Thinking of killing off my MC half way through the tale

[DAgent]

Yeah, this might prove a bit of a headache inducer.

So, in this WIP we've been following my MC POV for the most part, until there was a split and I had two groups going off on separate adventures, then we started seeing things from other characters POV. All good so far, but part way through we wound up with a couple of new characters, one of whom is going to be a major player due to his own experiences up to that point giving him a distinct heads up over everyone else.

Now he will be separated from everyone else due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, and I'm very tempted to carry on solely from his POV at this point as he brings a very different flavour to everything and could make for an interesting way to spice things up.

I know this isn't anything new, certainly after Game Of Thrones it's quite common and well known to have MC's killed off and replaced with other MCs, but what does everyone actually think about doing this?

 

[AllanR]

My memory of To Live and Die in LA has this done effectively.

 

[sknox]

If you kill them, then they weren't really the MC. Who is the story about? If they die partway through, then it isn't about them. One of the problems with Game of Thrones, and the main reason why I stopped reading, is that Martin killed off characters I cared about. By book 5 I lost interest, and by Book 6 I was back to "you'd better wow me or I'm leaving." ... I left.

So, in this WIP we may have been following a POV, but that doesn't mean it's the MC. It's only who you *thought* was the MC. You can either stay with that character and ruthlessly cut the distractions, or else cut back who you thought was the MC and do a fuller job with these "new" characters. Both requires substantial revision.

But, as a reader, if you are asking me to be invested in one character for half the book, then get invested in someone entirely else in the other half, without full justice done to either, you're expecting more than I'm willing to give. And if you do justice to one and not the other, I'm going to be wondering why I wasted my time with the one who the actual author didn't bother to finish.

 

[Wayne Mack]

If killing off the character is the right way to advance the plot line, then certainly do it. It is a challenging choice to pull off, though, and rarely has the shock value that might be intended by the writer. Brandon Sanderson did this in

Spoiler

Mistborn: The Final Empire, where the initial PoV character was killed about two-thirds of the way through. He had another PoV character, who actually got more PoV time, but rather than the death being a shocking moment, I felt more like the author was simply saying, "Look, I killed off my main character!." I generally like Mr. Sanderson's writing, but this felt too forced.

 

[Astro Pen]

I would be inclined not to do that. I have always written from one MC perspective. It might intuit as a 'radical' idea to kill them off but it is bloody disorienting for the reader who has just spent 100 plus pages identifying with the MC. Your reader is an individual and they are 'becoming' your individuated MC in their imaginations, (one hopes).

However there a couple of exceptions
One is if your 'true' MC (though it would appear more as a narrator) is not actually a person but an entity controling the participants as pawns in its own game. A megalomaniac computer (HAL comes to mind), the devil, a guiding spirit from an ancient temple - whatever. The characters each having a section or 'episode'. But I doubt that that fits your MS at this point.
It sounds to me, I may be wrong, that you are "discovery writing" and have written yourself into a corner where it would be easier to drop your original mc than punch through the writers block. I think most of us have got into that spot at some point. but you have to persevere and sometimes engage reverse for a couple of miles.
The other, of course, is if your tale is generational.
But that is just my perspective, you must plot your own course.
Let us know what you decide

 

[The Big Peat]

First off, I think what Skip says is right. They probably ain't the MC. Game of Thrones, the MC is

Spoiler

Jon and you soon realise it had been all the time

.

You can transfer main PoV, but MC is a little different. If that makes sense.

Anyway. My favourite analogy is that this is like a pro sports team sending a player to other teams, so they can use another player instead -

It's pretty difficult to be the best if you never do it

But it's pretty easy to ruin things and you've got make sure you get your money's worth

Having read the OP, I'm not sure why you're thinking of killing off the MC here.

 

[Wayne Mack]

One exception might be generational stories, where continuity is provided by the setting and bloodline and different main characters appear for each new age. These can sometimes be interesting, but I also find it very easy to put them down part way through.

 

[Pyan]

If you kill them, then they weren't really the MC. Who is the story about? If they die partway through, then it isn't about them. One of the problems with Game of Thrones, and the main reason why I stopped reading, is that Martin killed off characters I cared about. By book 5 I lost interest, and by Book 6 I was back to "you'd better wow me or I'm leaving." ... I left.

Glad it's not just me, then. There's an old saying, "Don't get too attached to a character scripted by GRR Martin or Joss Whedon".

I'd ask whether the story up to meeting these new characters is strictly necessary, if you're going to just abandon the rest of them and hare off after a new MC. "Now he will be separated from everyone else", so what do all the rest, including the 'old' MC do? Just wander about, waiting to be picked off by brigands and wild animals? Go home? Sit in a circle and sing about gold?

I can see that the 'new' MC's story may seem more attractive at the moment, and it is in the end your story and you must do what you think is best: but if I were reading it sometime in the future and you do this to me, I suspect the book would be pitched into the far corner of the room. This happened to A Feast for Crows, and I never bothered getting A Dance with Dragons at all.

 

[msstice]

I agree that if I was following a character and their story was incomplete, I would feel let down. On the other hand, if you started me off with two characters, showing both points of view, and _telegraphed_ that one of them was doomed, and the other was a good friend that tried to save them, I think that would be a gripping, if bitter-sweet story.

 

[Brian G Turner]

This sounds less like an issue about whether to kill a character off or not, as much as whether you've actually been writing the wrong story.

 

[Rufus Coppertop]

I know this isn't anything new, certainly after Game Of Thrones it's quite common and well known to have MC's killed off and replaced with other MCs, but what does everyone actually think about doing this?

Abandoning books and the authors one feels betrayed by isn't anything new either.

I gave up on watching Game of Thrones after a few seasons. It would've been the same reading the books. After a while, the feeling was literal disgust. I was not willing to waste another instant of consciousness on anything perpetrated by Wotzisname Martin.