Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Dead parents: something to avoid?

A lot of people die in my story, some of them are parents. One of the main characters for example lost his father (and one brother) in a car crash when he was young, which he was a part of. He beca...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by noClue‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:33:23Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35142
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar noClue‭ · 2019-12-08T08:33:23Z (about 5 years ago)
A lot of people die in my story, some of them are parents. One of the main characters for example lost his father (and one brother) in a car crash when he was young, which he was a part of. He became partially deaf as a result. This happened before the start of the story. Then he loses his mother in the course of the story when he's an adult many years later.

Can you go overboard with this? What are some of the things you should avoid if you use dead parents in the story? The main point is kinda to show how these losses affect one of the main characters, but I also don't want the dead loved ones to just seem like tools in the developement of one character. How can I use this trope well? Should I show them more and have them affect the story in other ways besides through their children?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-04-17T15:36:27Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 28