Author Q&A: Can I kill a main character halfway through the story?

Today’s post is a quick one as I’m in Croatia preparing for SFeraKon! (If you’re in Zagreb, and you want to meet up, let me know).

As for killing characters … in storytelling there are few rules.

There are things to watch out for though, and that’s what I’ll focus on here.

1)     Are you writing middle grade fiction?

If you are writing for a young audience, either middle grade or children’s fiction, then killing a main character is often a bad idea, and that’s because children relate to main characters differently on a psychological level, and killing a main character can be very upsetting for them.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t stories where this happens, or antagonists (the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk?) or minor characters who die. It just means that if you’re querying with a traditional press, expect to have a discussion about this.

Maybe you’re aware of the fallout from Final Fantasy VII killing Aerith? And that’s a game pitched at young teenagers and older.

2)      Is the character the only viewpoint character?

I’ve read novels with only one viewpoint character up to page 250. Then this character has died and for the last fifty pages the viewpoint has shifted (head hopping) before settling on another character. Many readers will find this unsatisfying. If you’ve invested a lot of time in a novel and in relating to a character, but no other viewpoint character exists to carry things forward, then that can be frustrating for readers.

If you’re writing a series and this is the fifth book and readers are already absorbed in the storyworld, you’d be more likely to get away with it … but that doesn’t mean you should do it!

Ending the novel at that point would be a possible option if you asked a developmental editor for help. A copyeditor could suggest a more modest solution, such as starting a new chapter or including a scene break if it happens mid-scene.

3)      Is the character one of several viewpoint characters?

Now you’re into safer territory. This comes down to more general considerations of whether the death makes sense in the story, and whether the death interrupts a rhythm you’ve established with your viewpoint characters (having a rhythm with the switches is often good as the reader knows what to expect). All relatively minor problems compared with (1) and (2).

4)      Is the character not a viewpoint character but crucial in some other way?

Much safer territory here again. You just have the more general considerations: does the death make sense in the story? Is there enough going on to keep the reader interested? Does this character play a crucial role in the story’s worldbuilding, for example?

And that’s it!

Shoutout to Mythcreants

I’m currently evaluating a manuscript that involves time travel and the Mythcreants team gave me some excellent tips on whether or not the limits and rules to the time travel should be shown on page or not. You can join their Discord group by becoming a patron for one quid a month to find out what they told me!

That’s it for this week.

See you next week for more tips!