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 Will it be disappointing for the reader to not know who the main character is until the end?

It sounds to me like you have Book 1 with four main characters, and Book 2 with only one of those characters continuing. Lots of series do this, including Narnia and Dragonlance. But, it's importa...

posted 6y ago by Standback‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T20:06:06Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37991
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 · 2019-12-08T09:31:55Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37991
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T09:31:55Z (about 5 years ago)
It sounds to me like you have Book 1 with four main characters, and Book 2 with only one of those characters continuing. Lots of series do this, including Narnia and Dragonlance.

But, **it's important that Book 1 work in its own right.** You don't want to get rid of major characters abruptly just because they're not going to be in the next book...

You absolutely _can_ kill off main characters; please don't treat a character who dies as "less important" than one who lives. If/when you kill off a main character, you want their death to feel like it's got narrative significance -- e.g. an inevitable tragedy, or a sacrifice to accomplish something, or falling victim to a horrible enemy... you have many many options, but _build up to it_, make it mean something, because that character's life and death is its own plot-arc in your story.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-07-31T14:13:19Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 8