When do I successfully kill off an important secondary main character... in a series of five books?
TL;DR: How much time and development is necessary for a character I intend to kill off and replace with a second character so that both feel important to the narrative?
I've looked over this a bit, and there's one thing I just can't figure out in my writing... Does anyone have any suggestions? I plan for the works to be a series of five novels. The main character (named Leon) develops a VERY close friend (or love interest) in book one (named Cancer). The two are very close, and therefore I need to have meaningful character development between the two. HOWEVER, Cancer dies very early on in the series. I'm very unsure about how to time this though, because another character named Ian is introduced to the series after Cancer's death, and I want to make both characters relevant to the story.
I've already looked it over, and I've decided that Cancer's death is very important to the series and WILL happen. It progresses the plot (the main villain in the series makes himself known as playing a part in Cancer's death, and Cancer's death itself also releases this villain from a prison of sorts.), changes Leon's character for the rest of the series, and Ian is introduced after Cancer's death.
I wish to write Cancer's death scene pretty close to the end of book one. My problem: How do I make readers become attached to Cancer and actually care about him dying in only one book? Ian and Cancer cannot be in the story at the same time. I don't want readers to think that Ian is just a cheap replacement, like Leon's "new sidekick" or something, especially if Cancer is killed at the end of book two rather than book one. Both characters are completely different, even if they share a backstory and a friendship with Leon. I feel like if I kill Cancer in book one, I'm giving up a bit of Cancer's character. If I kill him off in book two, I feel like I'm giving up a bit of Ian's as well as plot.
It may also help you to know that both Ian and Cancer's childhood backstory are linked, though Leon doesn't know it until book three or four.They knew each other as small children, and were like brothers in a very messed up situation until Cancer and Ian were separated. Both boys were severely mistreated for separate reasons, though maybe Cancer more than Leon. Cancer's spirit is also a minor character in the last book, as a result of Leon going temporarily insane and seeing Cancer alive again almost a hallucination. Therefore Cancer IS technically seen again, but he's still...dead.
I really hope this was enough to understand the gist of this further, this is about as well as I could explain without explaining the entire plot of my story. Thank you for the help and any advice you'd be willing to give!
another thing... I know this was already a lot to read, I'm sorry. But I needed to ask one more thing about Cancer's development... Cancer's character is left VERY messed up after his childhood, and through some issues with science he's left very void of emotion. He was made to be a perfect little leader, and to accomplish this his past tormentors left him almost without a personality. Though Cancer's state of mind HAS improved a bit throughout the years, he's still sort of... dead inside, I guess. Leon sort of becomes like a therapy friend for Cancer, and he's actually fairly improved at the end of book one... right before his death. But how would I write a relationship, or even a beleivable friendship between to characters if one's basically emotionless? I suppose I could give Cancer emotions, just leaving them very mixed up or addled instead of gone entirely, but I'd still love to hear some other points of veiw.
THANK YOU FRIENDS, BOTH FOR READING ALL THIS MESS, AND FOR ANSWERING
Cancer's name is not after the disease, but the zodiac sign. Yeah, it's a very unfortunate name, but there's a character for every zodiac.They are similar to gods or leaders of each of the star signs. For example, Leon is the "specialist" of Leo. He is the only Specialist to not have a name that exactly matches that sign because he was born on Earth, not a Zodiac's planet. Ian is not a specialist, so he has a somewhat normal name. The other Specialsts have names like Libra, Gemini, Scorpio, or Cancer... I just didn't want anybody thinking I named this child after the disease or anything, it's all purely based on the zodiac signs.
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I have a series in which one of the main characters dies at the end of book one. From book two the dead character becomes to first-person narrator (Part of the plot - she wonders how she's around to observe and tell the story).
Dexter runs to eight series. His father died before the series commencement but takes a role as Dexter's sounding board.
In Lovely Bones the main character is dead.
In 6th Sense the main character is dead.
In Ally McBeal the love of her life dies half way through.
In Desperate Housewives the narrator died in the first episode.
In short: it doesn't matter when a main character physically dies in a story. The dead character exists so long as other characters think about them.
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So you want Cancer's death to matter to Leon. One way to accomplish this is for the characters to have some shared struggles. Maybe Leon really cares about Cancer's death because Cancer at some point saved Leon's life. I can easily imagine Leon being torn up if he subsequently failed to save Cancer's life in a later situation.
This leads me to another thought. You plan for Cancer to die to advance the overall story. That's fine. But his death just happening out of the blue seems much less engaging than his death being a consequence of the story action.
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If you can't adequately develop sympathy for a character over the course of an entire book, then there is little hope of your readers ever reaching the end of that book.
Of course you should be able to get your readers attached to Cancer by the end of book one, indeed, but you need to get them attached by the second or third chapter and deepen their attachment from there.
Every book in a book series must first and foremost work as a book in its own right. It must establish sympathy with its characters and reach a satisfying conclusion. That is the only way you can hope to draw your reader on to the next book.
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1) Might one ask why the character destined to die is named... Cancer? I'm just calling him "Charlie" for the rest of this discussion.
2) Does Charlie have any agency, life, personality, or background of his own, or is his purpose in the story to be fridged and provide manpain for the MC?
I'm actually not asking that idly. You are creating a character whose sole purpose is to die, because that death will advance the rest of the plot. This is called (TV TROPES WARNING) being Stuffed into the Fridge.
You are struggling with where to put Charlie's death because it's a morteus ex machina, to mangle a phrase. Charlie's death is not a result of the plot, and it doesn't flow from the plot. You are inserting it into the plot.
Here's a parallel to your story:
In Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald-Mage trilogy, Vanyel, the main character, falls in love with Tylendel, a mage student. They have a relationship. Tylendel has a twin, Staven, who is murdered by a rival noble house. Tylendel uses magic for revenge and tries to kill the entire noble house, including innocents and children, and the attempted slaughter causes his bonded familiar to break their bond. The breaking of the mental bond drives Tylendel insane, and he kills himself. For the entirety of book 2, Vanyel misses and grieves Tylendel. In book 3, he meets Stefen, and by halfway through the book he has eventually fallen in love with Stefen.
But Tylendel and Stefen are individual people, with their own backgrounds and storylines and lives and motivations and ambitions. Tylendel's death releases magic which makes Vanyel a powerful mage, and basically allows the rest of his plot to happen, but Tylendel has his own life. He has his own story which exists outside his boyfriend.
Your Charlie is not Tylendel. You need to come up with a plot for book 1 and a life for Charlie, and then Charlie's death at the end is a terrible shock. It's fine if Charle's death affects your MC and other things happen because of Charlie's death, but you need a plot, in and of itself, where Charlie's death is the natural and unavoidable outcome.
And you must create Charlie as his own character as if he were not going to die. Make him as real and rounded and interesting as though you planned to spend five books with him.
If you want him not to be a lame insert, don't write him that way.
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