: Re: Should I Kill My Main Character? I'm an aspiring writer who has been writing stories since Kindergarten (None released). Obviously I have a lot of experience, but I'm still unsure with extremely

@Hamm6328258

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Doesn't he figuratively die anyway?

The main character in this story goes through a complete change of personality after being arrested. He then undergoes another one (backwards) when the chip breaks down.

Who (potentially) dies at the end?

Now, I see two ways to look at the potential figurative and literal death(s) of the character(s):

When the personality-change happens, his original self dies (figuratively), only to
be revived after the accident. After being revived, he (once again
his original self) is then potentially literally killed.
When the main character undergoes the personality-change, his new
self is "born". This self could (or should?) be treated as an
entirely different person. His new self goes undergoes a slow decay
from the accident, before figuratively dying when the chip shuts
down.

How can we use the literal and figurative death(s)?

If you managed to make us (the readers) "like" the main character's
original self, we might feel that the figurative death is a fate
worse than literal death itself.
If, however, we prefer his new self (which would make sense from
your society's perspective, but not necessarily your story's
perspective), we would feel that his original self is then (kind of)
killing his new self.

Depending on how the reader relates to your main character(s), the death(s) could be looked at differently. This will depend on your writing and how you portray the personalities of your main character(s).

If we (the readers) prefer the main character's original self, we would likely prefer to see the new self die, perhaps regretting that his original self then eventually dies.

If the reader prefers the new self, we would perhaps hate his original self for killing him/once again making "a bad person" of him, potentially feeling that his original self deserves his eventual death.

No matter which personality we prefer, I personally think this story should be treated as dealing with more than one death: 2 figurative and 1 literal.

The duality of the story could make for a very interesting experience. Depending on how you manage to portray the personalities, whether or not his original self should be killed should relate to the ways the personalities are portrayed.

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