I've been advised to consider different endings for my 3rd person novel,including the mc getting killed-off. The idea is a good one, but I'm struggling with this because most of the story is seen from the mc's PoV, and I'm not sure how to handle it. eg continue with mc's PoV until his last breath, or change the PoV from the start of the 'death' chapter onwards? Are there any protocols or ideas that I should be thinking about here?
Thanks
Michael

FWIW, one of the narrators - i.e. not just his PoV but his first-person narration - in my novel A Secret Alchemy is actually executed - I took it right up to that moment. I don't think anyone had a problem with it - not that I ever heard about, anyway.

I think if you are going to back away from that moment, IYSWIM, and switch into another PoV for the last scene/chapter, etc., then you might want to look at the last bit where we are in his PoV, and make sure that it comes to some kind of satisfactory resolution - and then supply the death from outside, if you see what I mean.

One danger that I can see in switching to a different PoV is that you give the reader a huge hint that something very major is about to happen. It could even spoil the ending, if you're not very careful about how it's done. Perhaps, if you were going to do that, you could have other points within the novel where the PoV switches to someone else? That way, the reader won't get such a big hint about how it's about to end.

To back up Emma's comments, I found her handling of that particular execution scene very effective, and I certainly didn't have a problem with it (other than feeling very glad it wasn't me!) If you want the ending to be dramatic, that's certainly one way of doing it. Isn't there a similar ending to A Tale of Two Cities?

Alternatively, you could continue in his POV right up until the moment of death, at which point the chapter finishes.

The next chapter could return to that death retrospectively from the POV of another character involved or, better perhaps, another character less involved or not previously involved at all (for instance an official who becomes involved because of the death). Something along the lines (but not so crass, obviously) of:

When I was instructed to investigate the circumstances of the death of X, I was at first under a misapprehension...

The fact that the new POV person has become foremost because of the death makes the change of POV more logical and acceptable. This approach also provides the ability to revisit (and possibly more reliably reinterpret) events prior to the death without descending into artificial or authorial commentary. Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold is quite interesting in this respect (although not as regards the specific POV issue you have raised).

Chris

Just browsing around, Michael and I read your question with interest. An idea that popped into my head is the possibility of having the MC hand over something to the next character upon his demise. This could be something like the voice-in-the-head, or just a mental image of something, or a sentence heard; something that passes the chalice or the torch onto the next person.
I congratulated myself on this idea (!) because it would be relatively easy (not disruptive) to insert references to the motif earlier in the novel.
So. Maybe that works for you, or maybe not. Just an idea.

Andy

Thanks everyone. You've given me plenty to think about.
Michael