passing of a main character. And sometimes, that loss can be taken pretty hard by the public reading your story. Especially if it's someone that they've truly grown attached to.

 

I suppose that it depends on how 'sudden' the incident is, or how much of an impact it has on the storyline, but the death of a character can be a difficult technique to work into any story. This week's question is...how does the death of a major character in a story affect you, and how should an author handle it? Have there been experiences where you were completely shocked by the death of a character? Have there been times when that tragic passing 'ruined' a story for you? (You don't have to name any stories by title or author, a vague telling of what happened is fine.) What impact did it have on you as a writer or reader? Let us know what happened and why!

[Graeme]

A death is not something to throw into a story lightly. If, as a reader, I don't think it fits, I'm sometimes left thinking the writer has done it as a cheap technique to keep the story interesting... which turns me off. The situation and any foreshadowing (even if subtle) can play a big part in whether I accept the death (as a reader).

 

Car accidents and small plane crashes are a classic technique and hence one I'm wary of. Yes, they happen in real life. Yes, people die from them. But if you look at the statistics, they are rare! They can be mentioned in a story. They can occur in the back history, but most stories only cover a short period of time (months, maybe a year or two) and the number of people who are touched by a road or plane death in that period is just not high.

 

On the other hand, sufficient foreshadowing or a reasonable situation (and I'm fairly generous to the author there) will allow me to accept it. The guy who constantly breaks the rules or shows a lot of arrogance -- for him to be in a road accident (as one example) is a stretch but too much of one. The character who kills himself after some horrible news -- understandable (albeit tragic). Rare tropical diseases... give me a break!

 

I've killed one major character in my novels so far (I've also killed almost everyone on Earth in one of my short stories, but that's different ), but I had good story reasons for doing so, and the character's death wasn't unpredictable. Upsetting, yes, but not unreasonable in the circumstances.

 

Having said all of that, I also make an exception where the death is the premise for the story. It doesn't bother me at all about the probabilities or how unlikely a death is, if the idea is that it can occur and this is the story that results when it does.