On character death and warnings.

I once read a spoiler regarding character deaths in the movie Serenity before I watched it. I'm sorry I did, because I lost focus on the story and ended up worrying "when's it gonna happen?"

 

In the first major fic I wrote I didn't start killing off characters until right toward the end. I did write a small disclaimer in one of my responses to the readers that there would be some tragedy... Then I killed off 3 of the main characters, all canon. The surprised responses I got were well worth it, even if some of the folks didn't necessarily care for it. They all said it fit perfectly with the story though.

Cheers,
Wyo

 

I've never warned about the death of a character. That's too close to spoiling it for my tastes. Let it come as a shock if they didn't see it coming.

 

Warning for character deaths?
Outside of sticking the letters 'AU' alongside a title of a story where the plot focuses around a canon characters noncanon death, I don't think I would ever preface or provide any warning to my readers regarding a character's untimely demise. I'm going to be a bit harsh (particularly because I write horror/suspense), but I think that giving a warning to a character death is tantamount to walking into a kindergarten classroom and announcing that there is no santa claus.

In my stories, there are no safe characters. I really enjoy smacking people over the head with the whoa-dude! I-didn't-see-that-coming sudden death. I've got a handful stuffed away in the back of my head that are gnawing at the backs of my eyeballs wanting out.

 

I suppose it helped that, in the one story I have with a significant body count, this is made clear in the first post. You know exactly who is going to die, because the story is going to go on to show *why* and *how* they died. Let's just say that I think the first post usually shows the reader what they're getting into. If it starts out fluffy, it's usually going to end fluffy. And if not-- Well, they can decide whether they're staying with the story, or if they want out.

But as for putting a Character Death warning in the subject line?

No, I don't do it, and I've never quite understood why, in other sites and fandoms, it is not just preferred, but mandatory, to do so. Why go into a story already knowing what is going to happen? It's hard enough to surprise me as it is. I don't want to wait through the whole story in some sort of state of, "Is this person going to die? This one?"

But, going back to the first post setting the tone, if the first post starts out dark, with uber gothic or gory imagery, let's just say the stage has been set for someone to bite it.