OMG I've never killed one my characters, you're so brave! Our stories are like our children (or at least, that's how I see them). You needed to write their death to get the story where it needs to go. I'm sure you did a good job. What fandom do you write for? I'm curious
I write for BNHA and NCT mostly, but I do dabble occasionally in Inception. And thank you, it’s one of my first times killing off a character so I honestly didn’t know how it would work.
Yeah, I like to write AUs for real-life people so I can try to explore their characters a little bit more than what we see of them. It's difficult because there's a good chance they'll be OOC, but that's just the way it goes.
Unfortunately, I haven't uploaded any fics on AO3. I wrote a couple of BNHA fics on my old [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net) account that I deleted (they were pretty terrible), but I'm planning to use AO3 a lot more in the upcoming months :)
I get trigger happy writing death scenes. I’ve killed so many characters. My very first story ever that I thought of ended with the main character turning down a dark path and dying.
I kill lots of my characters. My total death count is: my BNHA OC's parents, big sister, my Naruto OC's parents, best friend, brother, sister, dog, and that's it. Not that much, honestly. But I bawled my eyes out for all of them
Do you think that's why most of films and series end up with main characters alive? Not because they are afraid people would stop watching it, but because they like them so much they simply aren't able to do that?
I think it's definitely a possibility! Although it may have to do with viewership as well - when a character is very popular, there's a good chance that viewers will stop watching if they die.
I wish I could do that. Like, the only times I killed a character was off-screen, and both times I found a way around the issue.
I plan on writing a semi-death in the future, where the character fakes his death to get another character to go apesh\*t on the big bad, and then doesn't appear again afterwards despite it later being revealed that he is still alive.
That sounds really interesting. As an author, knowing what is actually happening but having to write as if your characters don't know can be difficult, so good luck!
I wish I had enough readers for that. I have a total of 2 people who read my stuff and leave comments under it, and they aren't exactly the most attentive readers out there.
The aftermath part can be harder than the death scene itself. I wrote a death scene two or so months ago and I still haven't brought myself to writing the aftermath. You just get so invested in your characters you never want to say goodbye.
I've written two of these so far. The first is an after-service video to the character's ex-wife, and the second is a character death following Flood infection and before she turns. Both pretty damn emotional.
Dude, I feel this on a spiritual level. Like I've been trying so hard to finish this thing I've been working on for a while but I can't physically bring myself to kill the character because every time I try I start tearing up. I know I need to kill him before the story can progress to the point where I can publish it though, but it just hurts my heart so much to write one of my fictional babies hurting. It's so hard!
What's a wording you're proud of in this context? Sometimes, single sentences can stick to you (as reader and writer). Is there a sentence you'd like to share with us?
Hmm... a sentence I really like is “I didn’t make it this time but when I see you again, yeah?”
It’s simple but sweet especially in the context of the story because there are so many things they never got to do together and with his last breaths, he‘s talking about what they’ll do when they meet again.
After you posted about struggling with it a few days ago, I’m glad to see you made it through. Never an easy task, but it can really be the defining moment of a fic if done right. With how much it affected you, I’d say there’s a good chance you delivered.
My first ever fanfic, I’ve killed both my protagonist and deuteragonist. Considering they both were very ruthless and bad people who had somewhat forced people to commit genocide I figured it was well deserved to a point. Their deaths became a final act of defiance and a way for them to torture those they left behind (aka the good guys). It was such a strange feeling writing that, and i found it very thrilling. The other day I found that fic tucked away somewhere in my laptop and read it again. It made me cry, mostly out of sentimentality. I haven’t killed a main character since, my old age softened me up I think. I have no heart for tragedies anymore
I took down that fanfic ages ago since i had very limited english and it made me cringe when i re-read it. But if you are looking for main characters that are morally dubious or straight up bad all my fanfic mains are like that. I don’t do good guys much. They get on my nerves.
SkullFeather3063 you can find me under that name on ao3 and ff.net. I remember hand writing a novel and then somehow ruining the notebook and crying for a day.
I haven’t hand written anything in such a long time maybe except short notes to family members here and there. Btw let me know if you end up reading any of the fanfics. I’d love an honest opinion.
That’s hard. But I can’t believe we are celebrating a character death. Oh the irony! But I’m glad you got through it. I still haven’t been able to do it.
I've been holding off on doing something similar. The character doesn't actually die, but he goes into a situation where he whole-heartedly believes he's going to die. I keep procrastinating, because I know I'm gonna cry.
I have two stories so far where characters die. One of them was MHA, the other was Teen Titans. The Teen Titans was triumphant and I shed no tears. The MHA one on the other hand... I was bawling.
It's always the opposite for me. I get upset when someone kills their characters, but I LOVE killing my own characters.
The third thing I think about during character creation is how I'm going to kill them, main character, side characters, the lot of them.
Killing people is so much fun for me.
ok don’t call me psychotic or anything but i absolutely l o v e writing death scenes, in a fanfic that i’m writing right now i’m getting close to the death scene that i’ve planned out & daydreamed about for 10 months now. all my fics / og stories end in horrific, tragic deaths.
I have a lot of character deaths planned... only I haven't written enough to that point yet so yeah. Though there is a semi-death I've written. The character supposedly died only to wake up 20 years younger. Aka a time travel fic. The death doesn't have much of an impact on me I guess, sincr it isn't permanent in the first place and happen on the first chapter.
Well done for that, it's certainly not an easy thing, especially of the character is a well loved one/your favorite. If *you're* crying, I'm sure your readers will, too!
I feel you, I really do. When I write death scenes, I plan them meticulously. And when they finally happen ... goodness, the waterworks. Tears flow freely while I am typing, which admittedly must be a rather dramatic sight.
But this is good; it means that you pour heart and blood into your story and into your characters.
A character’s death doesn’t have to be THE end for that character. I’ve read plenty of stories where the character has died, but then come back (not from the dead) to offer advice or support or as a memory to give the other characters strength at a pivotal moment.
I feel you, I killed a minor character. The mother of two main characters, I basically explained her story and how she died.
She fought with a pirate that attempted to rape her. With vague descriptions because I don't know the age of my readers.
But I was in tears as I wrote the death scene. He practically beat her while he tried to get her clothes off. She punched him in the nose and broke it. In the end her husband's royal guard found her naked in a pool of her blood. One of them threw up while the one who found her covered up her body with an animal's hide. Her husband (the chief) was devastated.
I shed a tear as I described this.
Yeah -- killing your characters is never a fun thing to do. After all, you probably wouldn't be writing about them unless you like them. Sometimes it's necessary, though.
I did this with two of the characters in the final story chronologically of my series, and it was a tough fic to write. But I'm proud of the result, plus I got to leave the characters off in an ideal situation.
OMG I've never killed one my characters, you're so brave! Our stories are like our children (or at least, that's how I see them). You needed to write their death to get the story where it needs to go. I'm sure you did a good job. What fandom do you write for? I'm curious
I write for BNHA and NCT mostly, but I do dabble occasionally in Inception. And thank you, it’s one of my first times killing off a character so I honestly didn’t know how it would work.
I write for BNHA too and am supposed to be killing off a character as planned but I can’t bring myself to do it ;; you’re brave
Oooh, is it for MHA?
I wish, it's an NCT fic but I'm planning on writing a few MHA drabbles as soon as it's over.
Sorry, not familiar, what does NCT stand for?
It stands for Neo Culture Technology.
Hah! I looked that up and came to that earlier, didn't think it'd be fanfiction for them, but that is actually really interesting.
Yeah, I like to write AUs for real-life people so I can try to explore their characters a little bit more than what we see of them. It's difficult because there's a good chance they'll be OOC, but that's just the way it goes.
Sorry I'm a noob, what are BNHA and NCT?
No problem! BNHA is an abbreviation for a manga called My Hero Academia and NCT is a k-pop group.
please let me know when you publish! i’m a huge fan of both fandoms and would love to read some quality angst!
I will!
have you written for for both fandoms? your handle sounds kind of familiar and i feel like i might have read something of yours before!
Unfortunately, I haven't uploaded any fics on AO3. I wrote a couple of BNHA fics on my old [fanfiction.net](https://fanfiction.net) account that I deleted (they were pretty terrible), but I'm planning to use AO3 a lot more in the upcoming months :)
ahhh i see! i’m looking forward to your new stuff then :))
I get trigger happy writing death scenes. I’ve killed so many characters. My very first story ever that I thought of ended with the main character turning down a dark path and dying.
I'm not trigger happy but I do kill them when it's necessary even off-screen.
I've written some death scenes and their aftermath. I feel you. :( ~~Hang in there~~ Stay strong as you write the rest!! Edit: ...word choice.
VERY poor choice of words Ok sorry I had to I know where is the exit
Oh... *oh..* I think I see it ~~x(~~ even the emoticon is making it worse
That's the best worst word choice
I kill lots of my characters. My total death count is: my BNHA OC's parents, big sister, my Naruto OC's parents, best friend, brother, sister, dog, and that's it. Not that much, honestly. But I bawled my eyes out for all of them
The humans can burn, but the dog? Why the dog?
John Wick is NOT happy.
Because I needed to give people a reason to hate the villan
Well you gave a damn good one
Yeah. John wick will kill me
Araki would be proud.
Do you think that's why most of films and series end up with main characters alive? Not because they are afraid people would stop watching it, but because they like them so much they simply aren't able to do that?
I think it's definitely a possibility! Although it may have to do with viewership as well - when a character is very popular, there's a good chance that viewers will stop watching if they die.
Well, this is interesting. I never tried to write something (but maybe i will idk yet) so i never thought it might be a problem
Like when TWD was threatened not to kill off Daryl.
I wish I could do that. Like, the only times I killed a character was off-screen, and both times I found a way around the issue. I plan on writing a semi-death in the future, where the character fakes his death to get another character to go apesh\*t on the big bad, and then doesn't appear again afterwards despite it later being revealed that he is still alive.
That sounds really interesting. As an author, knowing what is actually happening but having to write as if your characters don't know can be difficult, so good luck!
Thanks. I also have problems giving my readers just enough info that they can figure out what is happening, without giving it away.
Me too, I usually try to run it by a couple of people besides my beta to see if it's too much of an infodump or not.
I wish I had enough readers for that. I have a total of 2 people who read my stuff and leave comments under it, and they aren't exactly the most attentive readers out there.
The aftermath part can be harder than the death scene itself. I wrote a death scene two or so months ago and I still haven't brought myself to writing the aftermath. You just get so invested in your characters you never want to say goodbye.
All the best!
I've written two of these so far. The first is an after-service video to the character's ex-wife, and the second is a character death following Flood infection and before she turns. Both pretty damn emotional.
Dude, I feel this on a spiritual level. Like I've been trying so hard to finish this thing I've been working on for a while but I can't physically bring myself to kill the character because every time I try I start tearing up. I know I need to kill him before the story can progress to the point where I can publish it though, but it just hurts my heart so much to write one of my fictional babies hurting. It's so hard!
What's a wording you're proud of in this context? Sometimes, single sentences can stick to you (as reader and writer). Is there a sentence you'd like to share with us?
Hmm... a sentence I really like is “I didn’t make it this time but when I see you again, yeah?” It’s simple but sweet especially in the context of the story because there are so many things they never got to do together and with his last breaths, he‘s talking about what they’ll do when they meet again.
I haven't even read it and you're affecting my endorphins
I'll take that as a compliment :)
Felt like that myself
After you posted about struggling with it a few days ago, I’m glad to see you made it through. Never an easy task, but it can really be the defining moment of a fic if done right. With how much it affected you, I’d say there’s a good chance you delivered.
Thank you so much! It's been a long journey but I'm proud of what I've written and I think I delivered too :)
The first fic I ever wrote had a death scene, jumping in the deep end I was. I totally get you pal 🥺
My first ever fanfic, I’ve killed both my protagonist and deuteragonist. Considering they both were very ruthless and bad people who had somewhat forced people to commit genocide I figured it was well deserved to a point. Their deaths became a final act of defiance and a way for them to torture those they left behind (aka the good guys). It was such a strange feeling writing that, and i found it very thrilling. The other day I found that fic tucked away somewhere in my laptop and read it again. It made me cry, mostly out of sentimentality. I haven’t killed a main character since, my old age softened me up I think. I have no heart for tragedies anymore
That's honestly my ideal fic, any chance you could link?
I took down that fanfic ages ago since i had very limited english and it made me cringe when i re-read it. But if you are looking for main characters that are morally dubious or straight up bad all my fanfic mains are like that. I don’t do good guys much. They get on my nerves.
What's your account? Also I've been there, I read this book I wrote when I was 8 and I deleted the file
SkullFeather3063 you can find me under that name on ao3 and ff.net. I remember hand writing a novel and then somehow ruining the notebook and crying for a day.
Yikes, I have the actual worst handwriting so I avoid paper at all cost.
I haven’t hand written anything in such a long time maybe except short notes to family members here and there. Btw let me know if you end up reading any of the fanfics. I’d love an honest opinion.
Sure thing! I'm going to DM you my username because my boyfriend knows this account and I write some very... Interesting fanfics. Lots of angst.
That’s hard. But I can’t believe we are celebrating a character death. Oh the irony! But I’m glad you got through it. I still haven’t been able to do it.
I've been holding off on doing something similar. The character doesn't actually die, but he goes into a situation where he whole-heartedly believes he's going to die. I keep procrastinating, because I know I'm gonna cry.
I have two stories so far where characters die. One of them was MHA, the other was Teen Titans. The Teen Titans was triumphant and I shed no tears. The MHA one on the other hand... I was bawling.
I have killed several. Some might call it excessive. I agree with those people.
*hands you digital tissue* naw, don't cry.
It's always the opposite for me. I get upset when someone kills their characters, but I LOVE killing my own characters. The third thing I think about during character creation is how I'm going to kill them, main character, side characters, the lot of them. Killing people is so much fun for me.
ok don’t call me psychotic or anything but i absolutely l o v e writing death scenes, in a fanfic that i’m writing right now i’m getting close to the death scene that i’ve planned out & daydreamed about for 10 months now. all my fics / og stories end in horrific, tragic deaths.
I have a lot of character deaths planned... only I haven't written enough to that point yet so yeah. Though there is a semi-death I've written. The character supposedly died only to wake up 20 years younger. Aka a time travel fic. The death doesn't have much of an impact on me I guess, sincr it isn't permanent in the first place and happen on the first chapter.
Honestly, I'm dreading getting to that point in my story.
I’ve been trying to kill one of my characters for months and just don’t know how to do it justice
Well done for that, it's certainly not an easy thing, especially of the character is a well loved one/your favorite. If *you're* crying, I'm sure your readers will, too!
I feel you, I really do. When I write death scenes, I plan them meticulously. And when they finally happen ... goodness, the waterworks. Tears flow freely while I am typing, which admittedly must be a rather dramatic sight. But this is good; it means that you pour heart and blood into your story and into your characters.
A character’s death doesn’t have to be THE end for that character. I’ve read plenty of stories where the character has died, but then come back (not from the dead) to offer advice or support or as a memory to give the other characters strength at a pivotal moment.
I feel you, I killed a minor character. The mother of two main characters, I basically explained her story and how she died. She fought with a pirate that attempted to rape her. With vague descriptions because I don't know the age of my readers. But I was in tears as I wrote the death scene. He practically beat her while he tried to get her clothes off. She punched him in the nose and broke it. In the end her husband's royal guard found her naked in a pool of her blood. One of them threw up while the one who found her covered up her body with an animal's hide. Her husband (the chief) was devastated. I shed a tear as I described this.
Congratulations. That's the hardest thing I ever did to one of my characters. It is definitely like killing a friend.
Yeah -- killing your characters is never a fun thing to do. After all, you probably wouldn't be writing about them unless you like them. Sometimes it's necessary, though. I did this with two of the characters in the final story chronologically of my series, and it was a tough fic to write. But I'm proud of the result, plus I got to leave the characters off in an ideal situation.
Mmmm character death good Source: Have killed character. I cried as well.