This doesn't really work. Death may be may deterministic, but if its suicide that's deterministic, it means developing a corrupt soul is deterministic, which does not sound to go with the rest of your theory. It would have to be a remarkable kind of suicide, like a sacrifice, or being incredibly brave. The MC, who has cancer anyway, dies surfing Mavericks. Something like that. But if you kill yourself because you hate yourself and your life, what kind of lesson is that?
Didn't she say something like the person goes to hell and learns their lesson about committing suicide?
It's not a typo to say that person that commits suicide goes to hell to be taught a lesson. That would be a rather long typo.
This forum is exhausting.... Lemme start from the easiest to reply. @Lewdog Yes, the "to hell teach them a lesson" was a typo that I didn't notice until you quoted it. I even went back and reread all of my posts, and I still didn't see it. It was supposed to say "to HELP teach them a lesson." Note to self: Stop replying to a writing forum on my phone or iPad. Autocorrections will ensue. She will not go to hell, because in my story, there is no hell. There is only the astral plane, the afterlife, that all beings go to after death. But the plane will be different for her: dull colors, not as active as what others see, be unable to communicate with all beings for a time. Yes, she will have to learn her lesson about committing suicide. In my story, ALL spirits go through a life review after death. They are shown every moment, every word, every thought they had and how it affected them and those around them. It will show her how her thoughts and actions not only changed her but changed those around her as well. She will have to look at the lessons she set out for herself before birth and compare her goals with the choices she made. Once she has thoroughly seen the repercussions of her actions, she will be able to move past it and become a fully-functional spirit on the astral plane. @123456789 It may not work for you, but the ideas in my book were not created by me. I have done extensive research on the type of afterlife I'm portraying, and this is how suicide is handled. They are not punished or sent to hell. Not even murderers or rapists or other evil people are punished. They may get stuck in a state of limbo because they can't release their ties to earth and their destructive attitudes. But once they release their negativity, they will join the other spirits in the astral plane and go through a life review just like everyone else. As for my story -- Her suicide could have many lessons. It could teach her spirit that she needs to try harder to see the positives of life. It could teach her that suicide doesn't solve anything -- she's just running away. So in her next life, she may be placed in many of the same situations, so that she can learn to survive them instead of run away from them. It could also be her living out karma from a past life. Maybe someone she loved died from suicide because she did nothing to help. So before birth, she determined she would die from suicide to see how lonely and heartbreaking it is from the other side. Also -- Her family could have neglected her or not paid as much attention to her as they should have. The MC could have been throwing it in their faces that she was ready to end her life, and they did nothing to nurture her and make her change her mind. Her suicide could then teach them to be more attentive or sensitive or loving to those around them. It could also inspire her living family to try to prevent this from happening to others, so they open a suicide hotline or start a support group or some other form of healing that will cause great change and good in the world. Everything is a lesson. If not for you, than for others. It's all about learning how to handle those struggles and how to grow from them. It's learning to not be a victim and have strength in all things. That's the point of reincarnation, to live and grow and work out your karma and ultimately reach enlightenment, when you no longer have to live on earth and can stay for eternity on the astral plane, as a pure and loving being. And that's what I want to communicate in my novel.
@Lea`Brooks it was hard to see it as a typo because in most religions a person that commits suicide goes to hell.
An idea: your story begins with the mc's suicide. She "wakes up" in this astral plane. You have flashbacks about her life as the story develops, and about some severe trauma she couldn't cope with, or something like that. Because of that event, she commited suicide, and by doing that she actually kinda screwed up the whole "predetermination" thing, with shortening her own life, so she needs to get on an especially difficult path in order to reincarnate... That way you could actually avoid talking about suicide as a "good thing" when someone is "ready to go".
I'm not knocking religion at all. I'm very accepting of all beliefs. I just mean that we don't really know what anything is like. Is heaven a bunch of clouds? Or is it a field of sunflowers? But you're right. lol Better to avoid any discussion all together before it gets out of hand.
Totally agree. I hate hearing how books and TV and video games in some way 'create killers' or 'cause suicide' millions of people use these devices, it is only a small fraction who do stupid things, and that is down to their mental state, not reality. The same can be said about advertising causes anorexia. Put another way, if I watch boxing, doesn't make me want to go out and punch someone, not unless I was unstable to begin with.
You're welcome I really like your book idea, I'm interested in this "afterlife" stuff. Also mentioning souls and reincarnation in my WIP, but just a little bit.
I have read books with suicide in it that just served as a shocking plot devise. There wa no backstory. It was just gimmicky. The most interesting part of suicide isn’t the act it self but the psychological background of the victim. No one simply wants to die there is a struggle between life and death in the heart of every victim and someone people lose that battle. I like your victim being i the spirit world imo this would provide your MC to deal withe the issues that lead to her suicide and over come them and be a source of strength for others. I hav lost familymembers to suicide and I think it’s a a powerful subject if done right.
All this talk of the afterlife reminds me of a poem hope you enjoy Laodamia To Protesilaus - Poem by Jared Carter If you were lost, how would I find you, what path take along dark streets, through damp vaults, how untangle those choices far underground, those myriad voices? 'If I were gone, you could no longer follow through great spillways, or deep hollows. In that world, my footsteps would fade, there would be no echo, no light or shade.' Still, somewhere your presence ahead would call, through realms of the dead, through time imploded and turned back, platform deserted, abandoned track. 'No pause in this long pursuit, this seeking that has no end. Neither of us speaking, or able to break the spell - neither chase nor surrender. Only the lost, familiar face.'
I think the best question to ask is 'what mindset does my MC need at the beginning of this journey?' and then work from there to establish her death. For example, there's a manga where the premise is that those who commit suicide are punished and made into psychopomps (the Japanese use 'shinigami' for this, which literally means death god). So the reaper characters, by that rule, had to have had a motivation to end their lives. So if she was terminally ill and ended her life, does that mean that those who go to Switzerland to take advantage of assisted suicide rules there suffer the same fate as her? Is there a sliding scale or broader strokes? There are a lot of technical questions to answer in my view.
