So I Decided to Kill My Main Character. (Like, Immediately.)
<p>Alright, story time. I was trying to write the other day. Just me, my notepad and a pen that just wouldn’t stop running out of ink. The plot was fine, the side characters were perfect but my protagonist? She was just…there.</p><p>Polished and boring me to literal tears.</p><p><br/></p><p>I was just about to slam my book shut, to give up on the whole story when this little unhinged thought scribbled itself across my brain.</p><p><br/></p><p>“Ah! What if I just…killed her?”</p><p><br/></p><p>Not in some dramatic, heroic, end-of-the-book way. No. </p><p><br/></p><p>I mean first line. Top of the page. Opening sentence. Fresh sheet. Gone.</p><p><br/></p><p>I uncapped my pen. Writer’s block nowhere to be found.</p><p><br/></p><p>Forget “kill your darlings.” This was “stab your main character in the margins and see who comes to the funeral.” No slow-burn. No reader attachment. Just an ambush before they even learn how she likes her coffee.</p><p><br/></p><p>And honestly? It was liberating.</p><p><br/></p><p>It wasn’t about writing a “better” story. It was about the power. The raw, pen-in-hand control of it. I get to decide who cries at the funeral, who shows up for free food, and which detective gets stuck with the case and sighs deeply. </p><p><br/></p><p>So I wrote it. I flipped a clean page and wrote her death first. One paragraph. Blue ink. No erasures.</p><p><br/></p><p>I didn’t kill her for art or meaning, or any of that thoughtful garbage.</p><p><br/></p><p>I did it because I was bored. I did it because “Stacey Rhodes” was too boring to exist in my margins. I did it to watch the ink bleed. I did it because it’s fun to play fate.</p><p><br/></p><p>And the chaos is the most fun I’ve had in years.</p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p><p><br/></p>
At the end of the month, we give out prizes in 3 categories: Best Content, Top Engagers and
Most Engaged Content.
Best Content
Top Engagers
Most Engaged Content
Best Content
We give out cash prizes to between 7 and 20 community members with the best insights in the past month.
The winners are picked by an in-house selection process.
The winners are NOT picked from the leaderboards/rankings, we choose winners based on the quality, originality
and insightfulness of their content.
Here are a few other things to know for the Best Content track
1
Quality over Quantity — You stand a higher chance of winning by publishing a few really good insights across the entire month,
rather than a lot of low-quality, spammy posts.
2
Share original, authentic, and engaging content that clearly reflects your voice, thoughts, and opinions.
3
Avoid using AI to generate content—use it instead to correct grammar, improve flow, enhance structure, and boost clarity.
4
Explore audio content—high-quality audio insights can significantly boost your chances of standing out.
5
Use eye-catching cover images—if your content doesn't attract attention, it's less likely to be read or engaged with.
6
Share your content in your social circles to build engagement around it.
Top Engagers
For the Top Engagers Track, we award the top 3 people who engage the most with other user's content via
comments.
The winners are picked using the "Top Monthly Engagers" tab on the rankings page.
Most Engaged Content
The Most Engaged Content recognizes users whose content received the most engagement during the month.
We pick the top 3.
The winners are picked using the "Top Monthly Contributors" tab on the rankings page.
Contributor Rankings
The Rankings/Leaderboard shows the Top 20 contributors and engagers on TwoCents a monthly and all-time basis
— as well as the most active colleges (users attending/that attended those colleges)
The all-time contributors ranking is based on the Contributor Score, which is a measure of all the engagement and exposure a contributor's content receives.
The monthly contributors ranking tracks performance of a user's insights for the current month. The monthly and all-time scores are calcuated DIFFERENTLY.
This page also shows the top engagers on an all-time & monthly basis.
Below is a list of badges on TwoCents and their designations.
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