Dead Character=Dead Story?

[rodawig]

I want to...hmmm, kill my main character at the end of the short story. Not blood and gore, just have the main character...disappear and never be seen again, presumed dead. The barest hint of the character having gone bye-bye at the very end. Will neopets treat it like a romance and toss it in the trash can of no return?

Any thoughts? Anyone tried anything like that before? I don't know what I'll do with the character if they don't disappear into la-la land or where ever.

[Tdyans]

rodawig said:

I want to...hmmm, kill my main character at the end of the short story. Not blood and gore, just have the main character...disappear and never be seen again, presumed dead. The barest hint of the character having gone bye-bye at the very end. Will neopets treat it like a romance and toss it in the trash can of no return?

Any thoughts? Anyone tried anything like that before? I don't know what I'll do with the character if they don't disappear into la-la land or where ever.

I think if you handle it subtly enough (which it sounds like you will) it has a good chance of getting published. (And in the same way, I don't think romance is an automatic "delete button" trigger as long as it's handled in the right way). If nothing else, you could write it, send it in and see what happens... and then if it gets rejected for that specific reason, you can think about finding some way to revise if you want to, but I wouldn't even think about it until then.

[calvinseviltwin]

I think you can pull it off, just don't go into much detail...

[wonderfulaishas]

I dunno why you'd wanna kill of the main character, but then again it IS your story I think that it still has a chance of being published as long as you dont go into a lot of detail. I think dissapearing never to be heard from ever again is subtle enough

[rodawig]

I just finished reading meratocat's Boldheart- neopets.com/newnt/index.phtml?section=9662&week=79 -I don't think I'll be rejected because of the character dying now.

I've perfected my subtle, creepy ending sentence.

"_______ vanished into the strange, green hued seas under the malevolent eyes of the _______,
eternally oblivious to the fact that the colour lilac is not blue."

I took out names, but that's pretty much the ending sentence. She disappears into the ocean, supposedly drowned. I think it turned out a horror story, must be all that Poe we're reading in English.