It has to happen. It's critical to the story. I'm so depressed. I wrote them for my MC to fall madly in love with, then I did, too. It totally wrecks him, and just thinking about it is wrecking me. I could barely write the notes for it. It's tragic and perfect and I hate myself. There's plenty of glorious joy to write before that, but I've barely touched the story in a year. Has this ever happened to anyone else?
"What if the death of my favorite characters makes me avoid writing my story?" ... Then the story don't get wrote.
As Bonnie Bremser said, "Damn the pain, it must be written." I feel ya though. I cried when I had to kill someone important. ... in my writing. Yeah... my writing.
When I was younger. Now, what I have to say is more important to me, so it's no problem killing off beloved characters.
Luckily, killing off characters hasn't put me of writing the story. Maybe I should say, yet? Because right now, I might be getting close to what you talk about. I really like my main antagonist and would love to keep him around, and there is a possibility for redemption with him. But there is also the problem that he can be too broken to be fully redeemable. To be honest, I have been going back and forth with his ultimate fate a lot lately and just don't know exactly where to go. What I do know is that if I do kill him in the end that is going to be one tough scene to write.
I've already killed off 4 incidental characters, so far. Hell, I kill billions off in the other story. It's out of the blue in this one, and she and her sister don't deserve it, and he doesn't deserve to blame himself for sending them to their foretold fate. It's life. It sucks. It's too real. I'm a cruel motherfucker, and it's freaking me out. I read a story like this and threw the book across the room. I never thought I'd write one. The readers are going to be pissed off with me. I'm pissed off with me! It's literally already woven, so of course, I have to write it - without holding back and fucking it up. Who said "Write without fear"? What an asshole dickhat!
Exactly. It might have bothered me once upon a time, but I've written so many characters over the years, I don't even remember most of them anymore. Killing off a character doesn't bother me because next week, I'll be writing an entirely new set of characters.
Look at this way, SG. The fact it's made YOU so emotional, in my opinion, is EXACTLY why you should push through with it. The emotions that it brings about in other characters after, and the things it drives them to do lends poignancy and makes their later actions all more infused and meaningful. It can make the ending capture something that is a special feeling, something that is oh so elusive to genuinely create... bittersweetness. You only truly get that feeling through victory and tragedy. And it makes you appreciate the victory all the more.
Your post made me think of the death of Eddard Stark in A Song of Ice and Fire. But you are wrong to say that the readers will hate you. The removal of a beloved character means the world will be thrown into chaotic disorder which is excellent to suck the readers in. Write an obituary for your character. Curse god (you) in that obituary if you feel like. Then continue the story. The rest of the characters are waiting for you to write further. They are not dead. Do they deserve to be abandoned if one person among them is no more? They need you to console them (or else play more sadistic games with them, depends on your plot). The world of your story awaits the creator, while you are sad about the loss of one of them. I am tempted to imagine what your characters would think about you doing this. But I don't know them. Poor things. Whose fate is worse? The one who reached his and died or those who haven't and were left midway? Take your time. You will eventually find the strength to pick up your story again.
From a reader’s perspective: I only can agree. I had exactly this with a book I’ve read recently. Two characters died and it was a real blow. I didn’t throw the book across the room, but as it was at the end of a chapter I took a break and threw myself into other necessary activities like vacuuming and ironing, because I was almost afraid to read on. When I did continue after a few hours I was rewarded with a beautiful ending. Though the two characters were gone, you finished the book with the feeling that it was more important that they were there in the first place, which honoured them in a way that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible, and the MC became only more likeable (hope that makes any sense). So, I’d say if it is important for the story, take a deep breath and go on. The fact that you like them yourself and it is therefore so hard, will help you to write it in the best possible way.
*sigh* Yeah, I just didn't know I would feel so much. I even started out trying to sabotage this story so it would fizzle and I would be done. I didn't want to write (back then), but the nightmares wouldn't leave me alone. At 245kw in I will finish it, but for the stalling. Dammit, I was afraid someone was going to play the 'what about the other characters' card. Eeek, too close to the mark! Pam and her sister had already survived so much, it was like they were on borrowed time. I thought that would make them expendable, but how wrong I was! It shatters him and he wanders for years in doubt of finding what he lost. I have to write that, too, and do it justice. I guess I thought it would be writer's block that hung me up, not the clear path being so emotionally daunting. Stalling cause it's too real? WTFizzuk.
It's like playing FF7 when you've just put a load of effort into buffing up Aeris and she dies at the end of disc 2.
Yeah. Disk 1 encompassed up until they reached the City of the Ancients where Aries dies. Disk 2 begins with the disappearance of Cloud and continues the story briefly with Tifa and encompasses the attack of the weapons. And finally, Disk 3 begins a "free roam" where players can meander around catching up on side quests and stuff...