Don’t have them die of old age after a long, fulfilling life. Many people don’t even think of this as sad (note that this can still work if you have enough of the other factors).
Leave one of their major goals unfinished. The more enthusiastic they are about completing the goal, the sadder.
Give them strong relationships with other characters.
Make them fight against whatever is causing their death. Their ultimate loss is sadder if they struggle.
Kill them in the middle of their character arc.
Don’t describe their funeral in detail. Maybe it’s just me, but I find that long descriptions of funerals kill the sadness.
That’s enough Satan’s publisher…
>B)
7. If possible, try to kill them off in the middle of the story, so we had time to like them and we will have time to let the loss settle in.
8. Also, place surviving characters in a situation where having the deceased person there would help them get out. You can choose whether you will point this fact out or if you want the audience to make the connection themselves.
9. Make them die by sacrificing themselves to save someone they love from a danger created by the antagonist.
based on a few deaths that made me blub like a baby…
10. have their loved one, broken hearted, tell the team to stop fighting because “its over.”
11. have their pet come looking for them.
12. have their loved one perform a popular song at their funeral so it makes the fans cry whenever it’s played.
13. family witnessing the death and/or blaming themselves.
~ Mulan
so… let’s add some frustration to your dear readers’ sadness, shall we?
14. kill the character in the middle of making a joke, smiling, or expressing/experiencing joy/happiness.
15. make the character’s death slow and painful, but make them unable to call out for help even though they can literally see the other characters nearby.
16. after killing the character, have others think the character had betrayed them so they’d always hate them and remember them as traitors and never say nice things about them… Give your readers no chance to have group-therapy with other characters by making them the only ones who know the truth.
17. right before their death, show a side of them nobody has seen. (someone who is always tough and brave being genuinely scared of dying alone; someone who is always laughing being in tears before dying, etc.)
18. make them the only person who knows a big important secret that would help other characters in the story.
19. have them being lied to before dying. (thinking they’ve been betrayed; thinking they weren’t loved; thinking they’ve lost their loved ones, etc)
20. make the character very enthusiastic/passionate about a certain goal, constantly put stress on their goal, have them die unexpectedly before they can reach their goal.
and the best one…
21. have another beloved character kill them–better be a close friend to your character, one that absolutely nobody suspects, one that everyone can’t help but love, one who is always enthusiastic about things and encourages your character. THEN
reveal the truth only later when it’s too late and the a-hole character has already escaped.
have a cowardly character know the truth and never tell anyone else
have another character find out the truth and have them die before revealing it to others.
have the said character ^ not actually die, but go through something so they’d forget the friend of the deceased character is actually an asshole.
This way only your readers will know the truth, thus the frustration would be… most enjoyable for you.
Satan out.
based off of the one character death that physically pains me to think about
23. Make the character a very loving and caring family person, whether it’s with their siblings or parents, their partner, or their children. Make them talk about how much their family means to them frequently. Kill them off before they could even say goodbye.
Bonus points if they have a very young child who means the world to them.
More bonus points if their family member kills them, or they believe their family member to have killed them.
THIS MAKES ME SO INSPIRED TO FINALLY KILL THE SINNAMON ROLL IN CRITICAL SURVIVAL
24. After their death show characters who helped them and who the readers believed were their allies or friends celebrate their death and make jokes of it.
25. And another for not killing their body: Have them come close to death and lose their memory, and after have them work/with for those they were fighting against and find a family there. Their past allies/friends are completely aware of this, except for the person who cared for them most who is drowning in despair believing that they’re dead.
Have you all been playing a bit too much Darkest Dungeon?
Here’s some gruesome suggestions for your more deadly prose.
more vampires who don’t remember more vampires saying ‘i don’t fucking know man, google it’ more vampires not remembering important historical figures more vampires not recalling centuries worth of history more vampires saying ‘ that was at least 300 years ago, how the FUCK could i remember that detail?’ more vampires whose brains work like human brains
More vampires who 300 years later can’t remember what was the truth and what was the lie they told to get out of trouble.
More vampires who are like, “I don’t know, man, I spent most of that decade in an opium den.”
More vampires who weren’t paying attention because they didn’t think it would be important.
More vampires who don’t know because there was lot of conflicting gossip and they don’t want to point any fingers.
More vampires who are just bad at dates. “Back in 1620, or was it 1645, wait, what year is it now?”
More vampires who were on a totally different continent when it happened, so get off their back and stop asking them questions already.
YES to all of this but also consider: vampires who only remember the most trivial stuff.
“Oh yeah, the only thing I remember about the American Revolution was this nice candlemaker I met sometime, and she was wearing this really cute red shawl…”
“Uhhh I don’t remember much about the fall of Rome but there was this one fucking cobblestone right outside the coliseum…”
“ … is that what we’re doing in Rome?”
“After 2000 years of holding grudge against that toe-stubber, GODDAMN RIGHT we travelled here to make sure it’s gone”
“I’m sorry, man, my memory really sucks.”
“Did you just.”
More vampires who never met any historical figures More vampires who have no clue what year it even is and are just going along with it
i have a 800 year old vampire who rode with genghis khan
“oh yeah, what was he like?”
“dude do u know how big the army was, i did not hang with genghis ok, i saw him from a distance and he was on a horse and i was frankly more concerned with this itch i had on my feet”
“ok but you can tell me all about the military campaign right? like where you marched and who you fought and –”
“where i marched: where the guy in front of me went. who i fought: whoever was trying to kill me. you wanna hear about all the weird ass ways we brewed alcohol in camp, i’m your guy, and also i can talk a lot about whores and horses, but we did not have google maps or cnn.”
very disappointing to historians, this ancient uyghur vampire
also he drinks like a fish, likes to go hipster-tipping, and has no clue who’s president
my college experiences that would make great fic prompts:
“i thought you were my new roommate’s boyfriend so i casually invited you in but you’re actually the RA of the dorm and now you think i want to have sex with you” au
“i accidentally flooded the laundry room and you really needed to do laundry” au
“i took a bunch of free condoms from health services just because i could and they all fell out of my bag at once and now you’re staring at me weirdly” au
“we have to go camping together and share a sleeping bag even though we’re complete strangers” au
“the cereal dispenser in the dining hall broke while i was getting froot loops and now they’re all over the floor and you blame me ” au
“we argued so much during a class discussion that we both got kicked out and we’re still arguing outside of class” au
amazonwarrior711 said to alloftheprompts:I’ve been looking everywhere for female superhero prompts. Think you could help me?
Hi! I hope this helps:
Someone tries to design a revealing costume for your superhero, one that has little to do with her powers, and she protests.
The local superhero teams is an all boy club and your superhero fights to get in.
Alternatively, she starts her own.
Your superhero is constantly being underestimated by male villains.
Your superhero gets asked by press the most ridiculous questions like “what does your boyfriend think about this” and “who looks after the kids while you’re fighting crime” and “aren’t you worried you’ll stay single if you keep this up?”
Okay, but how do your superhero’s abilities affect her periods?
Your character starts campaigns to empower women, even those with no superpowers.
Your superhero joins a campaign against harrassment.
Your superhero is supertired of the media paying more attention to her costumes and/or love life than to her heroic deeds.
No one is designing toys etc. based on your superhero so as awkward as it is, she does it herself because their existence is important to little girls.
“Are they really paying attention to a wardrobe malfunction when we’re facing a possible end of the world here?”
Your superhero does something traditionally regarded as feminine in her mundane life and she isn’t ashamed at all.
Your character and another superpowered woman are constantly pitted against each other by the media.
starry-eyed 