I plan on killing off one of my characters in my story (horrible yes i know). I was wondering how you would write out a death? Like not the characters death itself but like a characters reaction to a phone call from the hospital or something saying something about the other character being dead?
I'm new at this don't judge me haha.
killing characters is half the fun of being a writer! i wouldn't recommend finding out through a phone call though, that seems too detached. but you should figure out the main emotion you want your character to convey in their reaction - are they angry, are they sad, are they numb, are they confused, in denial, self-destructive? i like going from numb to self-destructive in certain situations (gives you a good opportunity to get inside their head and really pick them apart), but it also depends on the relationship these characters had. if it was close, the numbness and self-destruction would be a lot more heightened than if it was a casual relationship. also depends on the kind of death (was it old age, a brutal stabbing, car crash, dismemberment?).
Bro, killing off characters gives life to the story!
Example; I killed off #1 because he tried to interfere with 2#'s plans on ascending to demi-god rank, so 2# killed him in the most brutal way because nobody knew how much it took to kill their species.
But.. I loved #1 too much to just leave him dead, he didn't get any development either, it was in the very beginning of everything. So I created a dimension for him to be a demi-god in, a heaven-hell combo, because he was the very first death in that universe so it made sense.
Another example, #2 also ruined his relationship with the mother to his children, so #3 left home and became fallen(think lucifer but not really). As years goes on, #3 loses herself more and more due to memory loss and being emotionless, which is effects of being fallen. So she's technically dead but not really.
Now, with that being said. Phone-call seems too trope-y and cliche.
Phone: hey, so uh, this is hospital
Person: ya?
Phone: your wifes dead
Person: oh poop
It's hard to write their emotions that way, you can only really write slightly. But if the person was there to hold his wife's hand as she died, that would make a hell lot more to write about! To drag people into reading it.
–
"Sir.. I'm sorry."
"Shut the hell up!" Jason shouted, bringing the lifeless hand to his face, kissing it, expecting his wife to magically come back to life. They wouldn't dare to give him that same old 'we did everything we could' crap. They wouldn't. He should have taken her to different hospital, this was the most closest one at middle of night.
"But, we did everything we could-"
Jason stood up abruptly, knocking the chair back, clattering on the floor. His hands slammed the bed angrily, causing no noise. "Yes, /but/ you could've done more! I'm willing to throw all my money at you to keep her alive. I don't care if we're poor, I would've took out a loan and worked my ass off to pay it off!"
"Sir, please calm down-"
"Don't give me that bullshit!" Jason vaulted over the bed, over his dead wife to slam the doctor against the wall. "Don't call the security on me, or you'll regret it!"
The fearful, wide eyed look on doctor's face made him realize his actions, what he had done. He let the poor man go, carding his hand through his brown hair, lowering his head.
"I'm sorry." He felt a hand clap on his shoulder, squeezing comfortingly.
"Mr. Farrett, it's quite alright. Emotions is a force to be reckoned with. Deaths are always the hardest concept to accept."
Jason nodded, wiping his teary eyes. He knew his wife would hate to see him blow his fuse like this. In front of her corpse, no less. He returned to her side, kissing her forehead.
"Emily, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." He whispered, brushing her blonde hair aside, staring at her lifeless, but beautiful face.
(Wrote more than I'd intended, heh)
Don't make it too sappy. Like have some emotion but if you go overboard your readers won't believe you.
The five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. It'll look slightly different depending on the person's personality and relationship with the dead character, but overall people experience grief in similar ways.
Yeah. Or you could just kill off your main characters loved ones slowly and painfully. Or you could have a character dying with their friends in sight but they're unable to cry out for help.
I disagree with the first too replies. You can totally make the phone call work. In fact, I think a phone call from the hospital would be a really horrible way to find out, which gives it punch and makes it interesting from a writing point of view. Imagine something as innocent as answering the phone . . . and suddenly your whole world comes crashing down, the contrast of something as personal as a loved one dying with something as impersonal as a phone call from a stranger. It all depends on your story, your method of death, and your characters, though. You can make pretty much anything work.
Find the andrew (Our Supreme Lord and Overseer) Hussie in your heart and make them sacrifice themselves, be tricked into it, have someone that cares about them watch from the shadows in horror, or have them injured to a point where there is no survival and plead for their friend to kill them while laying there. If you do the last one, make sure the other person doesn't have the heart to finish them off, that way there is a long, painful, and heart breaking death! Don't worry, I'm a bad person too. ;)
I love doing this. They fall ill, get killed, drink a potion, a seemingly unpurposeful suicide
Killing off characters is one of my favourite things. I love it so much that I killed off my favourite character in the first book. I mean, it was necessary for the plot too but honestly I just wanted to do it. Unfortunately, I was unable to bring him back to life because of plot complications.
One of my favorites is writing a scene where a character thinks that they’re dying, but doesn’t, so that you can touch on what they’ll miss and what they won’t.
One way that I've been toying with is as follows.
A has been fighting an illness for most of their life. A told B about the illness. The two of them have been getting money for A's treatment. A and B are to be wed in a few days. B gets a call two days before the wedding only to hear a man ask for them to come to the hospital as soon as possible.
B arrives at the hospital and is taken to a room. A is on the bed, hooked up to machines. They look gaunt, almost ghostly.
"I'm sorry, B. We had so much planned." A whispered, unable to be any louder.
"No! We're so close! Just one more paycheck and we can pay for it all!" B rushed to the bedside, tears welling up in their eyes.
A only smiled and kissed B's hand.
"Please don't go! A, please. I know it's exhausting but please keep fighting just for a few more days." B felt the tears stream down on their cheeks. They quietly whispered to A "You're the best thing in my life."
The heart monitor flat lined. A's eyes remained fixed on B and be sat there, cursing and crying. The only person they ever opened up to just died, 48 hours before they were to be married. B could feel their heart tearing itself into millions of tiny pieces.
Killing a character is just a natural part of writing…and fun to boot. If the death has a purpose to the book, then there is no specific way to kill of a character. My main character is going to die, for the first time in this new series I'm working on, but he's going to suffer a fatal wound, but die months later to keep someone else alive. He will keep himself alive just enough to see that they're alright before he can't take it any more and eventually dies, but it's not going to be the tragic part. Death is tragic, but if there is time, the funeral can be even more tragic than the actual death scene
Bro, killing off characters gives life to the story!
Example; I killed off #1 because he tried to interfere with 2#'s plans on ascending to demi-god rank, so 2# killed him in the most brutal way because nobody knew how much it took to kill their species.But.. I loved #1 too much to just leave him dead, he didn't get any development either, it was in the very beginning of everything. So I created a dimension for him to be a demi-god in, a heaven-hell combo, because he was the very first death in that universe so it made sense.
Another example, #2 also ruined his relationship with the mother to his children, so #3 left home and became fallen(think lucifer but not really). As years goes on, #3 loses herself more and more due to memory loss and being emotionless, which is effects of being fallen. So she's technically dead but not really.
this sounds like an amazing story…
The first death in my fanfic has the smol protag trying to wake up a woman before he realized the terrible truth - she was dead.
Sounds a bit like the death of Mufasa…still a heart-renching moment
One of my characters dies in a one-on-one swordfighting duel, and his friends are forced to watch him be killed without being allowed to interfere.
@Lord_Hellstrande Admit it, we all cried at Muffy's death.
I'm going to kill off the main character. At the end of the first book, and there's two more to go. Of course, even if he survived that book he would be dead anyways by the second book - old age. Though more logically, it would be sickness. The second book is 200-300 years after the first one. I'm not good at writing sadness in characters, but I'm a little better at writing effect on different characters around them, which I'll do with the final chapter and how they remember him and the men and women that gave their lives so they could escape earth. There won't be a full on funeral - or the funeral that we're used to; limited supplies within the book.
Now that I think about it, I'M going to to sad myself over his death, even though I know I'm going to write it.
Basically, he dies due to a few gunshot wounds; although it was two of them that really did it and made sure that he wouldn't get back up after the shots. They weren't aiming at anyone in particular; just shooting at random, to kill the enemy. It'll be a long time from now though, just so I have enough time to build up his relations with other characters and such; getting ready for that loss.
Death in a book can add depth to a story should it be played out well.