Death...

[Quietus]

What do you guys think about authors killing off their characters?




Personally, I 'enjoy' killing mine. There's a joke with my friends and I: You can't get too attached to any of my characters, 'cause you never know who I'm going to kill.
I mean... If it's done right and moves the plot and all, then it's good.I don't like, however, when authors go on killing sprees for now reason*cough*J.K. Rowling*cough*Harry Potter Deathly Hallows*cough*

So... Opinions?

[Ichigo]

I was going to mention JK Rowling. She should be killed herself I loved Fred.... ah jeez hear comes the tears again...


I'm like the most passive person ever so I've NEVER killed off a character I'd probably cry if I did.

I don't mind it when other people do though, cause I can't change what others do. I don't know it depends like you said, on weather or not it advances the plot in any way.

DOBBY!!!!!!!!!!

[GeorgeMichael]

DOBBY!!!! :( :( :( :(




I have no more comment on JK Rowling, it was a great book. :( :(



anyways, I think it is fine when it moves the plot along, and all the deaths in Harry Potter moved the plot along and made you feel something...


FRED!!!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! :( darn this thread

[Ichigo]

WHAT? How did Fred dieing accomplish ANYTHING!
I'm just so emotional....FREDDDDDD!!!!

[Rafael Domination]

Personally, I set aside a list of who to kill, and who to not kill. Then, I also have a separate list on how each one should die. I have another list of how their deaths would influence the world around them, and I even have a list of which ones come back.

Yeah, I'm a real Grim Reaper! :D

[GeorgeMichael]

It was the big incentive Ichi, Wihtout his death Molly wouldn't have had the greatest strength in her to kill Bellatrix (HELL YEAH!)(excuse me, but I think we all agree that it was needed :)) It gave all the weasleys so much more oomph in their fighting and they had more reason to do it. . .


Fred! :(

[Andy]

I seem to have left out the idea of killing characters when I planned my trilogy, because all of the main characters of the first book live until the end of the third, except one that I just decided last week. :)

But yeah, either to move the plot along, or because they deserve it. Otherwise, it's usually just stupid.

[Imelda]

Dobby and Fred. *Sniff*

I love killing characters. I'm sure Andrew will testify to that. I especially enjoy killing the nice people. Killing baddies is so dull.

[Quietus]

Killing the bad ones can be fun if you make it torturous. Like kill them in a way that makes the reader squirm:cool:

But killing the nice ones is fun. Usually 'cause it's unexpected.

[jordanisonfire]

There's a lot of deaths in my Crusade heptalogy, including many of the main characters. Since the book is centered around a war (from the name "Crusade", I think you can guess that), it naturally has a lot of death in it. My main character loves death particularly and likes to make it as painful as possible to his enemies. If you don't like gory, sick deaths, don't read my books. ^^

Deaths can contribute to the plot. Like you can't get too attatched to your characters and not kill any of them, nor can you go overboard and have a totally unnecessary mass slaughter of all the characters you worked hard to create (JK Rowling, I'm looking at you).

People just have to die in books where you have fights or war. It's natural. Get over it. They're just fictional anyway. I particularly like killing off my characters, especially the ones I dislike. :devious: I spend a lot of time thinking about fight scenes and how original yet horrible I can make their deaths.

[Rafael Domination]

In one of my series, it's not so much the case. Yes, they're fighting a war, and a lot of people die. However, the good guys, although they're quite few in numbers, are insanely strong. That becomes a problem. I've equipped them with so much skill and power that it becomes quite hard to kill them off. Sure, I can whip up an even stronger bad guy, but then I'll have to work on the said villain to give him/her more depth, cuz' I can have such a powerful entity as a mere tertiary character for long.

Yeah. I'm just happy its only one series.

[Shaun]

Killing characters...ooooh. Well I think it's a powerful plot device if used properly. I have plans to kill off one or two characters from my WISB series (I'm not sure who yet, but I think that the second book will be partially a trial of pain and suffering for the main character...more so than the first book...I want to bring this poor kid right to the very edge).

[Carraka]

I prefer stories with death, but not all stories need dead people.

...

Hey! I can talk about GRRM! It's said that in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, no character is safe. It's not a bloodbath (I swear!) like Deathly Hallows, but my favorite characters have died, and ... well, it advanced the plot. x.x (It increased my hatred of the people that caused those deaths, at the very least.) And even now, I still cling to the hope that all my current favorites will survive. Miraculously.

That made little sense. I could talk about EC instead. There is a lot of death in it, mostly because everyone wants to kill everyone else. I know which characters must die, but I always have trouble figuring out how to write their deaths. It always falls flat, emotionally.

[Shaun]

Death is truly effective in books, as Car and others have said. If you can manage to draw your readers into the story enough that a death affects the reader emotionally, then you've done a good job. There have been times when I've cried. When Dumbledore died I balled all the way from his death to the end of the book and for an hour afterwards. My sister actually caught me crying and hugged me. Yes, I'm a baby, whatever, I don't care. I think it was because I loved Dumbledore so much as a character (due in part to the movies and my love for Richard Harris), and when he died it just tore my heart out. I cried for Dobby too, and the others, but Dumbly hit me the hardest.
So if you can create that in people, great! I'm hoping to do with that in WISB. There is a character I am planning to kill, and it's actually going to hurt me to do it. I get sad just thinking about it because I absolutely love the character so much. Of all the characters I've ever created, this character who will die is my favorite...
Maybe it will have such an emotional impact for my readers.

[Rafael Domination]

You? Cried? :D

Wow.

Ahem...back to the topic....

The thing I can't figure out, though, is how to give the bad guys deaths. It's funny - the lists I were talking about earlier...most of them applied only to the good guys. It might just be Azrael's grip on my mind, but the thing is, I'm USUALLY at a dead end giving the bad guy a cool, fitting and memorable death.

[Shaun]

You? Cried? :D

Wow.

Ahem...back to the topic....

The thing I can't figure out, though, is how to give the bad guys deaths. It's funny - the lists I were talking about earlier...most of them applied only to the good guys. It might just be Azrael's grip on my mind, but the thing is, I'm USUALLY at a dead end giving the bad guy a cool, fitting and memorable death.

I think it's "the lists I WAS talking about"...that's really weird. From a pluralistic standpoint it makes sense as were, but from the context of the sentence it makes sense as was...since you're talking about a past event...

A good way to kill a bad guy and make it interesting is to have the storyline they are a part of play into it. You can use metaphoric deaths to make a huge impact on the reader with villains. You can also show villains to be ambiguous and then kill them, which really makes the reader question.
No need for a "cool" death, just an interesting one.

[Rafael Domination]

Hmmmm...I'll try that out.

[lango]

I have a hard time letting a character live through the whole book
Usually they all die one by one, mwahahaha
honestly though, nothing like killing a character in a heroic/self-proving moment to move the reader :P

P.S: Ron shouldve died saving hermione, now THAT would be a great scene, even though I love the character. Tell me you wouldnt cry if that happened ;) Or even better, Ron saving harry`s life, and dieing by doing it. Ive once made up a whole plot just from imagining a heroic death :D

[Alex]

I think killing off a character, especially a family member or friend in the middle of the book to try and spark some emotional trigger in the reader is innefective ((unless used in a few certain ways. I'm cocky and think I'm going to be doing it right when I get to that point in Perpetual Genesis =pp)) but I enjoy the idea of characters dying at the end of a book if it makes sense and doesn't seem forced.

Again it all depends on the situation

[sXe_Jinxeh]

The only time I've killed characters recently was for like supernatural type stories, in which thier deaths fuels the plot. I have written and rewritten and rewritten the scene where one of my characters is brutally murderd, making sure his death is gorey, violent and humiliating...as the person killing him would want it.

When a character dies for real, I have major issues with writing it. I have to sit and think about it, feel bad, get sad...normally not overly sad, since I don't get upset over...anything, so...yeah.

Out of boredom though, having angry evil characters going on killing sprees...even if only in your mind...is fun.