If you’re not sure how to kill off your character, or how to make it as heart-wrenching as possible, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, I’ll give some inspiration on how to create a crushing and believable character death. (Sounds cheery, doesn’t it?)
First off, before you write the death scene, make sure you’ve established how you want the character to die. If it’s by stab wound, gunshot, blunt force trauma, or any other related injury, I would highly suggest researching the affect of each on the human body. There are a lot of articles out there, some actually written by doctors, that talk about this and would help you to write a realistic death. Also, if your character dies by poison, do research the symptoms and affects of the poison you use. (If it’s a fictional poison that you’ve created yourself, there’s obviously no need for this.)
Okay, now let’s move on to the emotional factor of your character’s death…
WAYS TO WRITE A HEARTBREAKING DEATH
- Have the character fight against it. The harder they fight to live, the sadder the death will be.
- Give them a goal. The more strongly they desire said goal, the more crushing it’ll be when their life ends without them having reached it.
- Don’t have them die of old age after a long, fulfilling life. While this can still be sad, it’s not heartbreaking.
- Give them extremely close friends or an intimate relationship with another character. The more loved they are by someone, the greater the loss will feel, especially if you show that loved one’s grievous reaction to their death.
- Don’t kill them off too soon in the story! Give your readers time to get attached.
- Have them sacrifice themselves to save someone else.
- In the middle of a battle/fight scene, where adrenaline levels are high and survival is the only priority, let the character have a sudden, unexpected death, where their friends never have a chance to help. (This works better if you include some of the other factors.) For more on writing fight scenes, see Fight Scenes.
- If you really want to be mean to your character, have him die alone.
- Have him die by his greatest fear. (Heights = falling from a high place, etc.)
- Have them die suddenly in the middle of a moment when they’re happy, or joking about something.
- Give them a slow, painful death. Even more emotional is when they’re unable to call out for help, though they can actually see their friends somewhere nearby.
Of course there a many other countless ways to add heartbreak to your character’s death, these might spur some inspiration.
Tip: If you want the character’s death to be fake, and have them reappear later in the story as a plot twist, make sure their fake death is survivable. If the character gets shot in the chest and shows up later alive and well… that character must have some pretty crazy superpowers they’re hiding. This ties in with what I mentioned earlier about researching the effects of traumatic injuries on a humans body. (Of course, if your character actually has superpowers, then you’re a lot more free to use your imagination with their “death.”)
As for how to write the death scene… Well, every death is unique. All I suggest to you is that you keep track of the many other topics I’ve mentioned in other sections. Use your most powerful words. Show the strongest emotions. Make it everything your reader can handle.
(Obviously if the character who has died is a more minor character, you shouldn’t dwell as much on it as you would with a major character, but any significant death should be even just a little bit jarring.)
Beginners Guide to Writing 