how many characters have you killed off so far?

And have you ever regretted it a character or two afterwards because perhaps the plot/story
would have been better with them in it?
Or maybe regrets was for a different reason related to the story?

 

My novels normally have a lot of conflict (post apocalyptic, epic fantasy with both small and large-scale battles, military SF, etc.), so quite a few characters die in the process of the stories being told.

I've not regretted it. It works for the setting and the story, and each death has a purpose in moving the tale forward. Just because the characters are gone, does not mean they don't have lingering impact/influence in the story moving forward, especially if those killed were important to the characters that survived.

 

I tried killing off some side characters, but it didn't work well because the fear of death is more valuable for drama than death itself. Funerals tend to derail the story and expose flaws in the character arcs when everyone's supposed to be emotional.

I'd only kill off main characters if it's to remind the reader that they can die when facing danger, so in act three or after several books.

 

I kill off a few side characters, but only one main character. You usually don't have to go full Game of Thrones and kill people right left and centre. Killing one is as good as killing five. One main character death will let the reader know that nobody has plot armour, anyone can die, and subsequent scenes will be that much more tense because of it.

 

Hi there Nariac.
Why this only one main character? What was the reason?

 

I don't know exactly. A fair number of secondary characters, countless tertiaries and bit players, and at least five assorted main characters/protagonists/POWs/
narrators/heroes.

I haven't regretted any of it, though sometimes I miss writing a character when they're no longer in the story.

 

Loads and loads of 'extras', and some in not so nice ways.

Though I miss Rhino.
Fun character, took a rail bolt to the guts after
it went through another's head. Sad and messy
stuff ya know.

 

Number of characters killed: a few. I don't count them so I have not thought about it being important. Regrets, no.

 

Though I tend to put my characters in dangerous settings where there is obvious conflict I tend to keep the core conflict within them (internal conflict) because that's where a story really is.

I've killed off characters before. My current WIP focuses on a negative story arc which is worse than killing her off because I have to keep the audience rooting for her despise everything. Interesting question that I've never thought about much.

I watched a TV show a few years ago where they killed off a major character and the audience lost their minds. They dragged this story line out for two years, this character desperately wanting and fighting to reunite with her birth mother, taking so many knocks and getting back up. Then, they gave her what she wanted for 2 seconds then had her die in that instant. The reaction was insane 11 million people complained to the channel. I thought as first; they did it right. There is no point in killing off a character for their death to be passed over. The reaction from the public meant they did their jobs as writers.
Then when I re-watched the story I realized why people went mad. They made a promise and they didn't keep it. They killed of a character for the drama factor and ignored the fact they wouldn't give up what they had promised. Which lead to people being dissatisfied. The man who had worked so hard to keep mother and daughter apart had won' no matter what happened from this point on he had succeeded.

So i think you should always be careful when killing off a character, because they weren't and it back fired.

 

In general I don't kill a lot of folks and in my current series death is not always fatal.

 

In my novel, I killed the three main characters. (In one chapter) Then I brought one back (not in the book, I just changed the ending and let him live).
Total in that book: 5. More if you count what I have planned for books two and three but haven't wrote
Never regretted any of those deaths. I just let the protagonist live because I got ideas for letting him live so then he had to come back.

 

I am just now coming to the first in a line of prophetic deaths, one of which is fairly obvious, and two that might really piss readers off. They become part of the MC's spiritual guidance, and a life transition. I still don't want to do it. I didn't think I would fall in love with her, and he didn't either. They are part of an undercurrent, the beginning, and end, of a sad story. He will come to understand, but not without a lot of pain.
Dammit! Why won't this story fucking leave me alone?

 

The only character death Ive actually written so far is my MC Sarah’s mom, who dies just before the story actually starts, the story dealing with the aftermath of that. The death is more relevant than the person so no regrets there.
I do have a few characters marked for death that we will actually see during the story. Hard to have any regrets about any of these when I could change plans in an instant. I have changed plans to save a character once so far.
I have a few big betrayal moments as well, they compare roughly in emotional impact to a death.

 

The only significant death in my main WIP is that of the father of one of my MCs. His death is a major motivation to his son (no, not towards revenge. How do you get revenge on a Kodiak bear? Kill him all you want, but he'll never understand why you're doing it).

There are deaths that take place in flashbacks to the earlier parts of my other MC's life, but they're pretty insignificant.

I've never written any of those mass-killing scenes so many of you are fond of. My characters tend to not be warlike badasses. My stuff isn't endless rewrites of Rambo or anything, even though I understand the visceral appeal of them. So the body count in my stuff is pretty low, as these things go.

 

"I WILL AVENGE YOOOOOOU!" plotlines are kinda overdone anyway, and tend to be a bit shallow I find. How does it motivate the character if not revenge?

 

Also, frankly, it's been so overused as to be a cliche. Once upon a time, killing off a major character who the reader expected to survive was quite shocking. Now we just yawn and toss the book aside to read something else.

As for me, I killed off all but a couple of dozen humans in the first chapter of one of my unfinished novels. Last novel I published, I think I killed off about a dozen significant characters, but none of the main ones.

 

LOL tha'ts cruel

 

Have you a story where no character is killed of?

 

Just be careful how you do it. My girlfriend and I have great fun watching low-budget military movies:

'Uh-oh, he just said he's getting married when they get back from this mission. Might as well have signed his death warrant.'
'One token black guy in the team. Wonder how long he's going to last?'

 

I like weird stories, so my death counter so far is a bit hard to tell. The first character was the typical "bad guy redeems herself by sacrificing herself to save everyone". I liked it at the time, especially as it was my first "real" story. But in retrospect, I know it's a cliché. I still like it, but I know I could and should have done something more creative.

Another book was about time travel, so even I don't know how many times the two MCs died. One had cancer, so her sister went back in time, got her to the doctor before the cancer spread, then killed herself to preserve the time line. Then the first one (now without cancer) went back in time to save her sister, then she killed herself, and so on. It got a bit messy. But in the end, both survived. Technically.

So this time, I'm playing it safe. The main villain has already been dead around 300 years, so finger's crossed she's done dying.