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Q&A When do I successfully kill off an important secondary main character... in a series of five books?

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 a...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:54Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29079
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:43:35Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29079
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:43:35Z (about 5 years ago)
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.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-07-05T22:01:12Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 11