How often do you kill off your characters?

[Monaka]

I'm not talking about random encounters or nameless mobs. The characters at least must have significance with the plot or is closely related to the major characters in a way that their death will have an impact towards them.

The rate of people dying also depends on the story's genre, I guess. You can have a gag character like Kenny dying in every episode and it won't going to derail the storytelling. So... Tell me?

 

[PancakesWitch]

It really depends, the death of characters can often make a story have more deep meaning to them, but also make them worse by killing a character eveyrbody loved, making the readers suffer a bad expereince, although it is considered a good story when it makes you expereince so many emotions, readers tend to get salty and will often drop a novel if characters they love simple die without a big enough reason, if the writing is not high quality, it might feel shallow and unnecessary for drama, which might end up being just bad writing. I have written over 10 different novels before, and i have only killed a main side character once in a single story, which was a sacrifice for the mc's to win a last fight. Stories can be good and have drama even when no main characters or main side characters die, its all up to how fun can you make a story

 

[MyukiMruieast]

I like horror and dark themes. Some characters needs to die and it's an everyday thing.

 

[Deleted member 54065]

I only do it if needed.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I stopped doing that after my boyfriend died in 2015.

 

[MissPaige36]

I don't kill my characters but I do make sure to have my main character nearly die every now and then because I’m a sadist

 

[Deleted member 57675]

Haha.

 

[2021]

Well (mc) once

 

[Temple]

If it's just randos, then a lot. If side characters that were built, then very, very rarely - the main reason being I spent so much time and words developing them that I don't want them to have a cheap death or for just shock value. Kind of sentimentality I guess. If they're going to die, I'm making sure it's something impactful because I spent tons of effort developing them with character arcs and shit.

 

[Anon_Y_Mousse]

Authors who have a character with a time loop/respawn mechanic:

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Serious answer: it really depends on how much of an impact a character death will have on the story. But generally I try to kill off at least a couple characters per story.(unless a death hurts the entire concept of the story)

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Never! I would never, ever ever kill a character I would put the effort into writing! I wuv my babies!
Unless it's a short story I publish on the side accounts, then all gloves are off and death is pretty much customary

 

[ArcadiaBlade]

Side characters? Hmm...I remember that it was only one and it's the Main Heroine for the MC. She was a demon king's daughter that taught humanity to the MC whose mind is broken and he was a joker at that time. She taught him magic and even how lives as important but was brainwashed by the goddess and in the end, she ended up getting killed by the MC out of the accident and ended up cursing to kill the goddess.

Other than that, I basically got used to killing my Main Characters than any side characters?

 

[Zirrboy]

I stopped doing that after my boyfriend died in 2015.

I remember a certain novel you're always looking for a cover for that has a cast of 4 or so lovers.
But I'm not sure what happened to them anymore.

 

[EternalSunset0]

I did it once, kinda.

Just kinda because she died but hung around like a Force ghost or something... which later got revealed that she's really dead and the spirit just copied her traits.

 

[BearlyAlive]

Does isekai-ing count? If yes I totally killed my protagonist offscreen between chapter 0 and 1 xD

I try to avoid killing characters (since living is the more suffering choice) unless I need a mentor character to kickstart the plot

 

[AliceShiki]

I can have dead characters be part of someone's backstory and a possible source of trauma, but as I don't write fight-focused stories, death is a very rare thing in my stories once they started going.

If it is to happen, it would probably be due to some incurable sickness which would have probably been introduced from the moment the character appeared on-screen.

Though I can also imagine writing something that ends with the death of the main character. That doesn't seem that strange to me.

Oh, and maybe someone dying from old age. That also seems fine and reasonable to happen~

Still, all of those would probably happen pretty rarely, and probably fairly close to the end of the novel.

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Just finished my short story where character death is a central focus. Originally, I was going to have the story end with all characters dying, but I was also seriously depressed when outlining it and in withdrawal since my normal pills were lost in the post.

 

[CubicleHermit]

If you're a named minor character, life is cheap.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I remember a certain novel you're always looking for a cover for that has a cast of 4 or so lovers.
But I'm not sure what happened to them anymore.

They got sidelined because I made a baby.

 

[Zirrboy]

They got sidelined because I made a baby.

Yes, but what happened to them in story?