# procrastination writing death of main characters



## Yochanan (Nov 24, 2008)

My first book has four main characters, to whom I became rather attached after working with them and their stories for several years. The sequel, however, has different main characters, though the four from the first book play rather large roles as well.

My problem is, I have definitely decided that the four main characters from the first book must die in the second for the story to progress in any way, but I am just... very attached to them. The next part of the second book is the one where my favorite character dies, and I've been procrastinating because I don't want to have to write it. I know I'll cry like a big baby doing it and feel like a murderer. 

Is it weird to become so attached to fictional characters? I feel as if they are my children. Does anyone have any advice on how to get past this and just write it? It's difficult...


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## SparkyLT (Nov 24, 2008)

Well, that's either normal or we're weird the same way


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## Sam (Nov 24, 2008)

It's pretty common for an author to become attached to his/her characters. I had to kill off a main character recently too and I felt like a twat for a few days afterward, but once I discovered that it helped the story I was fine with it. Sometimes we have to be ruthless for the sake of the story.


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## seigfried007 (Nov 24, 2008)

I can sympathize--even empathize. But there are worse fates than death, you can raise them and they can still live in your head for RPs and short stories (possibly under aliases)

Just keep in mind that it could always be worse. Better to die horribly and be martyred saving the world than to... oh, I don't know, go crazy and live as an animal, coating oneself in crap; have one's mind completely scrambled, become an incontinent, drooling heap that used to be the coolest man on the planet... who now can't remember his kids or anyone else and thanks his wife for changing his diapers even though he's forgotten who she is....

Always worse things. Just comfort them with that.

and when all else fails, introduce them to a character who preaches that The story Must Go On. that their destiny is to die for the story. I have one of those, and he's wonderful when other characters refuse to cooperate.


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## Show (Nov 24, 2008)

Definitely understand this dilema myself. I've recently had to whack 3 characters in my serial and 3 characters in my novel. 2 from the novel and 1 from the serial really hit me hard, especially the one from the serial. I grew so attached to the kid and brought him up out of such tragic circumstances. And then BOOM! Just like that, he's dead. But I felt that I just had to do it. Sometimes an author has gotta do what an author has
 gotta do.


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## tepelus (Nov 24, 2008)

The sadness that you feel for having to kill your characters can work to your advantage, those emotions when you write their deaths will/could/should show through in your writing, making your story much more believable and help your reader empathize with their deaths more.


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## SparkyLT (Nov 24, 2008)

Good point, Tep. After all, if _you_ don't care when your character does, no one else will.


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## Fegaril (Nov 25, 2008)

> After all, if _you_ don't care when your character does, no one else will.


 
The absolute greatest maxim of all, concerning characters.

However, I also refuse to reach a compromise with my characters. I might feel like a completely *sshole for killing of my main characters, but if it conveys the themes in the story and it is absolutely essential, then I know it has to be done. I'd never force a character whose fate I'd already decided in the creation process to keep living. In the same way, I'd never force a character to die if I'd known his fate was to live. It's all crucial to the story and the themes you try to explore.

For some reason, Stranger Than Fiction comes to mind.


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## Yochanan (Nov 25, 2008)

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Knowing I'm not crazy helps a bit. I'm going to make my first attempt at writing the death scene sometime today. *sigh* =[


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## Sensei2006 (Nov 29, 2008)

My writing always stays firmly in the realm of fantasy, and we all know that death in fantasy can be about as permanent as a runny nose.

I always establish some kind of afterlife, or if I don't want to do that, Ill have the deceased interact with the new main character somehow, just to show that they are still out there somewhere


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## SparkyLT (Nov 29, 2008)

Then your characters have nothing to worry about. 

Mine, on the other hand, have this tendency to stay dead. If I mean for them to come back at some point, I don't mind killing them off.


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## WriterDude (Nov 29, 2008)

It's not weird to feel attached to your characters and feel sad when one of them have to die. Arranging a real-life funeral, on the other hand... :-\"


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## SparkyLT (Nov 29, 2008)

WriterDude said:


> It's not weird to feel attached to your characters and feel sad when one of them have to die. Arranging a real-life funeral, on the other hand... :-\"


Yeeeah..._that_ might be a little weird.


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## PSFoster (Dec 1, 2008)

WriterDude said:


> It's not weird to feel attached to your characters and feel sad when one of them have to die. Arranging a real-life funeral, on the other hand... :-\"



Been there, done that.  Twice.  Not fun.

I didn't kill off a character (yet), but I feel their emotions.  In my novel I'm trying to write, there's a young teen who is the victim of sexual abuse. Writing some of the scenes makes me cry.


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## Dragonsoul (Dec 2, 2008)

I feel the same. A lot of the times the characters are good characters who deserve so much more than what fate is giving them, but sadly it's the way of the story, the way their story was meant to end.


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## lilacstarflower (Dec 2, 2008)

I have no problem whatsoever killing my main character. I've known he was going to die from the start so maybe that explains why I don't feel any guilt. Actually I'm looking forward to writing it because it means I've finished the novel


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## Zyphial (Dec 3, 2008)

lilacstarflower said:


> I have no problem whatsoever killing my main character. I've known he was going to die from the start so maybe that explains why I don't feel any guilt. Actually I'm looking forward to writing it because it means I've finished the novel


I'm very much the same, and the sad part is, I identify very strongly with some of the characters I've slaughtered (starring roles included).  But it's hard to touch my emotions, so I suppose that isn't odd.  Perhaps it would help you to simply _make_ yourself stop caring about their welfare or, like lilac said, don't ever allow yourself to start.  Personally my biggest problem is finding the most emotionally charged way to kill my favorite characters; finally getting to off them is just the icing on the cake.


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## Beja-Beja (Dec 3, 2008)

So far Ive only killed two characters and i felt nothing about it.


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## HarryG (Dec 4, 2008)

lilacstarflower said:


> I have no problem whatsoever killing my main character. I've known he was going to die from the start so maybe that explains why I don't feel any guilt. Actually I'm looking forward to writing it because it means I've finished the novel


    I can relate to that, because I’ve done exactly the same thing, killing the character at the end of the book, which did affect me badly, however.

  Lo and behold, an editor made me change the ending, saying that the American market required a happy ending.  That made me happy, and my hero lived.

  Then came some bad news.  The editor moved on, and I got another one, another American, a woman, but a heartless one.  She wanted him dead.

  This was in the days of typewriters, and I remember storming into the editor’s office, blind with rage at having to kill my hero yet again, gently putting the giant manuscript on her desk (this was after two years of prevarication), when she addressed me in that horrible Yale accent and suggested that maybe the hero should live after all.

  It all ended in tears, there and then.  The book was published years later, with a different publisher, but the hero was still alive, hanging on by a thread, and I was in dead trouble, writing under a different name, with a heavy court case hanging over me.

  I haven’t killed a character (hero) since.


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## Zyphial (Dec 4, 2008)

LOL.  That's both sad and hilarious at once.  I feel sorry that you had to endure that, but what a story!  Personally, I would have done whatever suited the message of the story, but then again that certainly would have hurt my chances of being published.  Still, in all the cases where I've killed main characters, I've always done it for a reason and changing it for market appeal would really only detract from the work as a whole, ironically hurting the appeal in the process.


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## JHB (Dec 5, 2008)

HarryG, with such an interesting backstory attached to it, I think I might wanna take a small peeksees into this book of yours. Is it on amazon?


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## Vorrec (Oct 9, 2010)

I constantly have to whack characters. And even though I like it, because it's good for the story, it's _painful_. In plotting my storyline for the future, I recently decided that I had to kill off one of my main characters. I almost cried when I wrote the dialogue for that scene. Now I'm trying to conjure up some remedy by bringing him back to life or making it part of a dream or whatnot. Which I absolutely hate to see in other people's works. Still cannot let him go. I hate myself.


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## Stephanie J. (Oct 9, 2010)

Sam W said:


> I had to kill off a main character recently too and I felt like a twat for a few days afterward, but once I discovered that it helped the story I was fine with it.



Oh man. I am so tempted to make this my signature!


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## Ricky Jalapeno (Oct 9, 2010)

I'm never really afffected by the deaths of my characters. Since in my stories theres always a lot of fighting, people are always dying. So I try not to get attached. I'm barely on chapter 5 and about 6 characters died already.


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## PageOfCups (Oct 9, 2010)

For me it depends on the character. I didn't mind killing off one of the character in the first mnuscript I ever finished, but I hated writing the after math for his best friend and fiance. Sometimes I even imensly enjoy offing a character. There are some that I don't over like hurting though, which is anoying since what I'm writing now screws over my favourite character at every turn. It's really slowing me down.


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## 72ZX (Oct 9, 2010)

I can relate, in some way. I don't really plan to write my character's deaths, but after I started writing, and became very attached to them, a friend of mine started suggesting I kill one or two off, which made me rather melancholic. :l

I guess I'm just a pansy or something.


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