I'm totally at a loss. In my story I have 3 main characters and I'm not sure what to do because I'm thinking about killing off 2 of them including my main character but I'm wondering if that's a good idea or if it's a cop out. I kind of want it to be a depressing ending but I don't want it to be a bad ending
I would say look at the overall picture of your story from beginning to ending. If the MCs' deaths feel forced, then you might want to rethink killing them off.
I think Ellipse is right - if it is a natural conclusion to the story (in other words, it seems to all feel right and flow logically from what came before) then I don't think you have anything to worry about. If you're doing it simply to make a shocking ending or something like that, I'd avoid it. I read a book once where the main character died about halfway through. That one really surprised me, but it was a good book
I depends on your story, really. I shudder at the very thought of killing Guilt(one of my main characters) off, but I'm seriously considering whether to kill Garrett Castle(another main character) off. By the way, Guilt and Garrett are from two different stories.
If it feels natural to the story, then do it. But make sure that your story is prepared for a new character to take the spotlight. Which means building them up to be a good character until the main one dies. Killing main characters isn't a cop out. From what I seen, if you do it well, people like that a lot. Ask GRRM and Stephen King.
When I was fourteen, I plotted an epic fantasy series (as fourteen year olds are wont to do) in which the main character died at the beginning of the first book. So far as I was concerned, it made sense. The Big Bad was thousands of years older than him and far more skilled. No noobie little elf, even when they're clichéd and half-dragon, is going to defeat the immortal, physical aspect of a God. So all I have to say is that if it makes sense for your main character to die, then let them. Even if you have to invoke Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Because, you know... if there's any chance of a plane carrying a piano passing directly over the character...
Lol, I always wanted to end a story with 'Rocks fall everyone dies.' For serious though, would it be too cliche and overdone to have my mc sacrifice himself to save his brother?
Everything has been written before, it can't be avoided in the writing world. I don't think it'll be that cliche and overdone for sacrificing one's life for another as long as you bring new light and a new way of doing it.
Hello again. Sorry for bringing back this old post but I wanted some opinions on something. Both the brother and best friend are dead but instead of the story ending in the pov of the surviving mc it ends with him being in a catatonic state and the ending is told in the pov of his brother's romantic interest. Is this a dumb idea?
No, it's not. Just stick the title epilogue over it, and the sudden POV change will seem quite natural.
Thank you for helping. I kind of like the idea of showing how it affected her too. I think it would make her a more sympathetic character because this would be the second time she fell in love only to have that person die.
