Would it be a mistake to kill off a main character to therefore introduce a new one,

[Kyle Reaves]

early on in a novel? I am in the process of writing a novel and have finally reached the editing stage. However, when editing, I noticed a potential difficulty. The first "main" character is introduced on page 1 and is killed off on page 43, having been used to lay out the events that will effect the actual main character who is introduced on page 32. This character lasts the entire book. Is this a mistake? Would readers simply throw the book down? Any opinions welcome; I'm in a real fix!

P.S. All pages are off A4, so, in the actual book, 43 would probably be about seventy or eighty pages.

P.S.S. The events before the "actual main character" are crucial to the plot.

 

[charliesgirl]

It was done in Wuthering Heights and that is one of the most famous books - however it is unusual and it is accepted that the author of wuthing heighs was not classically trained in novel writing so did not follow 'the rules'. But no - not if the book is gripping - get loads of people to read it for you

 

[androidfruitcake]

It sounds perfectly fine to me. As a matter of fact, that's the kind of twist in books I like. Nope- I don't see a problem at all.

 

[Funky Monkey]

Its sound interesting I've killed my main character 3 times! But she come back alive until they kill her live source


Good luck with your book

 

[Dino]

The only thing that matters is that people want to read it - try it on some. That said your "first main character" appears to feature for more than half of the story - can't call it a novel if it's so short - so what's the problem?

 

[Quinn]

Your best bet...if you can make the 1st main character a bit nasty so reader's won't like him so they won't be sad when he dies (or she, rather).
But maybe if they don't like the 1st main character they won't get far and stop reading... well if your story is very interesting and not generic I reckon you can pull off making the 1st main character a git.

Good luck with your book.

 

[Shy boy]

Maybe risky, everyone has a favourite character,so your risking a reader being dissapointed in the novel all together, if they warmed nicely to the main character. Or it introduce originality, ive never read something when the protagonist gets killed off early. It might actually make the story adventorous. But a reader wouldnt stop reading the book just because a character died lol, go for it.

 

[vadaptre]

lol!..always thort Hamlet wud have been ded simple if he'd just stabbed Claudius in the arras (sted of Polonius geezer) rite away.insted W/shake makes an entire play outta conscience an indecision (and subliminal oedipal tendencies)
The lit device wot u need m8 is the 'non-linear narrative' where u intersperse 'flashbacks' involving ur principal thru the novel..an example of this is in the film pulp fiction..where the John Travolta character gets killed off fairly early but is revisited in the final scenes.

 

[hawk-eye]

I think it would probably be interesting. Anything different is good. Just don't call him the main character again. He is the "set up" character...