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

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 t...

posted 7y ago by Surtsey‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:43:39Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/29087
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Surtsey‭ · 2019-12-08T06:43:39Z (almost 5 years ago)
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.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-07-06T11:52:43Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: -3