: Re: Killing the protagonist - should it be done? I am an aspiring author, but I have written several short 'test novels.' With each of those, it became increasingly clear how you have to develop

@Rambettina586

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Well, I would make my choices according to style and length. In Bullet to the Brain, it was a short story, and the reader had little time to become attached to the protagonist. Was his death meaningful? Only in the sense that it taught you not to be an asshat or that social ineptitude will get you plugged. While I don't know for sure, I am betting the author got a bad review and this was his cathartic way of working that out. Wolfe would not have been used to a critique, so likely that was the meaning of it all, don't be a hyper critical, socially malfunct troglodyte. In short stories, it doesn't always have to be all that deep because you only have time to feel flashes of emotions. You don't build a great abiding trust with your reader. Now if your writing a novel, certainly greater meaning will have to be established. But what it comes down to is you are the God of your world. If you want to kill your subjects, do so. But that doesn't mean that people won't disagree with your death sentence. It still has to makes sense to the rest of the world. Abide by the laws of whatever physics you have already established.

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