The thing is... Killing people isn't always that easy. What if you're a good person? What if you like the character? What if you just need some pointers on how to do it right?
You're in the right place... I have plenty experience along these lines.
1. What If I Like The Character?
- Ask Yourself... Is This Necessary? Is it necessary to the plot to kill this character? If that character lives, will they inhibit the plot from moving forward or will your main character have no reason to move the plot forward? If you don't want to kill a character, check that it's a need to do. See how their death or life affects the story moving forward. Sometimes that character is just destined to die, sometimes that death is unnecessary. And be honest with yourself here, if you aren't then your book WILL have problems!
- It's All In Your Head. Yes, I just said that. I know how real your characters can feel, how much you can genuinely love them, but be real with yourself. They're a piece of your imagination, and some words on a page. Killing them doesn't actually kill them, they're not real. And technically they live on forever in the chapters where they're alive. If it makes you feel any better, of all the characters I've killed, I think I've been upset for about five minutes and then that was it.
- Outline, Plan, Whatever You Wanna Call It. If you outline your story before you write it, you should know who's going to die and have time to prepare for it. Or even better, give that character quirks that annoy you (More on that in a second!) But anyway, if you know that they're going to die, you're less likely to get attached to them.
- Make Them Personally Hate-able. By this, I mean make them say phrases that annoy you, wear colors that you hate, etc. Don't make them excessively rude, or make cruel jokes, but just give them subtle little things that annoy you personally. For example, if I'm going to kill a character, they might wear bright yellow, use the word pet peeve, spell words out like T . H . I . S, or be indecisive. All of those things might mean nothing to my reader, but seriously, by the time I get to killing them I'll be happy just because I don't need to be annoyed anymore!
2. What If Killing Isn't Your Thing?
- Reconsider Writing That... If killing off fictional characters makes you upset... Then first of all, you must be some kind of angel, and second, maybe you shouldn't be writing this book. Reconsider your story, see if there's another way you could motivate your character, etc.
- Do It Subtly. If you were explaining a death to a two year old, are you going describe the bloody details or are you just going to say "She's gone now." ? You don't need to graphically describe the scene, or even have your character witness it, unless it's necessary somehow. You can just make it simple, someone comes up and says it simply, "They died in a car accident."
- Practice. Yep, practice. After a while, you won't even be phased by it. Whether you write scenes that'll never be used or if you just stick it out in your book, you'll get used to it. Trust me.
3. Tips For Death Scenes.
- Don't Overdo It. I love blood and guts as much as anyone; one of my characters gets their guts eaten by rats while they're fully conscious. Fun, right? But don't overdo it. If each chapter has buckets of blood, not only are you going to seem unrealistic because where's all that coming from?! But there are three kinds of readers... The ones who will become numb to the blood and find the rest of your bloodbath kind of boring, the ones who will be sickened and stop reading your book, and the sadistic people who you really don't want to give those kinds of ideas to. So definitely do blood and guts, just not every chapter and not overly dramatized.
- Avoid Cliches. I shouldn't even need to say this, but I and every other writing blogger/YouTuber/etc. out there actually does need to say it. Avoid cliches. Does the dying character grab your main character's hands and desperately choke out their undying love or some cryptic message? It's cliche. I could think of quite a few stories that do this, and actually I don't remember any of the titles because they all have such similar plots and all that they aren't memorable. Make something newer, unique, or even just a twist on a cliche. (Cliches are cliches for a reason; to a point people love them! But once they've seen the same basic thing twenty times, it gets old. Make your own version of an existing cliche!)
- Get A Visual. No, don't kill someone, but you'd be surprised what kind of pictures you can find online. Look up wounds and dead bodies and whatever you need, because you get to describe that and the better you know what it looks like the better. Use details.
- Read. The more you read, the better. Read death scenes, take what you like and dislike about them and use it. Does it make you cry? Analyze that and recreate it, emotion is the ultimate thing to go for in your writing! If your reader feels emotion, which they should at a death scene, then you're doing your job and they're more likely to recommend your book to other people! So find what makes you emotional, and use that.
- Here's For Realism. Here's some sad tips from someone who's actually seen death. Yes, horrible, I know, but here's to being realistic - The last breath is usually not a deep breath, or any different from any other breath, except that it's not followed by another. Shaking the body feels extremely disrespectful, unless your character doesn't know that the person is dead don't make them do that. And from a medical standpoint, still don't have the body be shaken because it would further injure a hurt person. Flies arrive surprisingly fast, and they're a repulsive detail. Use that. Dead bodies literally smell just like garbage in a dumpster. If someone happens to drown in frozen water, their eyes lose all color and turn a milky white. Stiffness (rigor mortem) takes place fast, like in under five minutes. If someone (an animal, like a cat) gets hit by a car, the body isn't just a bloody mess. Bones stick out, it's like a bloody pulp with fur and bones in it. Blood doesn't stay bright red and runny for long, it clots really fast and turns into more of a dark rust or reddish black. When you see a dead body, there's a shocking sense of how it's just a body and not your friend anymore, it's just different somehow. The disbelief comes later.
And that's what I've got for you on death. It sure is fun, isn't it? And here's a last tip - Things happen fast in these scenes a lot of the time, especially if it's a fight, so be sure that your reader can keep up!
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