Killing off protagonists?

[beres-ford.livejournal.com]

Hello. :D

I have a quick question, which I suppose is debatable because...well I've been debating for weeks over it.

Should protagonists be killed off?

I have one particular protagonist (there's more than one) in a story I've been writing for almost a year and as the storys developed I've come up with so many different endings for it. And one of which includes this character dying.

Another is that this character dies and then comes back to life, but that's been used so much that I'm wondering if it'd be better if they just stayed dead.

Should I kill off my protagonist?

Comments

[theskimblishone.livejournal.com]

Well, an author notorious for the high body count of narrating protagonists is George R R Martin. I think whether or not a protag's death is acceptable or not can often depend on the genre and/or setting of the story; fantasy, history and war novels, for example, can come across as vastly more realisic if an author isn't afraid to take chances. In a bloody epic, not killing off a protag looks like an author too in love with her characters - when a reader knows, given the setting, people really should be dying. However, if this is a different sort of genre altogether then it might look contrived - a death to solve a problem, or just for unecessary angst, rather than a death to enhance the setting and/or plot or further the development of other characters.

If you know why you're killing off said character, and it advances plot/character development, then I'd say go for it. I might be weird, but I adore and respect fantasy authors who aren't afraid to kill off characters they, and their readers, care greatly about, just to demonstrate the 'anyone can die' nature of the setting.

[beres-ford.livejournal.com]

Ironically the character I'm talking about is from a complete fantasy background, and it includes a very largeish war. I liked what you said about the wars especially (I agree to it all by the way) but I found that in particular very helpful.

You're right, people do just die in wars. It's the whole point of a war, and I think maybe if i made the whole idea of the war in this story more dangerous with literal threats like that then it'll work much better. :D

And may well kill off the protagonist... or another protagonist/supporting character. I'm not too sure where to place him!

Thanks for replying!