Everyone's dead by page two

[Joe270]

I have a wip where everyone, except the main character, die off by page two. The dead are resurected with flashbacks frequently throughout the rest of the novel.

It's a suspenseful adventure mystery...what really happened and why as the main character struggles to survive and make it to safety.

I wonder, though, if readers will not like this. Who wants to devote time getting to know characters who are already pushing up daisies? I can switch it around, but that seems to hurt the survival aspects of the sole survivor.

Any thoughts?

[Haggis]

Dunno. I was kind of thinking Damn. That's a short book. I guess it all depends on how well you handle the rest of it.

[maestrowork]

Well, we all know all the Spartans will die at the end of 300, and yet we still go in hordes to watch it....

It really depends on the story and HOW you tell it.

[Joe270]

I look so forward to watching 300. I just love how all the pundits panned it big time, and, hey, box office smash. Once I read that the look of it was intended to honor its graphic novel roots, I liked the look. Seemed odd at first though.

But I digress, back to the tread. The main character has his hands full. Mostly, we follow him. The flashbacks fill for the mystery aspects, was it murder or a terrible accident? It's not an Agatha C. type thing, tossing red herrings willy-nilly. It sets up the conditions which could have led to sabotage . . . then again, was it incompetence? Not only does the character have to get back to civilization in one piece, but must prove he's not a mass-murderer.

[Puma]

Sounds sort of intriguing, Joe. However, my initial thought is to make the first section a bit longer. Your "event" in which everyone dies has to be very quick to take only a page. How about some more build up to it, more in depth coverage of the event? I'm not talking a tremendous amount here but maybe ten pages before they die - a full first chapter. Puma

[Joe270]

The event caused a quick, peaceful death for thirty of them. I don't want to get too involved in the whole story, the setting, etc. I am sorry to frustrate those who are offering help, but I'm sure everyone understands.

Will the readers feel cheated, devoting emotional attachments to characters they already know do not survive?

[Joe270]

I think I'll stick to the original after these comments and two rereads. It still plays well. I think it works better than a cronologically ordered script.

[gp101]

I don't think the reader will latch on too much to too mny people by page two, so if you need to wipe them all out, go for it. My concern is that you say you explain in flashbacks throughout the story what (or why) happened to these dead characters; that sounds like it could easily slide into major info-dumping/backstory territory.

There was a Robert Redford movie (12 Days of the Condor??) where everyone he works with gets killed at the beginning, and it's quite a shock and thrilling. But then it's Redford who goes into hiding while trying to figure out what happened and why. Wasn't done in flashbback and worked pretty well.

[LiteraryAspirations]

My suggestion would be to get a couple people to read the text itself and get their feedback and whether or not they feel it works. It's all and well to talk about this in hypotheticals, but until someone sees what exactly you do with it, it's hard to say whether or not it will actually work.

[WildScribe]

At first I thought you were talking about George R.R. Martin. Everyone dies. Often. I have no idea who the main characters are because people who have had pages and pages of story devoted to them just... die. GAAAAAAARHHHHHHH! And yet I love his books... the bastard. I did throw book 3 though. Read it if you want to know why.

[blacbird]

Makes for true minimalism.

caw

[katiemac]

"The Virgin Suicides" -- we have a whole book to learn how four girls comitted suicide. The first paragraph tells us they're dead.

[blacbird]

There's also Thornton Wilder's classic Bridge of San Luis Rey. Not to mention any number of fictional tragedies in which every reader knows one or more main characters will end up dead, before they open to page one, ranging from Antigone through Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet to The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Of Mice and Men.

caw

[Anthony Ravenscroft]

Think of historical fiction: we generally know how things turned out. That doesn't make the ride any less fun or enlightening, because it's interesting to know how the trip actually occurred -- like driving from Long Island to Rodeo Drive, the terminii are pretty interesting but that's a whole lot of less-known territory between.

[dclary]

I have a wip where everyone, except the main character, die off by page two. The dead are resurected with flashbacks frequently throughout the rest of the novel.

It's a suspenseful adventure mystery...what really happened and why as the main character struggles to survive and make it to safety.

I wonder, though, if readers will not like this. Who wants to devote time getting to know characters who are already pushing up daisies? I can switch it around, but that seems to hurt the survival aspects of the sole survivor.

Any thoughts?

Sunset Blvd opens with the protagonist dead. Citizen Kane is dead by the end of page one. These are considered two of the greatest movies ever.

In the case of Sunset Blvd, I personally detested knowing the dude was dead from page one, because why the hell do I want what's going to happen to him? I KNOW what happens to him.

So your mileage may really vary. Citizen Kane and Sunset Blvd got away with it in different ways. CK had the red herring of Rosebud. SB had the very fantastic character Norma Desmond.

What do you have to overcome the audience's shock at everyone starting dead?

[RLSMiller]

Hmm, well, didn't Romeo and Juliet start with the reader knowing that they would die (in the Prologue)? It's been done before, so at least you can be secure in the knowledge that it can work, if done right. I guess, like most things, it just depends on how well you pull it off.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

[talkwrite]

I think it's a great idea. And it reminds me of what engrossed me in my favorite plays/theatrical productions . The thread title alone is a hook. Go for it.

[C.bronco]

Well, we all know all the Spartans will die at the end of 300, and yet we still go in hordes to watch it....

It really depends on the story and HOW you tell it.
300 is about Spartans?!!!!!
Oooh, they better not have stolen my battlefield tactics which I stole from a Spartan battle!!!!!!
Then I'd have to steal battle tactics from another battle and rewrite my entire battle scene!
...runs off to read synopsis of 300

appendix: My battle scene is safe; it wasn't based on Thermopylae.

[BrookieCookie777]

I'm intrigued . . . Publishers aren't looking for stuff done over and over - this is fresh. I like it.

[katiemac]

If you watch the show LOST, they did something similiar this season. (Possible spoiler? No details.) About halfway through, we learned one of the characters was doomed to die, and much of the remaining season played out how and why.

Of course, then there was the whole added drama of "Please be a mistake, he's not actually going to die, right?"

Also, if you can do it well -- many of your readers might actually FORGET that the deaths occurred in the first place. I've done that with spoiled books -- someone let it slip that a certain character dies, but when I actually started reading I was so engrossed I didn't see it coming.

[DWSTXS]

The event caused a quick, peaceful death for thirty of them. I don't want to get too involved in the whole story, the setting, etc. I am sorry to frustrate those who are offering help, but I'm sure everyone understands.

Will the readers feel cheated, devoting emotional attachments to characters they already know do not survive?

I think you are trying to decide for the reader how to feel. I would be more interested in how and why the MC did survive and what led to it. Also, the fact that he did survive, doesn't necessarily mean that he will continue to survive. That could draw interest.

[Siddow]

Doyle, you do realize that this thread is a year old, and that Joe has most likely finished the book by now?

*waves to Joe, my favorite stinger*

[Ken]

Cool plot Joe270.
Was going to mention Sunset Blvd, too, but dclary beat me to it. :(
Movies in general from the late 40's and early 50's era tended to have deceased characters from the outset. There's also DOA and many, many others. Whether modern day audiences will go for this is up to question, but I think there are still a lot of pesimistic folk out there, like myself, who'd dig your book. So get it written and onto the shelves!!!

[DWSTXS]

Doyle, you do realize that this thread is a year old, and that Joe has most likely finished the book by now?

*waves to Joe, my favorite stinger*

Yo? this is not 2005 anymore? LOL

[giusti]

I have to say that I did like Joe's "peaceful death," rather than the more overdone violent struggle that would happen in an apocalypse-style event (I have no idea whether Joe's work was post-apocalyptic, or just away from society).

But as long as this post is ancient, and has therefore turned into a theoretical conversation, I think I'll drop a couple points on the subject that probably wouldn't have effected Joe's outcome.

Where I have seen this done poorly (in my opinion) for a change, (and therefore, a clue as to what to stay away from) is a book called Earth Abides. The novel takes a sequence of events in a post-apocalyptic world, that should have lasted through a short story, and stretched them into a novel. I think that this is the main danger on this subject, for all works in which all but the main character are dead. There is generally nothing left to do. Additionally, the character can no longer talk to people, so most actions that would have been broken up by dialogue are now in over-laden paragraphs of prose.

-giusti

[JJ Cooper]

Getting some mileage here, Joe. How did it turn out?

JJ

[nerds]

I have nothing to say other than this thread title would be a kickass book title. Love it.

[giusti]

Dibs.

[TwentyFour]

The event caused a quick, peaceful death for thirty of them. I don't want to get too involved in the whole story, the setting, etc. I am sorry to frustrate those who are offering help, but I'm sure everyone understands.

Will the readers feel cheated, devoting emotional attachments to characters they already know do not survive?
You have a very interesting concept, have you thought of not saying they are dead, acting as if the main character is still talking to them if only in his mind's eye? Perhaps let the bomb drop at the end when he/she is saved and realizes the ones who he/she pondered on was in a sense, already gone. That way the idea of death isn't hitting the reader first off and they slowly hear all the characters stories before they realize death and mourn for the loss?

[Jackfishwoman]

Joe270, I was very intrigued by your description. It certainly is a different approach, (funky) but unique enough to want to know more - and keep reading past page two!
I adored Alice Sebold's treatment of her dead protagonist in The Lovely Bones. I think that the living need to beielve that the dead can still think and talk - and what better way to explore this than fiction?

[MelancholyMan]

Who wants to devote time getting to know characters who are already pushing up daisies?
Any thoughts?

I love history, and if they ain't dead, it ain't history.

Either you use your MC as a window into these amazing people who can teach us something, or you make your MC interesting enough that we want to know how these dead people influenced him. And there's got to be some kind of denouement that hooks us into giving a dang about the whole thing. A tough trick but if pulled off correctly, can work. I know I'm not good enough to do it yet.

Watch SUNSET BOULEVARD. First scene is the main character floating face down in a swimming pool. The rest of the movie is about how he got there.

Good luck, in all of it's many ramifications!

-MM