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After reading a friend’s work recently, I realized something. Killing off the characters in your novel is bad news in a number of different ways. Readers expect you, as the author, to help them build a rapport with the character. They expect you to give them everything they need to know about that character. The investment that a reader then puts in that character is what motivates him/her to finish the book. When that character dies, suddenly, in chapter six, just when the reader is really getting the hang of him/her, it comes as an irritating shock. If your characters must die, then kill them; but, don’t settle for the cop out: “I’m not really sure why I spent so much time on this guy. . . I’ll just kill him.” It may work great for eighteenth-century authors, but readers today aren’t going to stand for it. They’re going to throw down the book and walk away. Maybe, if you’re lucky, they’ll return to after they cool down a little. Most likely, your book’s going to be propping up the broken couch (that is if you can even get such a book published).
Anne McCaffery’s Moreta’s Ride features a heroine who is killed at the end of the novel, but it’s a bittersweet moment in the book that leaves you breathless with admiration for McCaffery’s prose (partly because the death comes at the end of the book).
Another thing you’ve got to take into account in trying to decide if you want to kill off your main character is whether or not you want to write a sequel or a series. Obviously, McCaffery couldn’t write a sequel to Moreta’s Ride using Moreta, because she’s dead. So, if you’re pushing for a series, throw your character a life raft . . . don’t let them drown because of a little writer’s block.