Post History
When should a writer kill their protagonist off? Inspired by a question about character lifetime and another about what makes the death of a character satisfying for the reader, I have begun to wo...
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T08:43:54Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35878 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T08:43:54Z (over 4 years ago)
When should a writer kill their protagonist off? Inspired by a question about [character lifetime](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/35862/why-is-character-lifetime-proportional-to-character-development-so-often) and another about [what makes the death of a character satisfying](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/18945/what-makes-the-death-of-a-character-satisfying) for the reader, I have begun to wonder whether there are clues inherent to a story I might be writing that would tell me whether my protagonist needs to die – or not. * * * If you consider answering this question, please keep in mind that we are Writing.SE. This question is not about how we might interpret the death of a character in literature, but about guidelines and conventions that might help us decide whether we should let a character die, or whether some other (positive or negative) outcome is more fitting to our stories.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2018-05-04T13:11:50Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 6