Well, the title basically says it all. I'm not sure if this is the right section to post this, but I'm pretty sure it is. I'm writing a story, and in the beginning, a very tragic event takes place, involving the deaths of thousands of people (explosions, fire, chaos). I'm really bad at writing scenes unless I have a character to follow around. So I thought I'd make one. Here's where I need your opinion. Is it okay to create a character only to have them killed? Basically, the reader would be following the girl around in her final hours of life, though they don't even know who she is. And then chapter one would start with all new characters, in a completely different place. So I'm wondering if it would just be too strange to do that. Please write back soon. :)

how can the reader be following the girl around before they get to the first chapter?... or, did you mean to say 'And then, chapter two...'?... or, do you have a prologue in which the girl appears, never to be heard from again?

as for your question, virtually anything can work if the writer is talented and skilled enough to make it work... and nothing will, if the writer isn't... and many novels have characters who die in the beginning of the story... so, go ahead and see how it turns out...

i happen to be especially fond of post-apocalyptic plots, so keep me posted...

love and hugs, maia
maia3maia@hotmail.com

Thanks. Yeah, I was talking about the prologue. Well, I'm going to post it when I actually finish it, if you're interested. Thanks for the advice. Bye! :D

A lot of prologues have nothing to do with the actual characters in the main body of the book. I see what you're saying about needing a character, so I think it would be a good idea to create a character to follow around. And then you kill her at the end of the prologue and go on to the main story. Later on you can reference the anonymous girl, if you feel like tying her to the existing main characters, or you could just let her fade into obscurity.

I think its a good idea.
I think you should do it. Sounds cool.

Pretty reasonable. Go for it.

Try and lay your hands on a copy of 'Elven Lied', an anime series. They took the odd step of giving you a chunk of each cannon-fodder character's history before having the major enemy killing her. For example, the incredibly clumsy secretary, who shows up in two scenes before becoming a human shield for a crazy psychic. It basically makes each cannon-fodder kill more 'meaningful' than just going and ripping a random character's head off. It's fine to make a character to have them killed- but just be sure they are real characters- flat, possibly, but real.

Try and lay your hands on a copy of 'Elven Lied', an anime series. They took the odd step of giving you a chunk of each cannon-fodder character's history before having the major enemy killing her. For example, the incredibly clumsy secretary, who shows up in two scenes before becoming a human shield for a crazy psychic. It basically makes each cannon-fodder kill more 'meaningful' than just going and ripping a random character's head off. It's fine to make a character to have them killed- but just be sure they are real characters- flat, possibly, but real.
I watched that.
It was pretty unrealistic she only killed people when she had no clothes on.

But its a good suggestion if you don't mind nude people.

Leaka- that wasn't the point at all. What I was talking about was that making a character for slaughter is fine, if enhancing the sympathy for it is your idea.

I didn't mean it for enhancing the sympathy--I just meant it for having someone to follow around during a very tragic event.

Then maybe try watching "Jigoku Shoujo", most of the episodes work in a similar way of what you're trying to do. They present a character (or characters) that end up with a horrible death, most of them anyway. Pretty good series with an interesting and original plot.

blah blah blah, Elfen Lied
Damnit, i was gonna say that. I loved that and I love in general when things follow around a character, leading you to believe they're the main character, only to have them be killed or be not important.

Going from something not an anime... it's like an episode of Law and Order. The first person you see in an episode is either going to be a victim or a witness, or in one case the killer's accomplice wait, that's the exact opposite...

But yeah, make it seem like the character is going to be the main character, have her do things that could be of some importance later if she hadn't died. Hell, if you're really good, have her on her last day of Apprenticeship/first day of being something and then have her killed. It'll come as more of a surprise if the person you thought was the main character dies than if Jenny Cannonfodder dies.

i think that's compelety fine. Every writing style is different, there's no limit. There's actually a chick that's kind of followed in, probably the first 20 pages, that you get to know, hear her thoughts, feelings, and then dies.

If you make the reader care about them enough, why not? :D

If you make the reader care about them enough, why not? :D

You are evil. :p :D :)

I would do it, but then I create my MC's just to kill them off :)

For referrence to the girl, later in the story would your characters ever go to where she was? If so they could find something about her, or her if you get my meaning.

I agree with most of you guys. Yes, it's fine to have such a character.

I myself had such a character. Even his name is Victim.

I do enjoy creating characters and building them up, then killing them in the most ungodly manners I can think of. It gets the reader emotionally vested in the character, then rips their heart and stomps it into the ground.
...
Not really, but I always loved that idea of being a sadistic author.

Absolutely.
In one of David Eddings' books in 'The Mallorean', he follows the story of a man that contracts a type of plague, and then brings it to a city, causing about half of the city's population to die. The man who contracts it is introduced and killed in the same chapter.

Trust me when we all have in our writing. Whether it was on accident or not we all do in some fashion except for those disney stories where everyone lives happily ever after. So since it's natural to do so I would say yeah absolutely. In one of my stories i introduce the mom only to be killed in the next chapter as well as the sister.

Sincerely,
Youngwriter_11311311

In George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, every single Prologue is from the POV of a character who dies at the end, and it works.

Seems like a good idea to use an obscure character to take readers on an introductary journey; to have prior knowledge of how the land lies before the actual story begins. I don't see the need for the deceased character to be referred to later, though there's nothing to stop that happening if you've developed reader sympathy.

A character I created for Neverending was meant from the start to give his life after living for millenia. In the novel version I'm working on, his death is what ends the first part. He is one of the three principal characters.

These characters are often called "expendable ensigns" by Star Trek fans, but Tee Morris refers to them as Born to Dies or BtD's in The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy. Tee says to use them sparingly and that they should not serve as a substitute for the deaths of your main characters. It's also important, in my opinion, to not make it obvious that they are a BtD (depending on the storyline). Good stories don't have the bimbo blonde that willingly goes on the trip to the haunted house with the group of teenagers for some midnight fun. It should be more mysterious than that. If you do create a BtD, at least put some effort into it and try to have some purpose for them.

~Natalie

Actually, the official trekkie term is redshirts...

I think it's possible, in my manga I killed off 3 people who had very little if any development just for storyline purposes, if you can write it well then there should be no problem :)

In my current story, it starts of from the point of view of a fighter pilot flying with his three wingmates into a warzone. I won't say by what, but all three wingmates' planes are destroyed before they can eject and the POV character spins out of control and is assumed to be dead--at this point, it switches over to one of the true main characters.

Plenty of examples in here, so yes, it certainly is possible.

I think that would work really well to get the reader's attention really early in the story in much the same way that some World War II movies will open with some anonymous character dying on the D-day invasion. It would be like a punch in the gut.

sounds good to me! don't be afraid to do something different than everybody else. I think that this is a grand idea

Depending upon the type of story being written, I don't think that it's necessary a bad thing to create a character who is well developed, but meant to be killed off. Sometimes it's this type of drama which makes the story interesting. A reader can develop a deep connection with the character, and actually feel an emotional sense of loss when that character dies.

The prologue contains backstory or crucial information, or even just a good hook. It really needn't have anything to do with the characters we'll meet throughout the main story. Providing it adds something to the story and you have enough skill and grace to pull this off, I'd go for it.

Of course if it further develops another, more important, character or it follows what the dying character would do.

Ooof, definitely, If you read a warhammer 40k novel, you'll basically know if a character is going to die, like a gut feeling, thats pretty much how often it's used. Like slasher movies (shame on teenager logic :(). But its good to spice up a novel with a little death, works most cases but you need to make sure the reader feels the loss, thats when you know you've done a good job.