Why kill a key character?

 

Would it be to add a surprize, to change track, to eliminate a dead end, or to force a new mindset? Will this tactic work? Can it be a good character that is killed or should it be the villian and if the villan is dead, where's the drama?

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Some authors kill off the protagonist when they feel the series has run its course. I have no qualms about killing off regulars when they go stale for me, and certainly wouldn't hesitate about killing villains. The drama can always return with new characters.
Since death is an ending, I guess it's appropriate at the ending of a series or as a natural thing if the hero is now 85 years old...its inevitable.
Someone asked David Simon about killing off a key character in THE WIRE. Simon said he hated to do it, but the story demanded it, and story rules. I wouldn't kill off a main character frivolously, but if he's gotta go, he's gotta go.
Right. Sometimes the tv series go to extremes testing your belief when a dead person keeps coming back to life on the next show. Even if you wanted that character to live, a poorly contrived story line leaves you shaking your head.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thought he'd killed off Sherlock Holmes once (but readers wouldn't let him in the end), and he did it because he was tired of writing about the guy.
That's right. Sherlock is back and in the theatres still, I think. The new and improved version I hear.
If she pisses me off.
I've heard of people naming a character for someone they are angry with and then giving them all kind of pain...killing them off would make a statement I guess.
I don't know. There are worse things you can do, like using a well-known book critic's name for a disgusting character. I can't say that I like that sort of thing, no matter how pissed off the author was. It's basically childish.
I haven't used real names in any of my books. Even a book I'm working on now which is a historical mystery loosely based on real events, had the name of the family changed. I agree that it is childish and aggressive. I wonder about the people who vie to get their names in a book by a well known author without having any idea what kind of character they'll become. I have put the names of family dogs in two books now.
Thats right.. it was a mistake or something...or ghost comes back.
Because I already jumped the shark by introducing the evil twin.

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