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Post by Stacy on Sept 23, 2009 18:07:07 GMT -5
I really didn't think that I'd actually make people upset by killing Jason. I suppose that I'm more detached from it because I know that there's all sorts of copies of him in my game and they're all quite all right. And actually he was only reduced to ashes during one of the photoshoots - I exited most of them before then.
Now I feel like maybe some people won't come back to read the story and I feel really guilty about making them upset.
What are your thoughts on killing characters?
Personally I still think it's how the story had to go and I don't regret it and I wouldn't change it. But I do feel guilty.
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Post by raquelaroden on Sept 23, 2009 19:07:41 GMT -5
Sometimes the story demands it. It provides important spaces for characters to grow or develop, or even the beginning of a new plot. If people are upset that one of your characters died, then that means you were doing something right--you made them care about a character enough to feel something close to what the survivors would feel. If they'll give it a chance, it will allow them to connect to your heroine on an even deeper level. If they stop reading, then they weren't interested in the story for the same reasons you were--that's disappointing, but nothing you can control.
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Post by Monday Morning on Sept 23, 2009 20:59:26 GMT -5
I agree, most definately! I find that a story is ten times better when there is substantial loss. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see all of the characters die except for one. If you've followed the characters along (especially in a multi-part series) and then all of a sudden one of those beloved characters kicks the bucket, it's like losing a real life loved one. You mourn for a while, and then you move on, because the story moves on just as in real life. I really enjoyed the Twilight series, but one of my gripes about was that there was no real pain and suffering. Sure Bella went a little crazy; what character doesn't? But the story had no depth to it, in my opinion. Yet, if you take a series like Harry Potter, there was a real sense of loss when I read over the deaths of certain characters. I cried (I honestly did) more when the most unexpected characters met death because I wasn't expecting it. So, should you be worried that they may not come back? I don't think so. If the tragic end of a character deters them, then they shouldn't have been reading in the first place. Not every story is "Once upon a time, there was a prince and a princess... And they lived happily ever after." Was I upset that Bella (your Bella ) died? A little, but it made me want to find out the cause and effect of it. Was I upset that Jason died? Not as much as I was when Bella went, but I'm biased and intrigued by their circumstances.
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Post by girlyesterday on Sept 24, 2009 2:02:13 GMT -5
I commend you for having the guts to kill off a character because the story needed it. I wish more writers would do that. I kill my characters off all the time. In ALL my stories, no matter if they're short stories or longer pieces, someone always dies. I don't do it consciously but that's how it ends up.
Back in the day of TS2, I wrote a series that I finished (shocking I know) in which a primary character died for the sake of the greater good. People were a little put out by that but hey, at the end of the day, it was MY story and I got the final call on what happens. Readers are nice and all, but readers can be extremely fickle and that's not just in the world of online stories.
Someone once told me, 80% of readers who come to your site will come and go and post drive by comments and never return after a first visit, but there's that 10-20% who are regular readers, your core readers who come back for each update and understand what you're trying to do.
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Post by dbloveshermac on Oct 2, 2009 21:13:43 GMT -5
I think it is fine if the following hold true: 1. There is meaning in the death. 2. It fits the nature of the character, whether that is brave or foolish or despondent or whatever. 3. It isn't a frequent occurrence, unless your genre is of the murder mystery, slasher, or other death-related ilk. (In that case, the reader has no grounds for objection.) 4. It is well written in a tone that is in keeping with the rest of the story.
A strong reader reaction to the death of a character is often a sign that the character was very real and accessible!
I only recall one time when the death of one of the main characters caused me to abandon a series, and it was mostly because the circumstances of the death did not fit the character. She was not foolish enough to get herself into that situation. It did not make sense, and the series lost me.
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Post by mdpthatsme on Oct 15, 2009 19:05:54 GMT -5
How shall I depict the answer(s) to this question? As a Sim God, or as a writer?!?!? When I make Sims I grow attached to them, even if they're a psycho, usually those are my favorites. I will admit I have cried before when it came to purposely killing a Sim for a storyline...which still saddens me when I think about it but I'm all right. I've lived with the fact for some time now. However, we can always make copies of Sims...unless they're born between their parents...in that case, hope that you made the parents, and that the blender of the two will come out the same, which usually doesn't happen. As a writer, death is necessary for several reasons. You can see a different side of a character. How they coped, what their process of breaking down is, if they actually care or realized that they cared. Usually we don't know what we lost until we've lost it. Another reason it is necessary is for conflict, for a character to plan revenge, the on-going obsession. Some times death can bring two characters closer together in ways they never thought possible before the death.
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Post by luke2009 on Jan 8, 2010 19:19:00 GMT -5
I'm always killing off characters, but i try to stay away from just doing it because i can or because i think it'll be effective. If i kill someone off it's because their story is not going to go anywhere without the loss. I think in my Sims 2 story Electric Daisies the mistake i made in the first couple of seasons was killing too much. So then when it came to season 3 and i killed Bella Goth it was genuinely effective and powerful and fitted her story so well that it really had an effect on the like one person who ever read it.
Adam/Eve is also a bit like that - obviously there was mass death at the end but there was always going to be, and it was all to tie up the themes of insanity and instinct and love that had been running from the beginning. They almost all die because of the one character who doesn't trust her own gut feeling.
Look at Shakespeare - nearly everyone dies in Hamlet and there are particuarly gory deaths in many of his plays, but they all die for a reason so it works and people still come back for more.
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Post by simsnewbie23 on Mar 26, 2010 9:02:57 GMT -5
My sister used to tease me that if I really liked a character, that was liking giving them a death sentence.
I think I was upset Jason died because deep down I was hoping for a 'disney ending' where he comes in and saves the day. In the end, it was more important that she was able to 'save' herself without being helped like she was throughout the rest of the story.
I just killed off a character in my legacy, and it was so hard for me afterwards that I've kinda lost interest in the story. I'm forcing myself to pick it back up though, because I really want to finish this thing!
But I'm not sure I will be killing anymore characters unless I think it makes it a much better story because it was so hard watching that sim burn.
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Post by mdpthatsme on Mar 28, 2010 21:46:29 GMT -5
Use your actual feelings of the death of this Sim and dettachment of the story in the form of another Sim in your legacy. I would think that a certain Sim would be missing the deased one. That way you not only keep yourself thriving with inspiration, but keep the legacy going as well. Hope that is of assistance.
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Post by simsnewbie23 on Mar 30, 2010 8:15:43 GMT -5
Use your actual feelings of the death of this Sim and detachment of the story in the form of another Sim in your legacy. I would think that a certain Sim would be missing the deceased one. That way you not only keep yourself thriving with inspiration, but keep the legacy going as well. Hope that is of assistance. Oh I continued it, and did pour a little of my 'grief' into the wife, but I made a mistake and started another legacy and that one is so much more fun! I still add to my story, just at a much slower rate then I was. I want to finish it because I'm interested to see if the Landgraab chin survives to ten generations! It's the longest lasting trait I've ever had. Thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated.
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