How to kill someone in POV

So I'm finally nearing the finish line of my novel (yay), but now I'm at the parts where the plot requires some irreversible changes.

I'm killing one of my main characters. To the reader, I suppose it does come out of the blue. Not only am I killing that character, but I'm destroying the protagonists' home and safe haven for about a third of the book via Village Massacre.

It'll be in the dying character's POV. Any suggestions, hints, or things not to do?

Hrm it's in first person? Well I suppose you could play up the audience assumption that a first person narrator will survive to tell the story. Have them mention they see somebody coming along to help and they might make it. And then in the next chapter/section/whatever Show their dead body.

The slow fade to black can be used (and I think it's a method often used), but be careful to avoid He's Just Hiding. If the narrator fades away the reader might read it as he feel unconscious and will be miraculously saved in the next story.

Depends on the cause of death, I'd say.

I'm killing my protagonist in a third person limited story, and I'm just having the last sentence of the story be their final death.

People don't always die/go unconscious the instant the fatal injury occurs (assuming this is a violent death). So show the character receiving the injury. If death is pretty quick after that, it could be close to the last sentence of the story, and if it's a minute or so as the character bleeds out, you can write a slow fade to black.

I'd avoid literally writing "And the last thing I saw was..." and the like, though. And, if it's a quick-ish death, if you craft the last few sentences (injury onwards) then you could probably create a pretty good Wham Line.

edited 19th Dec '10 5:19:02 PM by greedling

Maybe you can have something like this:

I'm getting closer. Closer and closer. Soon, I would have Dr. Doom in my grasp, and I would have won-

Hey, what's that do-

In short, interrupt his train of thoughts, and have the narrator state that he never got to finish his last thought, ever.

What I would do would be to either end it on that line, as suggested, or, if you want to continue, continue either from third-person or another character who can see what's happening, and have a few moments of overlap. For instance, if the original POV character dies by stabbing, have POV-prime see original POV run through and bleeding, then sees the body go limp.

Also, related: There was a movie I saw where the viewpoint character thinking about death throughout the story, though never mentioning anything else. The last scene is him thinking over death, and deciding that he really doesn't want to die.

Hard Cut to black.

I've seen the First to Third person change work pretty well before. Very well, in fact.

It was hot and red and sticky and by any account it should have been very painful. Instead she watched it all happen, watched her eyes slide closed and her body slump to the ground and wondered very briefly what she was doing watching anything at all with her eyes closed like that. Things were just beginning to fall into place when a voice to her left a slab of lead hitting another slab of lead said "IF YOU WOULD PLEASE COME WITH ME..."

But you probably don't have a nice established DEATH like that, so I think you best bet is having her/(him? I forgot if you said) take in the extend of her own injuries just before having some kind of peaceful disconnection with the world. "...and she was sure this wobbley purplish bit was supposed to stay on the other side of her ribcage, and she was quite correct, but to her it didn't seem to matter very much anymore." or, if it's first person, you could outright state it.

"People always seem to think that death is peaceful, like falling asleep, or going into the arms of an old friend. I won't begrudge them their fantasies—I mean, by the time they know the truth it isn't going to matter—but just between you and me...it hurts like a bitch right up to the very end."

edited 19th Dec '10 9:59:11 PM by DaeBrayk

My suggestion would be to have him suffer a relatively slow death. Have him be impaled, take an arrow or sword to the gut or something. Have him feel his own blood, stagger a bit, watch everything go up in flames around him for a few moments, then collapse. If he had a loved one or some special goal driving him it's probably a good idea to mention that just at the end.

Man people on this thread are sadistic :D.

What writer isn't? We intentionally put characters(who may or may not deserve it) in horrible situations just to see how they deal with it.

Simple really. End the chapter with the narrator seeing one of his mates (probably the healer, if there is one) heading toward him. Realizing he was in good hands, he allowed himself to sleep. Next chapter, switch point of view (without letting anything on, if you can) and have the new narrator at the old narrator's grave.