Does anyone ever just get struck by the idea that "this character has to die" and just can't shake the idea despite how much you really don't want to? No? Just me? Okay.
Damn... can’t relate I feel I should b killing more characters but I have no reason to.. they die eventually, just not in bk1.. I feel like too many background characters die in bk 1.. but can’t just kill characters because not enough of em are dead right
To add my two-cents: -Characters who die should STAY dead otherwise it kinda weakens the emotional impact of the death in the first place. But if you have to resurrect them for whatever reason then it has to come at a *HEAVY* cost for either the resurrected or the one doing the resurrection. Also it's best if resurrection is established or at least foreshadowed to be possible in the story before using it.
@@evermoreisamasterpiece When it comes to my world, there is a complex framework to allow full resurrection from the dead, but there are rules and restrictions to it set down by the God of Death.
I'm writing a screenplay where it's possible anyone and everyone could die. But in the end the only major deaths (besides Henchman #1 and #2 and so on) are the parents of the main character's love interest (when the love interest is a baby), the main villain, and the main villain's love interest. Everyone else makes it out alive. I could easily turn the screenplay into a blood bath. But after watching Jenna's video on this topic of killing off characters, it pretty much confirms why I spare so many of the characters and allow everyone to make it out alive. Tips #1 and #10 are part of why I decided to keep the body count low. I want the screenplay to have a VERY high re-read factor (or re-watch factor if it gets made into a movie). That and there is tons of stuff I can do with the characters in the sequels. But I also like the idea of making the audience go on one heck of a journey with the characters and make them emotionally exhausted by the end while delivering the most positive/happy/satisfying ending that I can so that whoever can say, "man, I'm exhausted from reading/watching that, but with that type of ending, I'm willing to go through it all again." I don't think I could deliver that if I killed off a couple more characters. But Jenna's video confirms why I went the route I did with my screenplay.
You can have a somewhat-friend, or someone's father die in a car crash or something like that, and then your book can delve into the psyche of everyone's different reactions to it. Its also incredibly realistic, and it CAN come out of nowhere.
1:58 - It’s not a big deal 2:57 - Make it matter 4:13 - Consider the audience 5:07 - Know your emotional goal 6:00 - Description 6:48 - Kill appropriately 7:43 - Mix it up 8:37 - Consider the implications 9:52 - Shock value is okay....sometimes 11:00 - Caution
Is nobody talking about when Jenna mentioned reading a middle-grade book with sexual assault and murder? HOW DOES THAT PASS FOR MIDDLE GRADE? Also, great advice as always, I love your vids.
It was just a random example. But you'd be surprised in what could be found in a kids' book. I read a Young Adult book for my American Literature class in college. It was an assigned book too. The book is actually banned from K-12 too and on the banned books list. It's something to do with Native Americans and a teenage Native American. I wish I could remember the book. But the book is for Young Adults, but things like masturbation, naked women/boobs, alcohol, drugs, maybe death in the family, and a few other things were scattered throughout book, which is probably why it's banned in K-12. So it wouldn't really surprise me IF there was a Young Adult book/book for junior high students out there that talks about sexual assault and murder.
@Ace Trainer Mae-day Exactly. Think about the topics covered in series like AtLA, Artemis Fowl, the Bartemaeus Trilogy, or any of the books written by Tamora Pierce. Each have dark topics explored, but it's done without severe mental scarring. (I will admit to being heartbroken/slightly traumatized at the first major death in Fowl when I read it at 14. That one still makes me cry a little, and I'm 27 now.) It's important to broach those kinds of subjects, but the HOW it's broached makes all the difference.
I think the best tip is to create the character before you plan the death. Is it harder to kill them off? Yes. But is it more emotional? YES. But still, it’s hard to write a character when you know they have to die. I am kinda realizing I do have one character who only exists to die… basically the main characters entire species is killed and i gave him a best friend where it’s really easily my to infer how close of friends they are, but then they die to see a lot of emotion out of the character
I think that's how I would do things if I was writing a slasher-horror screenplay. With all the characters I planned on killing off, I'd probably put in a hat and draw names for death order because I really wouldn't know who to kill off first, second, third, and so on. Drawing names would kind of give me a start or at least trigger my creative thinking to start planning stuff. But at least I would know for sure who I'd want to live and die. I'm really not a fan of killing off protagonists/main characters and their love interests. So they wouldn't be added to the list of names being added to the hat to be drawn along with anyone I would want to for sure keep alive.
Honestly I have no idea. My current theory is that her cyborg tech is more powerful than the nsa and she is just able to sync to all the devices that writers have so she knows what video to share with us. My other theory is that Jenna makes videos and they just vibe check every author who sees them.
I'm also tired of the troupe where the mentally ill person is the one that goes nuts and kills people, terrible message to perpetuate. Marginalization exists in all media, including books. We gotta change that as new writers.
My favorite character killing off trope is to kill off someone who everyone (including themselves) knows is going to die, and after a long and hard journey finally let them die for good. Shock value is overrated, gotta take all the time to hammer in the emotional and symbolic weight of mortality!
My favourite thing is to find the character most willing to die, especially in sacrifice for their friends, loved ones, or the world.... and leave them the only one standing. "I don't care what happens to me, save yourself" is so much more impactful if what happens is that they must continue living on with everyone they cared about dead, but in a world left better like the people they cared about would've wanted.
@@aurora5481 I agree. They way I plan on writing the death of one of my characters is super heartbreaking. Basically (while trying not to spoil as much as possible) both the character and his best friend keep a HUGE secret from the rest of the team for the entire book because if anyone else knew this secret the character would have to die, but if he didn’t die the world would end. It’s super sad to have to have this character basically be willing to die (and I’m thinking either this character will have to kill themselves or their best friend would have to kill them) and it’s super super sad. Like I know this sounds dumb because I she not even finished writing the entire first book in the series but just talking about it I am tearing up, and I am not a very emotional person. Just knowing they have to die is… hard
I'm not even gonna let my one character live to see the end of the journey. Everyone knows he will die, they don't know when, and when he dies the main character has to figure out how to move on without them. I'm causing emotional damage for my readers and myself
I killed four of my characters, one from cancer, the second from old age, the third succumbed to the damages he suffered from old wounds he suffered in combat. Last one from an unexpected heart seizure. In other words nothing violent at time of death. I went into great detail on the funeral of the third one, as he was a Navy SEAL in my story arch.
@@geraldfrost4710 If a tree falls in the woods but no-ones around to see it, did it really fall? In the same vein of thinking: If someone is murdered but there isn't a body to discover, were they really murdered?
TL/DR: If you're going to be a genocidal lunatic when writing your novel, make it matter. That's all anybody could ask of you. I can get behind that message!
10:53 "A slow, drawn out death that we see coming from a mile away can be just as impactful as a shocking death." YES! I think this is an excellent point! Just look at the Maze Runner fandom and how hung up everyone still is on that one particular character's death, despite knowing that it had been coming for at least a full book or so. If you write it well, it can create so much tension and the final death can be all the more heart-wrenching for it.
Jenna: writers love to kill off their characters! Me: i dont... (or at least I rarely do. i only do character deaths when the plot demands it, and the way many of my stories go, pre-existing deaths are common but deaths during the story aren't)
I'm a writer that doesn't really like to kill off characters. I definitely DO NOT kill off main characters/protagonists and love interests, Everyone else is expendable. Main villains have a 95% chance of dying too. But lately I try to spare as many characters as I can because for some reason book readers or moviegoers have come to the conclusion that the only way to have good storytelling is by having a blood bath. Marvel fans have really came to this conclusion too, which drives me nuts. They kept saying we can't have a good Marvel movie unless Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, or whoever dies. Me, I just want to watch those superheroes beat up bad guys and stuff for 2 hours or so. I don't want any of them to die. But then when heroes started dying in Infinity War and Endgame, there was all kinds of complaints and people were pissed. So moviegoers also can't make up their mind. Like Iron Man. They said they wanted Iron Man to die. Then he dies in Endgame and all these fans were pissed. But I like to prove you can have good storytelling with very little deaths. I thought the Aquaman movie was pretty good. I felt I went on a fun journey with all the characters. Not any major character died in that movie. Not even the villains. But the movie was a blast and I felt like a ton happened throughout the movie. So you don't really need deaths. I would like to try and prove that. My screenplay I'm working on does have four major deaths, but two happen in the opening scene and the other two are the main villain and the main villain's love interest. But they are kind of characters that can die anyway. The main villain's love interest is a little sad since she was trying to do something right but the main villain kills her for betraying him and stuff. So yeah. The four deaths in my screenplay are kind of fine in a way. The rest of the characters I feel that they are characters no one wants to see die. But I have plans for all the surviving characters in the sequels anyway, so of course they are going to make it out alive. Not saying they die in the sequels though.
Same! I really don't like to kill off characters and I rarely ever do it. Main characters always make it to the end. I usually prefer a happy ending over realism/unpredictability as a reader, so that's also what i want to give as a writer
I feel so bad for the main character in my series 😂 I keep torturing him throughout the series 1. Blessed with talent and knowledge but cursed with an anxiety disorder (first book) 2. His favorite professor which is basically a mentor/father-figure to him gets murdered right in front of his eyes (first book) 3. Pressured to save the universe based on a prophecy that foretold a war in the near of future of the book (first book) 4. Develops PTSD after witnessing the brutal murder of his mentor I just mentioned (first book) 5. The main antagonist kills his parents (third book) 6. the main antagonist obliterates his home town and everyone in it in cinders and debris (third book) 7. Develops depression from the death of his parents and the destruction of his home town and the population that once lived there (third book) 8. The main antagonist slices his right arm off (fourth book) 9. Fails to save the universe from the main antagonist (fourth book) 10. The main antagonist kills 3 of this best friends during the big battle (fifth and final book) Yeah poor guy, luckily all of his torment ends when he defeats the main antagonist in the fifth book and resolves his anxiety, depression, and PTSD issues (is it possible to have all three of them at once?) and miraculously saves the universe with his uhh "team" I guess? More of a Resistance but yeah. Anyone else torturing their main characters? Go ahead and ramble about it here lol Edit: I am well aware that killing off people is not "edgy" or "unique" just as Jenna said. Also I am not poking fun at mental disorders, in fact I have an anxiety disorder, so I know how it feels. I'm not a shit-head who fakes their depression or anxiety for vanity. Just a little heads up! I gave my main character all this torture because I hope that if and when people do read my books, they might feel a connection with the character. That "hey, he's going through all this shit but is still going! I can do it too!" you know? Sort of like a role model or someone to look up to, that is if I write the main character well in a way that makes him relatable, like able, and all that.
That's an interesting story. You said I could rant so here it is. All my main characters have depressing backstories... except for one, I don't know what to do with him yet. Do you have any tips? He is a very calm character and I don't think that secretly being a paranoid wreck fits the story. But this is about my plan for my favorite main character, so at some point in my book, he'd be fighting this unknown person. Passing out from exhaustion for most of the fight. Then he finds out that it was his older brother, who turned rogue in his backstory. Now he'd be having mixed feelings on killing/fighting him. Eventually losing that battle due to the doubt. Then his girlfriend's (or crush. I haven't decided if they get together at this point or not.) life gets threatened by the brother. My other character, had her younger brother die in her backstory. She has a cousin who reminds her of him, so she's very protective of her. Mid point in the book, she finds out that her younger brother was actually alive. Revived by the villain and forced to follow their every command. She finds out that her own brother so dear to her, doesn't even remember her. At some point of her doubt, her cousin and the other main cast members, almost dies. Now she feels a great sense of guilt. In the climax, her brother dies again. I think this character I'm about to talk about has the worse one... this guy has amnesia, like two of the other characters in my main cast. The other two retains their memories quickly, while he doesn't. It didn't really matter to the other characters and the they didn't think much of it. But further in the book, he starts getting dreams of blood on his hands. They're short scenes, so he simply thought it was weird. One time during a battle, he lost control. Repeatedly stabbing his opponents. Slaughtering them in front of his friends, who watched in horror. The other characters stopped him before he went too far by knocking him out. When he woke up, he didn't remember anything. The dreams became longer and longer, becoming into a clear sight of himself. Killing another person. Not a quick death, but a long... agonizing one. Now, he is such a sweet bean. So this makes it much worse. Not wanting to hurt his friends, he kinda distanced himself. But his love interest in the group brought him back and everything went back to normal. No, he didn't say anything to them about the dreams. They go back to their hometown but the guards stopped him from entering. Turns out he's a serial killer. The dreams he had were actually memories. Because of his amnesia, he suffers from a personality disorder. Having two of him. His killer self is unstable and he ends up injuring his friends including the love interest. So he has a point where he is traveling from town to town, running from the guards. Now that I've wrote this---- I'm gonna make him have a second love interest while he's in his travels... oooh I've got ideas.... okay- but that's all I've got right now. I still have three characters (one of which is the one I mentioned at the very top) but this is getting way too long.
JTZombiE Here’s mine!! My mc’s father died and her mother became depressed from his death and became a drunk bum Her sister had to leave home early to provide for them financially My mc started acting out and got in many fights at school but the teachers didn’t scold her bcuz they all knew her father So the students become more upset that she never gets in trouble so she eventually loses her friends too She had a crush on her neighbor so her sister encouraged her to spend more time with him and they started dating and she started to calm down Then he cheated on her after a few months She eventually moved forward from that and they became friends again which makes up her backstory In present day, her sister is a lieutenant in the military and my mc joins the academy to join the military like her dead father and meets a noble boy there that she starts to like She needs to join the military to provide for her family as the world is set up and she gets temporarily suspended because of an accusation by a noble that didn’t approve of their relationship My mc and the love interest go to another country together on an exchange program and the country closes the borders and they end up in jail there bcuz their king sent in spies into the country and got caught The love interest’s mother starts looking for the love interest and my mc’s best friend tells her that the mc took the love interest to said country She does this bcuz of the hate she developed for my mc back in their school days when my mc never got in trouble When they get back from jail, the mother of the love interest accuses the mc of kidnapping her son and she ends up in jail again The mother finds a royal woman and engages the royal to her son The mc’s sister also gets trapped in the same country and loses a leg when escaping So she can’t provide for the family anymore, since the the dad is dead and the mother refuses to work, responsibility’s back on my mc The love interest manages to get her out of jail with the help of other nobles and his fiancé but as a price she can’t join the military and u can’t get a job in my world without first serving your term The love interest’s father then sends out a hit on my mc’s sister That’s bk 1 Damn, I hope she suffered enough
@@secret..m7237 Instead of giving the calm character a depressing background like the others, you could make him be the cause of pain for others... like, being secretly sociopathic (maybe not the murder happy kind, but the socially dysfunctional, more realistic one).
Before my book even begins the mc's father dies. His father and mother had a forbidden romance going on, the mother being an Elf and the father being a Midas (a race i created based on King Midas, who could turn anything he touched to gold)(being a Midas is also punishable by death in this world), so when they got caught, the father sacrificed himself so that the mc and his mother could live. They fled to the Elven towns, and the mother changed her name. When the mc was found out to be a Half Midas at the age of 12, he was run out of the city, and he was convinced his mother was killed. He fled to the dwarven cities, and was found out when he was 18, and then he fled to the Human cities. He's 25 when the story starts, and is found out by the Humans. Then when he goes to the Midas colonies, he's rejected because of his Elvish heritage. He does eventually find his mother in the main villain's prison, on the brink of death might I add, but he still finds her alive. I may not have made him suffer as much as others made their characters suffer, but for a guy who just wants somewhere to belong, it's painful for him. And, once he does find a place to settle down, (a Half Midas village), he couldn't live with himself if he did, because of the atrocities that he's seen the villain commit.
Whenever I kill someone off or have someone die it’s always to push one of the characters forward or to put the plot forward. If someone dies it needs to move the story forward. Honestly whenever I’m thinking of killing someone, I consider how it will effect the story.
"Every plot point should serve a purpose" Meanwhile in real life: Random stuff happens all the time, surprisingly few things actually matter. Oh, and a small additon to the fridging-trope: If the love interest had a personality and agency, especially if their death doesn't change the path of the protagonist in a meaningful way. it's NOT this trope.
I've played entirely too much D&D to bother making certain deaths move the plot forward. Death happens. Especially when conflict occurs. A reason may or may not exist.
A meaningless death still does something for the book: it establishes the brutal realism of the world. Also, not specific to death, but there's a Thursday Next book following the book-within-a-book version of the MC. She visits the regular mundane realm at one point and is warned that things there are random and meaningless, and to not try to figure out why little things happen (like a chance encounter or why did that guy spill his coffee), because applying fiction logic to the 'real' world has driven many bookworld characters insane.
But fiction is an escape from real world issues. That's what everyone seems to forget. So yeah. Random stuff DOES happen in real life, but in fiction, it's more controlled and shouldn't be as random. It's almost like the laws of physics. That's part of why I like the Fast & Furious movies. They are an escape from the real world. In the real world the Fast & Furious wouldn't be possible, but when it comes to movies, fiction allows everything to throw out physics. I'm old school. I'll still accept if someone falls from a 30-story building and lives, but I know that wouldn't happen in real life. But it's a movie, so it's possible. Movie logic and fiction allows it. It's even the same for romance. In fiction, the boy gets the girl while in real life the boy wouldn't. Well, it IS possible for something like that to happen in real life, but about 90% of the time it doesn't. I like to see fiction as if it was a dream playing out. You can't fly in real life, but in dreams I have. I've also had super human strength too like being able to jump over or climb tall buildings, which I can't do in real life. It's not possible. So yeah. That's kind of my explanation on things on why things in fiction seem to have reasons for happening and why things aren't as random as they are in real life.
@@projectpat8807 Depends. In a 90 minute movie you really can't waste any time on stuff without a purpose or pay off. Books on the other hand give you room for randomness to make it feel more real. If you keep them short and not use whole chapters that is.
Patrick McDaniel My thoughts exactly. If I want to get swept up in the chaos and apparent senselessness of violence, I’ll read the news. If I’m reading a book for pleasure, I want the violence in the story to make a point and then move on.
Something that I personally use: If I, the author, think about killing off a character, and I feel sad and emotionally affected by it, maybe it's a good idea for me to kill off my character there.
You can strip your characters of plot armor without killing them. Putting them through hell physically and emotionally can be just as effective. Jenna- would love a video on how to avoid making your characters into a Mary Sue or the male equivalent.
i'm writing a story that is going to require at least one or two people to die due to the setting/genre, but i love all my characters so much already even the background/supporting charries and i don't want to kill any of them off :'( i need to figure out who i'm going to murder and how it's going to benefit the plot, ugh. but i'm definitely going to limit kills in my works because I feel like these days _too_ many stories kill off characters and i'm just kind of sick of having to depend on fanfiction to give me my happy endings. obviously some genres aren't meant to have them, but too many writers for other genres have been going on killings sprees and just overall giving us these only half-happy or open endings... but life's depressing enough, man. i read to escape real life and i want to see more happy endings that aren't possible irl, i don't care how they may not be "logical." i can't remember if it was Jane Austen or some other writer, but one of them said their stories will always have a happy ending because too many people irl don't get one (or something to that degree), and basically those are the kind of stories I want to write.
Yeah, that's a pitfall for some writers. It's easier than it should be to fall into. Playing D&D for years finally taught me that Character death isn't necessarily something to avoid all together. When I started RPG's I was around 10, and every Character quickly became "the greatest one ever" and killing them was unthinkable... Even injuries were hard to endure in the early days... BUT then came a "phase" of realization that we could just as easily "re-skin" a Player Character, as we could a monster or NPC (Non-Player Character) and go right back into Role Play... Now, I just try to make any PC death effectively two things. It should be memorable, so they go down in a "fitting scene" for the Character, and it should be MEANINGFUL, so they get killed in a way that isn't insulting or diminutive. The death should gain something for the Party... move the plot forward, uncover a baddy's weakness, or give some kind of modest benefit. If a GM resists ever letting a PC die, then the dangers and risks in the Game are meaningless. The drama just isn't there and there's no tension. In a way, protecting PC's too much takes away their agency, so that nothing they do really matters. At the same time, making every task worth a roll, it's only a matter before a critical failure gets rolled and if it costs PC after PC, it makes death inevitably cheap. It's no longer meaningful... AND it's insulting to the Player who's Character died by slipping on the soap in the shower or falling down the stairs in his own house... not fighting Orcs, or punching a deity in the face, but tripping over shoelaces or just missing a step in the hurry to answer the door... plop... broken neck... dead PC... I think in writing a novel or even a short story, I'd have to gauge Character deaths to be worthy of each Character I'd kill off. As to your situation, perhaps make a few Characters designed specifically TO be killed off. This way you can get your story written out and later, after you've got the majority of the manuscript together, some of your finishing work can be adding backstory and sophistication to the particular Character(s) you killed. It might make it easier to kill them off, and you get to pursue the purposes for their deaths. It does require that you go back later to develop them a little more in the story, but that might also make it more intense for your readers... I don't know. I just hope it might help you out a bit. ;o)
If you don't really want to kill them off, then don't. Maybe make some other characters that can killed. I'm actually working on a screenplay. With everything going on in the screenplay, the screenplay could be a blood path when it comes to key characters. How many key characters do I kill off? Four. The major deaths are the love interest's parents (they actually die in the opening scene and when the love interest (and the main character) are just babies), the main villain, and the main villain's love interest (the villain actually kills her). I could easily kill off the main character (sacrifice to save the city), the love interest (there is some subplot or maybe Main Plot B where the villain wants the love interest dead, which is not some cliche damsel in distress storyline shoehorned in, the main villain has a good (but sick and twisted) reason to kill her), the main character's ex-girlfriend, the main character's parents (well, I did kill them off in very early drafts of the screenplay, but revived them in later drafts), the main character's sister-in-law and sister-in-law's father (the villain does some hostage situation with them), the police commissioner (in some self-sacrificing redemption storyline because of some secret he has been hiding and could even kill himself in some fight-to-the-death type of fight with the main villain), the main character's older brother (during the final shootout where he kills the main villain, the main villains fires at him at the same time, so the main villain and the main character's older brother could kill each other, but the brother either gets shot in the arm or the villain misses, haven't decided), and I could kill the secondary villain too. So to make that easier to read, I could kill off the main character, the love interest, main character's ex-girlfriend, main character's parents, main character's older brother, the older brother's wife and wife's father, the police commissioner, and any secondary villain. I spare every single one of them. Only deaths are love interest's parents, the main villain, and the main villain's love interest. But I think I put together such an emotionally exhausting screenplay and a screenplay where things just constantly escalate for the characters and they don't really get a chance to breathe, that you'll want to see all those characters survive. The main villain really messes up everyone mentally, emotionally, and physically that you don't want any of them to die. It'll definitely boost the re-read factor and re-watch factor if made into a movie. My screenplay is like a roller coaster. The whole time you'll be saying "I want off!!!" but by the end you'll be saying, "I want back on!!!" since the way things end, it'll be worth going through everything again. So if you don't want to really kill off any characters, then you don't really have to. I am also attached to a lot of the characters. Maybe bend the rules too on things, like I did. Just write stuff so that it seems like someone has to die, but in the end no on really does. Maybe create other characters that can be killed off. Or maybe just have a talk with yourself about it. I didn't like the idea of killing off the main villain's love interest since she tries to do the write thing, but I had an internal talk with myself and said it needs to happen. Well, I'm not too attached to the character anyway, but still, I did have a talk with myself about it. So maybe you have to do that.
@GalaxyVerse Write a death scene for each of them. Then decide who you need for the last scene. Edit out the deaths of the surviving characters. If you hit upon a really awesome death and that character is needed in the curtain call, swap the way he/she died for the lesser death. Never skimp on a character's death scene; you owe them a few lines of glory. "We will feast in Valhalla!" ripping bone and flesh. "You first." Villainous laughter; the hero grits his teeth...
@GalaxyVerse You don't have to keep all the dumb death scenes. Song writers write a lot of verses and throw most of them away. And sometimes what was considered useless comes back as used. "Beer is good! Beer is good! Beer is good! And stuff!" is hilarious because it expresses the lack of thought that a drunk would use, and thus fits the song more eloquently than a well thought out verse that made sense and rhymed. If you edit out only half of what you write, you're doing better than most, and I congratulate you.
"every death needs to matter." Me who is planning to write a bittersweet death that will be rid of someone who deserves to die but is killed by someone who is in love with them which tramatizes the character to a point they can't speak without breaking down which to them is a weakness: I think I got this one covered.
I’m definitely one of the sad killers in fiction. In the superhero series I’m writing, I kill one of the main characters not only to show the reader how powerful the villain is, but also to instigate the breaking point of his girlfriend (another hero. They got together not too long before he sacrificed his life to save hers). At his funeral, his girlfriend becomes furious at the villain. She goes after him alone: and is defeated. She then is turned into a supervillain, so the issue is a double whammy for the remaining 3 main characters (who are already tackling the grief of losing their friend in their own ways). Ultimately, the fifth hero dying helps move along the other hero’s character development, as she processes her grief and becomes more determined to defeat the villain so that he can’t kill anyone else.
I would also give this tip: You don't have to kill a character, just horribly hurt them, to affect the protagonist. It doesn't even have to be physical damage, either.
"I didn't see that coming!" vs "Where the hell did that come from?!" is my favorite part of this video because it captures the opposing feelings so succinctly! Great explainer :)
Perfect timing. I’m writing the 3rd book of a trilogy and there will be three major deaths-at a wedding, no less. It’s UF romance. It’s been planned for a long time and I’m glad to see I’m doing it for the right reasons. Thanks.
MF Hopkins Sounds fun. I’ve only killed off some villains so far. 5 in two novels, all in book 2. They were the assassins sent to kill the heroine. Book three will see many more incidental characters dead, but three will be well known.
“A lot of people are excited to kill off there characters” I haven’t even started the story I’m about to start soon but I am already watching this so, you were right.
Firstly - Love the costume - it's awesome I'm nowhere near having to kill off my character yet. I have a plan for his death but I want people to not expect it and have mixed feelings about it!
Just trust your gut, you still at the stage of planning and writing, trust me I know, I get halfway through writing my novel and realize that it doesn't make any sense and it might actually improve the story line or completely change what your plans say, you'll be okay. Good Luck
THANK YOU. It's not just newbie writers who are killing off characters poorly, just for shock value, as if it's somehow deep. Jason Rothenberg being a case in point.
“We can all think of fictional kills that caught us off-guard.” Yeah, thanks for reminding me, Jenna.😭😉 That first one in TSC really got me in the feels. Well done. 😈
Thank you Jenna, I've been writing a story for a while now, and I've actually froze when writing a coming battle. I've been flip-flopping between killing a character and not, and hearing these tips really helped me figure out what I needed to do. From the moment the video started, I was thinking about how I could apply what I was hearing to my story, I was even talking to myself. Most notably killing a character and having their death go against their life choices and the story's message. This is really what I needed to hear, thanks.
I'm so glad you changed your stance since last video. Last time you argued that deaths should always be shocking, that if a reader sees it coming a mile away it loses its impact. But some of my favorite deaths are the ones you see coming but aren't quite sure they're gonna happen. The suspense followed by agonizing despair is extremely powerful
One hundred percent agree, the character matters most. Kill off a character with no fanfare or forgetting to make the reader grow attached to them is pointless.
The final novel of my series has a team of four characters developed over previous novels. At the end there is a titanic battle and two die. I always knew that one couple would die, and thought I knew who they were. I finally changed my mind, for good reasons I think. But I am sure when others read it they will think that was the way it was planned from the beginning. Being a writer makes you realise how fluid stories are with so many different paths.
was actually thinking about this earlier on. i’m planning on killing off one of the characters in my book but i wasn’t exactly sure how. great timing, and thanks for the tips!
hi jenna! im late but i want to tell you, im ten and writing a book called unexpected royals, i will comment when the book is out. i took your advice during the whole book writing and thank you!
I'm obviously not Jenna, lol, but I wish you good luck on this, it sounds amazing, I started my first novel when I was 9. You'll probably be a lot older now, that I've looked at how many years it was. I hope it all went well for you.
Two-thirds of both my main and supporting characters die in the climax part I of my story. Pretty much everybody gets their own perspective on it (while still in 3rd person). They're killed defending a mansion from a raidng party, and then in the subsequent break out from said mansion, so they die in a variety of gory and over the top ways. Their deaths served the purpose of allowing others to live, and motivating the survivors to honor the memory of the fallen..
That sounds like an amazing story line. Mine is similar too, in another novel I've planned out, where the main character and side kick (sunshine character) die together. Their deaths spite fury into someone who was very close with the main character and that's how they killed the villain. Good luck on ur story
Sometimes we have to ask if it truly serves the story. That is something I struggled with. I ultimately decided not to kill the person off after being very stubborn about it lol
I really needed this video. A couple of characters dying is the trigger for reality to hit my characters. It's currently first draft at the moment. I've signed up for Skillshare. Thank you so much! I'll be watching your author platform lessons this weekend. ❤
Epic Rap Battles: George RR Martin vs JRR Tolkien My readers fall in love with every character I've written Then I kill 'em And they're like "No he didn't!" lol
From that very same battle: We all know the world is full of chance and anarchy So yes its true to life for characters to die randomly But newsflash: the genre's called fantasyy! It's meant to be UNrealistic you myopic manatee!
In my novel so far I have killed off several minor characters. The last one kind of got to me though. When I finished writing the scene, I felt mentally and physically drained. I guess it is because I had several main characters invested in saving this individual. Each one of these characters has been affected in different ways. One is filled with rage and revenge. While others have felt depressed and overwhelmed. Yet another character will not understand the change in his friend until he is told why. The poor guy is young and naive.
I'm trying to think of a book that I read when I was in like 4th grade. It had a really graphic death scene where somebody got impaled somehow and they were like choking on their own blood, AND I CAN'T THINK OF THE NAME OF IT FOR THE LIFE OF ME. It was a kids book, but I can't think of what it was called.
If you’re writing a big battle scene then I recommend that you either have your characters have very serious injuries or kill of at least one character to show the costs and consequences of the battle
I always hate it when the battle ends and they run over to the person as they’re dying, and then the character that’s dying had these dramatic last words that will make sense later in the series or whatever. Like, how does dying suddenly make you realize the secret of the universe as you are dying? Most of the time when people die you don’t get to say goodbye to them
The strongest effect a character death on me was when my favourite character died and I was so sad and angry that I spent 60€ on online store for merch. A pin and a keychain of that character, and a plushie of the killer to abuse.
"if you put some people in a room and blow them up, then you get a few seconds of shock, but if you tell the audience there's a bomb that will go off in ten minutes, then you get ten minutes of suspense." I can't remember the whole quote, but it's at least 80% accurate.
There’s an audio play called “I always kill Juliet” A jam actor auditions for Romeo. A part heis too old, too fat and too lazy to play. He finds out the director of this production is William Shakespeare himself. It was written and Directed by Willis Cooper for his radio series “Quiet Please.”
This reminds me of a series that I stopped watching the moment the only character I was invested in died. The death was staged to motivate her brother to act but the moment the producers callously bounced her off a car hood, I turned off the show.
Huh, I feel a lot of writers in the mainstream should probably check this video out, because there are many writing stories for the biggest franchises and they are not handling the concept of killing off characters well...
One amazing example of a death done right is Cayde-6 from the Destiny series. Throughout the first game, he was the witty comic relief to help make this dreary, dystopian experience more enjoyable. He synergized with almost every character he met, and kept this quality in Destiny 2. He was witty and charismatic all throughout the Red War. It was kind of disappointing that he wasn't in either of the first two DLCs, but they were small potatoes for what was to come. In the first mission of Forsaken, we see Cayde about to die. This works in this scenario because it sets the mood. This DLC isn't going to fuck around, and neither are your enemies. The mission leading up to his death works well as a way to remind us why Cayde is such a fan favorite. He's funny, charming, and he likes to be a little too gung-ho. It is devastating seeing Uldren Sov kill Cayde with his own gun, The Ace of Spades. This acts as a wake-up call to the guardian. The Darkness isn't going to play nice. It's time to stop this baby shit, time to kill. Oh yeah Spoilers for Destiny 2 btw.
The most absolutely evil thing that an author can do is make you get attached to the MC and the love interest and then kill them off at the end of the book. This happened to me once and I SOBBED for literally days lmao
Here's my scenario. My one character is killed to revive someone else, and her soul is stored in the totem that held the soul of the revivee. However, killing them would lead to their arc being unfulfilled and would make the death pointless. However, reviving them would make the death seem cheaper and pointless, although it could be done at the very end to fulfill their arc.
I've been writing and planning my novel out for a long time, then I realized now it was time to kill my favorite character off. It's one book and it's right at the end when they think they finally escaped. I cried while killing her off, because I've been planning this character out for many years, and she dies for the girl she loved, and her girlfriend didn't even know until after, she didn't get a funeral either. The tips helped me improve Hop's death. Love ya Channel
I always preferred either an "outta no where, sudden death" trope or the "character noblely sacrifices themselves with maybe a quick goodbye an a heading out to perform a suicide mission sorta thing. An GOT an TWD... they took the "who's gonna die this week" cliché way too far and way too often
I definitely agree with Tips 1 and 10, although I agree with a few others. You don't need a high body count in order for it to be good storytelling. I enjoyed the Aquaman movie and that barely had any deaths, but I still felt a lot went down and I went on a journey with all the characters. I'm even writing a screenplay. The only major deaths in the screenplay are the main character's girlfriend/fiancée's parents (at the beginning) and the main villain and the main villain's love interest. Everyone else makes it out alive. But with the lack of "major" deaths, I think anyone who reads the screenplay (or watches the movie if it ever gets made into a movie) will go on a crazy journey and be all over the place emotionally by the end. I also did play around with the idea of killing off the main character's girlfriend/fiancée (she becomes his fiancée around the halfway point of the screenplay), but I don't think it's necessary. I want the re-read or re-watch factor to be WAY up there, which I think would be possible if the main character and his fiancée "ride off into the sunset" together. And I do want to reward the audience. I put my characters through hell and even the audience because they have to witness all this crap being piled onto the characters for what they have to deal with. I just want to keep escalating stuff and make it seem like everyone is going to die in the end, but then BAM, I give them a highly positive ending. Even the main character's fiancée goes through hell. She deserves a happy ending. Then there is also I have plans for the main character and his fiancée for sequels, and would like the main character and his fiancée to have a future together. Oh and I did put a lot of work into the relationship. Might as well give them a happy ending. I even played around with the type of person the main character would be if his fiancée was killed off. Knowing the main character very well and how big of a role his fiancée plays in his life, he would become a monster if his fiancée was murdered. He'd turn on everyone. I'm not trying to turn him into a villain or a tragic character either. Plus I'm not a fan of killing off protagonists/main characters. And if I'm going to write a main character that loses his love interest, I'll save it for another screenplay. But yeah. More deaths do not equal better storytelling. Just like jumpscares don't equal horror. Jumpscares are more annoying than scary, so quit relying on them. Deaths should count and serve a purpose and not really be thrown in just because. They need to have some kind of weight to them and be earned and play a key role in the overall plot. My screenplay could easily have a higher body count, but I also kept Tip #10 in mind while writing. My screenplay needs some re-read or possibly re-watch factor to it. And I want to take the audience on some insane journey that is rewarding in the end because of everything they have to witness the characters go through. I want them to cheer for the characters to have a happy ending, and then allow them to see the characters get that type of ending in the end. I want them to be like, "man, that was emotionally exhausting, but with that type of ending, it'll be worth it to sit through it again and go on that emotional roller coaster once more."
My only advice I could give fellow writers is this: If your character dies, you should almost always let them stay dead. It impacts the plot more and, if it affects other characters, it won't make a character's struggle with said death feel any less important. Of course, there are some ways to get past this. For example: A few characters in my own story died, but they still show up every now and then. That's because later on in the story, the characters can access the realms of the dead. The characters stay dead, and there has to be a split up between the cast even after reuniting, but they still get much deserved screen time. Another example of this I could think of is the use of force ghosts in Star Wars. They show up to give the characters advice and move the plot forward, but they're still dead nonetheless. If you want to resurrect a character in your writing, go ahead! I'm not your gender-ambiguous clown parent. The only thing I ask is that you keep said resurrections feasible in the fictional world you've made. Make sure it's known that a character/spell/Frankenstein experiment/previously mentioned legend can be used to bring back a character. Also keep in mind that it makes the readers feel satisfied with the overall arc (if that is what you're going for). In general, just have fun with it! Writing is supposed to be fun, even if you choose not to publish. Enjoy yourselves, and keep on writing.
11:38 THIS is the BIGGEST problem with GOT season 8. So many character deaths that were complete character derailment/crashes. This also reminds me of my WIP, near the start I have a big (offscreen) battle that results in the death of several characters, including one of the MC's basically adopted kids, and a big part of doing so is even more motivation for the MC to go after the Big Bad, cause she wants to avenge the baby. Excellent video as always, Jenna. Great Clockwork Orange costume.
Very good content! I think there are so many ways a character can die necessarily and it doesn't have to be violent, there are even stories revolving around a dying character. For instance, if you're writing a story about a person who has a terminal illness, then it's no surprise if they die at the end of the book. I'm going to have to kill off a likable character in my book but it furthers the plot and it is a bit twisted, but I'm definitely going to ask my betta readers to be overly critical about it because I want to make sure my character isn't so likable that it pisses off my readers when she has to die and I want to make sure I don't take it too far. I also don't feel the need to kill off more than the one character because my killer isn't a serial killer, he does it more out of desperation - a means to his end goal and the character who dies was an obstacle. I think attempted murder in a book should count though even if it doesn't result in death.
Isn't it funny how I'm not planning on killing characters anytime soon because I'm still too attached to them but I still watch this video just because Jenna's writing advice is always really good and I will most likely need them in the future?
Yeah, I killed off two of readers most favorite characters in the story and I basicaly killed the story itself. Listen to Ms. Jenna, kids, don´t do it!
I mean in my current story, I killed the fan favorite, Hop, near the end, which ended on a plot twist. I probably killed it but the story needed it, and her death served a strong message
All my characters r already dead in my fantasy book, but i decide to get attatched to my main character and kill him off again at the end and its the same person who killed him the first time. This is my first novel why am i so mean lmao
(putting on my best German analyst voice) "I think that you might have some rrreprrresed anxiety issues vrom your childhoot. By vorking them out on the page you can examine them in a healthy atmosphere, und also earn some cash. Mit the cash you can buy food, and mit the food you will find your feelinks of anxiety will be reduced." That's all the answer you get for free. Good luck.
Bit of an irony to me, but many of the posts here (that I get alerted-to*) seem to be about the "resurrection" - rather than "killing" - of characters (*maybe because that's a thread I followed). To resuscitate a character - no matter how - is, to my mind, an "undoing" of what you (likely worked hard) to write before: We were at Bob's retirement party, and Bob, 40 years at the company - gods help me, I won't be here that long! - was finally about to get his gold watch. He certainly earned that, and helped me kindly in his turn at tutoring the newbie. As he approached the podium to receive his due credit, Bob suddenly lurched, clutching at his chest, and fell over dead, literally inches from his gold watch. ... Then, before our very eyes, Bob stood up again, and groaned "Give me my watch!" - in a voice that was somehow his, but also inhuman. He lurched toward Margaret at the podium; she recoiled at his approach, but he grasped wildly after his prize. Most of us were frozen in disbelief... ...but ~I~ took a moment to be reminded of a previously never mentioned "odd" look in Bob's eyes, which "I" now "remember" from when he was only my kindly mentor in chapter three... UNDOING is the death of writing !
The one character that deserved a happy ending to you was a weird creepy stalker that mistreated his students to the point of traumatizing one of them?
"Don't Kill people off needlessly!" Me, writing a story about war: uh... "Switch up how people die!" Me, writing a book about fighter pilots: UH... "Don't just kill off female characters to make a main character grow." Me, who's Goose/Biggs Darklighter-type best-friend-who-is-gonna-die character happens to be female: UUUH...
Also worth considering: _Don't spoil a death with bad foreshadowing_ > Character suddenly starts talking about what they'll do after [major plot point]. "If we get through this..." Yeah, they're dead. > Character suddenly receives a boatload of development and closure before [major plot point]. Yeah, they're dead. > Character suddenly does something incredibly stupid and out-of-character ie: wandering off along. Yeah, they're dead. > Narrator suddenly gets nostalgic for character while they're still alive. Yeah, they're dead.
i love your channel jenna i am a aspiring writer i love it this video has helped me get back into writing my books i was having a hard time deciding which of my two characters i should kill and this video helped me immensely thank you so much
I have plans to write an FMA 2003 sequel series where Winry dies and I think this video was very helpful for that. My plans have been to make it something that is built up from the beginning that the viewer doesn’t pick up on, and I want the actual scene to be incredibly peaceful and heartbreaking
I’ve already gotten started on my notes app for a list of ideas to kill off my story villains. One of them is a reference quote to frozen when Olaf got impaled.
Does anyone ever just get struck by the idea that "this character has to die" and just can't shake the idea despite how much you really don't want to? No? Just me? Okay.
opposite issue: "ooh bug how awful would it be if this character died now??"
At least you picked a character, I decided to kill them all😂😂😂😂😂
ME i hate it sm but i have to kill my favourite character ahhhh
Always
And then I have to think about a freaking reason for it xD
Damn... can’t relate
I feel I should b killing more characters but I have no reason to.. they die eventually, just not in bk1.. I feel like too many background characters die in bk 1.. but can’t just kill characters because not enough of em are dead right
Me: *creates an adorable cinnamon roll of a character who I love and adore *
Also Me: Okay, time to die, buddy.
wait but why lol their deaths need a purpose or at least serve some significance in the plot.
@@JTZombiE Yes, I know that lol
RandomWords this is literally me
I did this without even realizing it in my fairytale retelling! :0
isayama writing Sasha in Attack on Titan lol
To add my two-cents:
-Characters who die should STAY dead otherwise it kinda weakens the emotional impact of the death in the first place. But if you have to resurrect them for whatever reason then it has to come at a *HEAVY* cost for either the resurrected or the one doing the resurrection. Also it's best if resurrection is established or at least foreshadowed to be possible in the story before using it.
And to add: Ensure there's a framework for resurrection in your world. Like mine. I have an established framework for people to return from the dead.
Preach. People bringing back the dead left and right is what made me give up on TVD, lol.
@@evermoreisamasterpiece what's TVD?
Resurrection in Torchwood handles the consequence of it really well imo
@@evermoreisamasterpiece When it comes to my world, there is a complex framework to allow full resurrection from the dead, but there are rules and restrictions to it set down by the God of Death.
My favorite way is to drop a safe on them, gotta go with the coyote route.
Anvil
I guess that's the safest option
or in case of the dresden files. a frozen turkey
@@madmintentertainment6268 You know which book that was? I am up to Cold Case I think.
@@RoseKindred book 7 i think? the one where harry had to guard the porn set
i’m writing realistic fiction about a middle school where nobody’s getting killed off...
but when jenna posts, i must watch.
I'm writing a screenplay where it's possible anyone and everyone could die. But in the end the only major deaths (besides Henchman #1 and #2 and so on) are the parents of the main character's love interest (when the love interest is a baby), the main villain, and the main villain's love interest. Everyone else makes it out alive. I could easily turn the screenplay into a blood bath. But after watching Jenna's video on this topic of killing off characters, it pretty much confirms why I spare so many of the characters and allow everyone to make it out alive. Tips #1 and #10 are part of why I decided to keep the body count low. I want the screenplay to have a VERY high re-read factor (or re-watch factor if it gets made into a movie). That and there is tons of stuff I can do with the characters in the sequels. But I also like the idea of making the audience go on one heck of a journey with the characters and make them emotionally exhausted by the end while delivering the most positive/happy/satisfying ending that I can so that whoever can say, "man, I'm exhausted from reading/watching that, but with that type of ending, I'm willing to go through it all again." I don't think I could deliver that if I killed off a couple more characters. But Jenna's video confirms why I went the route I did with my screenplay.
I mean, in middle school, you basically die inside.
Ninja Artist i just cackled at this reply-
You can still kill off middle schoolers if the setting is america-
You can have a somewhat-friend, or someone's father die in a car crash or something like that, and then your book can delve into the psyche of everyone's different reactions to it. Its also incredibly realistic, and it CAN come out of nowhere.
1:58 - It’s not a big deal
2:57 - Make it matter
4:13 - Consider the audience
5:07 - Know your emotional goal
6:00 - Description
6:48 - Kill appropriately
7:43 - Mix it up
8:37 - Consider the implications
9:52 - Shock value is okay....sometimes
11:00 - Caution
You're the real MVP.
Thank you
Is nobody talking about when Jenna mentioned reading a middle-grade book with sexual assault and murder? HOW DOES THAT PASS FOR MIDDLE GRADE? Also, great advice as always, I love your vids.
Go read Onision's books. Sexual assault, murder, school shooting, many other things that I do not want to repeat in this comment, the whole package.
It was just a random example. But you'd be surprised in what could be found in a kids' book. I read a Young Adult book for my American Literature class in college. It was an assigned book too. The book is actually banned from K-12 too and on the banned books list. It's something to do with Native Americans and a teenage Native American. I wish I could remember the book. But the book is for Young Adults, but things like masturbation, naked women/boobs, alcohol, drugs, maybe death in the family, and a few other things were scattered throughout book, which is probably why it's banned in K-12. So it wouldn't really surprise me IF there was a Young Adult book/book for junior high students out there that talks about sexual assault and murder.
The bible has several murders and it's call a book for all ages.
gerald frost it’s also considered historical, not some author purposely writing in graphic murder to sell to ten year olds
@Ace Trainer Mae-day Exactly. Think about the topics covered in series like AtLA, Artemis Fowl, the Bartemaeus Trilogy, or any of the books written by Tamora Pierce. Each have dark topics explored, but it's done without severe mental scarring. (I will admit to being heartbroken/slightly traumatized at the first major death in Fowl when I read it at 14. That one still makes me cry a little, and I'm 27 now.) It's important to broach those kinds of subjects, but the HOW it's broached makes all the difference.
This week on Writing with Jenna Moreci: ✨murder✨
Perfect for my *autobiography*
Jkjk, I got a scifi thing goin on
😂😂😂
Kirby's Calling The Police
Im dying 😈
😂😂😂😂😂
My only one good tip for killing off characters is make it have a purpose besides "I can't find a use for this character anymore".
lol! yes! find a use for them or make them move away or just disappear off screen
Amy Mateyka Well, they’re should be a reason, and a good reason at that.
Yes - if a character is useless - rewrite the story to not include them. Don't be lazy.
I think the best tip is to create the character before you plan the death. Is it harder to kill them off? Yes. But is it more emotional? YES. But still, it’s hard to write a character when you know they have to die. I am kinda realizing I do have one character who only exists to die… basically the main characters entire species is killed and i gave him a best friend where it’s really easily my to infer how close of friends they are, but then they die to see a lot of emotion out of the character
@Terry Bogard & Joe Higashi that is a good change though because Red Hood is such a good character
Rule number one: Don’t put their names in a hat and pick a random one.
Cough cough...Pierce Brown
I think that's how I would do things if I was writing a slasher-horror screenplay. With all the characters I planned on killing off, I'd probably put in a hat and draw names for death order because I really wouldn't know who to kill off first, second, third, and so on. Drawing names would kind of give me a start or at least trigger my creative thinking to start planning stuff. But at least I would know for sure who I'd want to live and die. I'm really not a fan of killing off protagonists/main characters and their love interests. So they wouldn't be added to the list of names being added to the hat to be drawn along with anyone I would want to for sure keep alive.
Damn.. I should try that
Me: *is writing a death scene*
Phone: *does a YT notification ding*
HOW DO YOU DO THIS??
Honestly I have no idea. My current theory is that her cyborg tech is more powerful than the nsa and she is just able to sync to all the devices that writers have so she knows what video to share with us.
My other theory is that Jenna makes videos and they just vibe check every author who sees them.
The disability death trope is similar. We exist to teach you a lesson and then die.
Of course. What else are we good for? We're an inspiration for living at all and even more inspiring after we die.
I'm also tired of the troupe where the mentally ill person is the one that goes nuts and kills people, terrible message to perpetuate. Marginalization exists in all media, including books. We gotta change that as new writers.
EXACTLY!
"wow, we killed off the mentor and got the diversity quota all in one!"
That one hurts because of a disabled friend I had that died out of nowhere one day. It wasn’t inspirational. It was just gut-wrenching and sad.
My favorite character killing off trope is to kill off someone who everyone (including themselves) knows is going to die, and after a long and hard journey finally let them die for good. Shock value is overrated, gotta take all the time to hammer in the emotional and symbolic weight of mortality!
tuskinekinase interesting route
My favourite thing is to find the character most willing to die, especially in sacrifice for their friends, loved ones, or the world.... and leave them the only one standing. "I don't care what happens to me, save yourself" is so much more impactful if what happens is that they must continue living on with everyone they cared about dead, but in a world left better like the people they cared about would've wanted.
aurora damn that’s neat too
@@aurora5481 I agree. They way I plan on writing the death of one of my characters is super heartbreaking. Basically (while trying not to spoil as much as possible) both the character and his best friend keep a HUGE secret from the rest of the team for the entire book because if anyone else knew this secret the character would have to die, but if he didn’t die the world would end. It’s super sad to have to have this character basically be willing to die (and I’m thinking either this character will have to kill themselves or their best friend would have to kill them) and it’s super super sad. Like I know this sounds dumb because I she not even finished writing the entire first book in the series but just talking about it I am tearing up, and I am not a very emotional person. Just knowing they have to die is… hard
I'm not even gonna let my one character live to see the end of the journey. Everyone knows he will die, they don't know when, and when he dies the main character has to figure out how to move on without them.
I'm causing emotional damage for my readers and myself
I killed four of my characters, one from cancer, the second from old age, the third succumbed to the damages he suffered from old wounds he suffered in combat. Last one from an unexpected heart seizure. In other words nothing violent at time of death. I went into great detail on the funeral of the third one, as he was a Navy SEAL in my story arch.
0:10 bold of you to assume we're here to learn how to kill fictional people and not here to let our Cyborg queen explain how to hide a body
It's not a murder if there's not a body.
@@geraldfrost4710 If a tree falls in the woods but no-ones around to see it, did it really fall?
In the same vein of thinking:
If someone is murdered but there isn't a body to discover, were they really murdered?
“How to kill (fictional) people: brought to you by Skillshare!”
sKILLshare
I know it’s a joke how Jenna always posts what we need but I’m literally killing off a character rn soooooo thanks Jenna q
Same
Yeah, she does that...
Also I really needed to say it:
Hey Adora.
@@linnea2978 ayeeee i was waiting for it
@@theneverlandfairy4832 ayyyeeeee gang things :)) U like she-Ra?
@@linnea2978 I love She ra
TL/DR: If you're going to be a genocidal lunatic when writing your novel, make it matter. That's all anybody could ask of you. I can get behind that message!
10:53 "A slow, drawn out death that we see coming from a mile away can be just as impactful as a shocking death."
YES! I think this is an excellent point! Just look at the Maze Runner fandom and how hung up everyone still is on that one particular character's death, despite knowing that it had been coming for at least a full book or so. If you write it well, it can create so much tension and the final death can be all the more heart-wrenching for it.
Jenna: writers love to kill off their characters!
Me: i dont...
(or at least I rarely do. i only do character deaths when the plot demands it, and the way many of my stories go, pre-existing deaths are common but deaths during the story aren't)
I'm a writer that doesn't really like to kill off characters. I definitely DO NOT kill off main characters/protagonists and love interests, Everyone else is expendable. Main villains have a 95% chance of dying too. But lately I try to spare as many characters as I can because for some reason book readers or moviegoers have come to the conclusion that the only way to have good storytelling is by having a blood bath. Marvel fans have really came to this conclusion too, which drives me nuts. They kept saying we can't have a good Marvel movie unless Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, or whoever dies. Me, I just want to watch those superheroes beat up bad guys and stuff for 2 hours or so. I don't want any of them to die. But then when heroes started dying in Infinity War and Endgame, there was all kinds of complaints and people were pissed. So moviegoers also can't make up their mind. Like Iron Man. They said they wanted Iron Man to die. Then he dies in Endgame and all these fans were pissed. But I like to prove you can have good storytelling with very little deaths. I thought the Aquaman movie was pretty good. I felt I went on a fun journey with all the characters. Not any major character died in that movie. Not even the villains. But the movie was a blast and I felt like a ton happened throughout the movie. So you don't really need deaths. I would like to try and prove that. My screenplay I'm working on does have four major deaths, but two happen in the opening scene and the other two are the main villain and the main villain's love interest. But they are kind of characters that can die anyway. The main villain's love interest is a little sad since she was trying to do something right but the main villain kills her for betraying him and stuff. So yeah. The four deaths in my screenplay are kind of fine in a way. The rest of the characters I feel that they are characters no one wants to see die. But I have plans for all the surviving characters in the sequels anyway, so of course they are going to make it out alive. Not saying they die in the sequels though.
Same! I really don't like to kill off characters and I rarely ever do it. Main characters always make it to the end. I usually prefer a happy ending over realism/unpredictability as a reader, so that's also what i want to give as a writer
I feel so bad for the main character in my series 😂 I keep torturing him throughout the series
1. Blessed with talent and knowledge but cursed with an anxiety disorder (first book)
2. His favorite professor which is basically a mentor/father-figure to him gets murdered right in front of his eyes (first book)
3. Pressured to save the universe based on a prophecy that foretold a war in the near of future of the book (first book)
4. Develops PTSD after witnessing the brutal murder of his mentor I just mentioned (first book)
5. The main antagonist kills his parents (third book)
6. the main antagonist obliterates his home town and everyone in it in cinders and debris (third book)
7. Develops depression from the death of his parents and the destruction of his home town and the population that once lived there (third book)
8. The main antagonist slices his right arm off (fourth book)
9. Fails to save the universe from the main antagonist (fourth book)
10. The main antagonist kills 3 of this best friends during the big battle (fifth and final book)
Yeah poor guy, luckily all of his torment ends when he defeats the main antagonist in the fifth book and resolves his anxiety, depression, and PTSD issues (is it possible to have all three of them at once?) and miraculously saves the universe with his uhh "team" I guess? More of a Resistance but yeah. Anyone else torturing their main characters? Go ahead and ramble about it here lol
Edit: I am well aware that killing off people is not "edgy" or "unique" just as Jenna said. Also I am not poking fun at mental disorders, in fact I have an anxiety disorder, so I know how it feels. I'm not a shit-head who fakes their depression or anxiety for vanity. Just a little heads up! I gave my main character all this torture because I hope that if and when people do read my books, they might feel a connection with the character. That "hey, he's going through all this shit but is still going! I can do it too!" you know? Sort of like a role model or someone to look up to, that is if I write the main character well in a way that makes him relatable, like able, and all that.
Yea,I have a super traumatized and powerful character that I love but also dump a truckload of more angst on her
That's an interesting story. You said I could rant so here it is. All my main characters have depressing backstories... except for one, I don't know what to do with him yet. Do you have any tips? He is a very calm character and I don't think that secretly being a paranoid wreck fits the story.
But this is about my plan for my favorite main character, so at some point in my book, he'd be fighting this unknown person. Passing out from exhaustion for most of the fight. Then he finds out that it was his older brother, who turned rogue in his backstory. Now he'd be having mixed feelings on killing/fighting him. Eventually losing that battle due to the doubt. Then his girlfriend's (or crush. I haven't decided if they get together at this point or not.) life gets threatened by the brother.
My other character, had her younger brother die in her backstory. She has a cousin who reminds her of him, so she's very protective of her. Mid point in the book, she finds out that her younger brother was actually alive. Revived by the villain and forced to follow their every command. She finds out that her own brother so dear to her, doesn't even remember her. At some point of her doubt, her cousin and the other main cast members, almost dies. Now she feels a great sense of guilt. In the climax, her brother dies again.
I think this character I'm about to talk about has the worse one... this guy has amnesia, like two of the other characters in my main cast. The other two retains their memories quickly, while he doesn't. It didn't really matter to the other characters and the they didn't think much of it. But further in the book, he starts getting dreams of blood on his hands. They're short scenes, so he simply thought it was weird. One time during a battle, he lost control. Repeatedly stabbing his opponents. Slaughtering them in front of his friends, who watched in horror. The other characters stopped him before he went too far by knocking him out. When he woke up, he didn't remember anything. The dreams became longer and longer, becoming into a clear sight of himself. Killing another person. Not a quick death, but a long... agonizing one. Now, he is such a sweet bean. So this makes it much worse. Not wanting to hurt his friends, he kinda distanced himself. But his love interest in the group brought him back and everything went back to normal. No, he didn't say anything to them about the dreams. They go back to their hometown but the guards stopped him from entering. Turns out he's a serial killer. The dreams he had were actually memories. Because of his amnesia, he suffers from a personality disorder. Having two of him. His killer self is unstable and he ends up injuring his friends including the love interest. So he has a point where he is traveling from town to town, running from the guards. Now that I've wrote this---- I'm gonna make him have a second love interest while he's in his travels... oooh I've got ideas.... okay- but that's all I've got right now.
I still have three characters (one of which is the one I mentioned at the very top) but this is getting way too long.
JTZombiE Here’s mine!!
My mc’s father died and her mother became depressed from his death and became a drunk bum
Her sister had to leave home early to provide for them financially
My mc started acting out and got in many fights at school but the teachers didn’t scold her bcuz they all knew her father
So the students become more upset that she never gets in trouble so she eventually loses her friends too
She had a crush on her neighbor so her sister encouraged her to spend more time with him and they started dating and she started to calm down
Then he cheated on her after a few months
She eventually moved forward from that and they became friends again which makes up her backstory
In present day, her sister is a lieutenant in the military and my mc joins the academy to join the military like her dead father and meets a noble boy there that she starts to like
She needs to join the military to provide for her family as the world is set up and she gets temporarily suspended because of an accusation by a noble that didn’t approve of their relationship
My mc and the love interest go to another country together on an exchange program and the country closes the borders and they end up in jail there bcuz their king sent in spies into the country and got caught
The love interest’s mother starts looking for the love interest and my mc’s best friend tells her that the mc took the love interest to said country
She does this bcuz of the hate she developed for my mc back in their school days when my mc never got in trouble
When they get back from jail, the mother of the love interest accuses the mc of kidnapping her son and she ends up in jail again
The mother finds a royal woman and engages the royal to her son
The mc’s sister also gets trapped in the same country and loses a leg when escaping
So she can’t provide for the family anymore, since the the dad is dead and the mother refuses to work, responsibility’s back on my mc
The love interest manages to get her out of jail with the help of other nobles and his fiancé but as a price she can’t join the military and u can’t get a job in my world without first serving your term
The love interest’s father then sends out a hit on my mc’s sister
That’s bk 1
Damn, I hope she suffered enough
@@secret..m7237 Instead of giving the calm character a depressing background like the others, you could make him be the cause of pain for others... like, being secretly sociopathic (maybe not the murder happy kind, but the socially dysfunctional, more realistic one).
Before my book even begins the mc's father dies. His father and mother had a forbidden romance going on, the mother being an Elf and the father being a Midas (a race i created based on King Midas, who could turn anything he touched to gold)(being a Midas is also punishable by death in this world), so when they got caught, the father sacrificed himself so that the mc and his mother could live. They fled to the Elven towns, and the mother changed her name. When the mc was found out to be a Half Midas at the age of 12, he was run out of the city, and he was convinced his mother was killed. He fled to the dwarven cities, and was found out when he was 18, and then he fled to the Human cities. He's 25 when the story starts, and is found out by the Humans. Then when he goes to the Midas colonies, he's rejected because of his Elvish heritage.
He does eventually find his mother in the main villain's prison, on the brink of death might I add, but he still finds her alive.
I may not have made him suffer as much as others made their characters suffer, but for a guy who just wants somewhere to belong, it's painful for him. And, once he does find a place to settle down, (a Half Midas village), he couldn't live with himself if he did, because of the atrocities that he's seen the villain commit.
Whenever I kill someone off or have someone die it’s always to push one of the characters forward or to put the plot forward. If someone dies it needs to move the story forward. Honestly whenever I’m thinking of killing someone, I consider how it will effect the story.
"Every plot point should serve a purpose"
Meanwhile in real life: Random stuff happens all the time, surprisingly few things actually matter.
Oh, and a small additon to the fridging-trope: If the love interest had a personality and agency, especially if their death doesn't change the path of the protagonist in a meaningful way. it's NOT this trope.
I've played entirely too much D&D to bother making certain deaths move the plot forward. Death happens. Especially when conflict occurs. A reason may or may not exist.
A meaningless death still does something for the book: it establishes the brutal realism of the world.
Also, not specific to death, but there's a Thursday Next book following the book-within-a-book version of the MC. She visits the regular mundane realm at one point and is warned that things there are random and meaningless, and to not try to figure out why little things happen (like a chance encounter or why did that guy spill his coffee), because applying fiction logic to the 'real' world has driven many bookworld characters insane.
But fiction is an escape from real world issues. That's what everyone seems to forget. So yeah. Random stuff DOES happen in real life, but in fiction, it's more controlled and shouldn't be as random. It's almost like the laws of physics. That's part of why I like the Fast & Furious movies. They are an escape from the real world. In the real world the Fast & Furious wouldn't be possible, but when it comes to movies, fiction allows everything to throw out physics. I'm old school. I'll still accept if someone falls from a 30-story building and lives, but I know that wouldn't happen in real life. But it's a movie, so it's possible. Movie logic and fiction allows it. It's even the same for romance. In fiction, the boy gets the girl while in real life the boy wouldn't. Well, it IS possible for something like that to happen in real life, but about 90% of the time it doesn't. I like to see fiction as if it was a dream playing out. You can't fly in real life, but in dreams I have. I've also had super human strength too like being able to jump over or climb tall buildings, which I can't do in real life. It's not possible. So yeah. That's kind of my explanation on things on why things in fiction seem to have reasons for happening and why things aren't as random as they are in real life.
@@projectpat8807
Depends. In a 90 minute movie you really can't waste any time on stuff without a purpose or pay off. Books on the other hand give you room for randomness to make it feel more real. If you keep them short and not use whole chapters that is.
Patrick McDaniel My thoughts exactly. If I want to get swept up in the chaos and apparent senselessness of violence, I’ll read the news. If I’m reading a book for pleasure, I want the violence in the story to make a point and then move on.
Something that I personally use: If I, the author, think about killing off a character, and I feel sad and emotionally affected by it, maybe it's a good idea for me to kill off my character there.
I don't like killing off characters. I simply don't use plot armor if they get themselves into sitation where they will die.
You can strip your characters of plot armor without killing them. Putting them through hell physically and emotionally can be just as effective.
Jenna- would love a video on how to avoid making your characters into a Mary Sue or the male equivalent.
i'm writing a story that is going to require at least one or two people to die due to the setting/genre, but i love all my characters so much already even the background/supporting charries and i don't want to kill any of them off :'( i need to figure out who i'm going to murder and how it's going to benefit the plot, ugh. but i'm definitely going to limit kills in my works because I feel like these days _too_ many stories kill off characters and i'm just kind of sick of having to depend on fanfiction to give me my happy endings. obviously some genres aren't meant to have them, but too many writers for other genres have been going on killings sprees and just overall giving us these only half-happy or open endings... but life's depressing enough, man. i read to escape real life and i want to see more happy endings that aren't possible irl, i don't care how they may not be "logical." i can't remember if it was Jane Austen or some other writer, but one of them said their stories will always have a happy ending because too many people irl don't get one (or something to that degree), and basically those are the kind of stories I want to write.
Yeah, that's a pitfall for some writers. It's easier than it should be to fall into.
Playing D&D for years finally taught me that Character death isn't necessarily something to avoid all together. When I started RPG's I was around 10, and every Character quickly became "the greatest one ever" and killing them was unthinkable... Even injuries were hard to endure in the early days... BUT then came a "phase" of realization that we could just as easily "re-skin" a Player Character, as we could a monster or NPC (Non-Player Character) and go right back into Role Play...
Now, I just try to make any PC death effectively two things. It should be memorable, so they go down in a "fitting scene" for the Character, and it should be MEANINGFUL, so they get killed in a way that isn't insulting or diminutive. The death should gain something for the Party... move the plot forward, uncover a baddy's weakness, or give some kind of modest benefit.
If a GM resists ever letting a PC die, then the dangers and risks in the Game are meaningless. The drama just isn't there and there's no tension. In a way, protecting PC's too much takes away their agency, so that nothing they do really matters.
At the same time, making every task worth a roll, it's only a matter before a critical failure gets rolled and if it costs PC after PC, it makes death inevitably cheap. It's no longer meaningful... AND it's insulting to the Player who's Character died by slipping on the soap in the shower or falling down the stairs in his own house... not fighting Orcs, or punching a deity in the face, but tripping over shoelaces or just missing a step in the hurry to answer the door... plop... broken neck... dead PC...
I think in writing a novel or even a short story, I'd have to gauge Character deaths to be worthy of each Character I'd kill off.
As to your situation, perhaps make a few Characters designed specifically TO be killed off. This way you can get your story written out and later, after you've got the majority of the manuscript together, some of your finishing work can be adding backstory and sophistication to the particular Character(s) you killed. It might make it easier to kill them off, and you get to pursue the purposes for their deaths. It does require that you go back later to develop them a little more in the story, but that might also make it more intense for your readers... I don't know. I just hope it might help you out a bit. ;o)
If you don't really want to kill them off, then don't. Maybe make some other characters that can killed. I'm actually working on a screenplay. With everything going on in the screenplay, the screenplay could be a blood path when it comes to key characters. How many key characters do I kill off? Four. The major deaths are the love interest's parents (they actually die in the opening scene and when the love interest (and the main character) are just babies), the main villain, and the main villain's love interest (the villain actually kills her). I could easily kill off the main character (sacrifice to save the city), the love interest (there is some subplot or maybe Main Plot B where the villain wants the love interest dead, which is not some cliche damsel in distress storyline shoehorned in, the main villain has a good (but sick and twisted) reason to kill her), the main character's ex-girlfriend, the main character's parents (well, I did kill them off in very early drafts of the screenplay, but revived them in later drafts), the main character's sister-in-law and sister-in-law's father (the villain does some hostage situation with them), the police commissioner (in some self-sacrificing redemption storyline because of some secret he has been hiding and could even kill himself in some fight-to-the-death type of fight with the main villain), the main character's older brother (during the final shootout where he kills the main villain, the main villains fires at him at the same time, so the main villain and the main character's older brother could kill each other, but the brother either gets shot in the arm or the villain misses, haven't decided), and I could kill the secondary villain too. So to make that easier to read, I could kill off the main character, the love interest, main character's ex-girlfriend, main character's parents, main character's older brother, the older brother's wife and wife's father, the police commissioner, and any secondary villain. I spare every single one of them. Only deaths are love interest's parents, the main villain, and the main villain's love interest. But I think I put together such an emotionally exhausting screenplay and a screenplay where things just constantly escalate for the characters and they don't really get a chance to breathe, that you'll want to see all those characters survive. The main villain really messes up everyone mentally, emotionally, and physically that you don't want any of them to die. It'll definitely boost the re-read factor and re-watch factor if made into a movie. My screenplay is like a roller coaster. The whole time you'll be saying "I want off!!!" but by the end you'll be saying, "I want back on!!!" since the way things end, it'll be worth going through everything again. So if you don't want to really kill off any characters, then you don't really have to. I am also attached to a lot of the characters. Maybe bend the rules too on things, like I did. Just write stuff so that it seems like someone has to die, but in the end no on really does. Maybe create other characters that can be killed off. Or maybe just have a talk with yourself about it. I didn't like the idea of killing off the main villain's love interest since she tries to do the write thing, but I had an internal talk with myself and said it needs to happen. Well, I'm not too attached to the character anyway, but still, I did have a talk with myself about it. So maybe you have to do that.
@GalaxyVerse Write a death scene for each of them. Then decide who you need for the last scene. Edit out the deaths of the surviving characters. If you hit upon a really awesome death and that character is needed in the curtain call, swap the way he/she died for the lesser death. Never skimp on a character's death scene; you owe them a few lines of glory.
"We will feast in Valhalla!"
ripping bone and flesh.
"You first." Villainous laughter; the hero grits his teeth...
@GalaxyVerse You don't have to keep all the dumb death scenes. Song writers write a lot of verses and throw most of them away. And sometimes what was considered useless comes back as used. "Beer is good! Beer is good! Beer is good! And stuff!" is hilarious because it expresses the lack of thought that a drunk would use, and thus fits the song more eloquently than a well thought out verse that made sense and rhymed. If you edit out only half of what you write, you're doing better than most, and I congratulate you.
Being scared to kill charcters off will ruin your story unless they never served a purpose or you replace it properly KEEP THE DEATH
"every death needs to matter."
Me who is planning to write a bittersweet death that will be rid of someone who deserves to die but is killed by someone who is in love with them which tramatizes the character to a point they can't speak without breaking down which to them is a weakness: I think I got this one covered.
Superhero comics 101: If ya name ain't Uncle Ben, ya ain't really dead
I thought it was "never found the body"
@@sxwriter8569 lol
Or if you're Thomas and Martha Wayne
I’m definitely one of the sad killers in fiction. In the superhero series I’m writing, I kill one of the main characters not only to show the reader how powerful the villain is, but also to instigate the breaking point of his girlfriend (another hero. They got together not too long before he sacrificed his life to save hers). At his funeral, his girlfriend becomes furious at the villain. She goes after him alone: and is defeated. She then is turned into a supervillain, so the issue is a double whammy for the remaining 3 main characters (who are already tackling the grief of losing their friend in their own ways). Ultimately, the fifth hero dying helps move along the other hero’s character development, as she processes her grief and becomes more determined to defeat the villain so that he can’t kill anyone else.
That sounds like an amazing book, good luck!
Killing off a fan favorite poorly? Look no further than The Last of Us 2
Killing off a fan favorite amazingly? Watch How to train your dragon 2
Too true.
Tlou2 ruined golf for me
Am I the only one who thought Joel was a dick in the first game
Last of Us 2? You mean the guy who did a moral 180° and sold out the human race to save one person? Yeah, he deserved it.
@@ThrottleKitty well to be fair, nearly everyone in tlou was a dick. :P
I would also give this tip: You don't have to kill a character, just horribly hurt them, to affect the protagonist. It doesn't even have to be physical damage, either.
"I didn't see that coming!" vs "Where the hell did that come from?!" is my favorite part of this video because it captures the opposing feelings so succinctly! Great explainer :)
Perfect timing. I’m writing the 3rd book of a trilogy and there will be three major deaths-at a wedding, no less. It’s UF romance. It’s been planned for a long time and I’m glad to see I’m doing it for the right reasons. Thanks.
MF Hopkins Sounds fun. I’ve only killed off some villains so far. 5 in two novels, all in book 2. They were the assassins sent to kill the heroine. Book three will see many more incidental characters dead, but three will be well known.
Me: *:(*
Jenna: *uploads*
Me: *:)*
Jenna: This means some of the main cast will get the boot, it'll be painful, but worth it
Rick Riordan: Laughs in evil
“A lot of people are excited to kill off there characters”
I haven’t even started the story I’m about to start soon but I am already watching this so, you were right.
Firstly - Love the costume - it's awesome
I'm nowhere near having to kill off my character yet. I have a plan for his death but I want people to not expect it and have mixed feelings about it!
It's the costume of a rapist.
Just trust your gut, you still at the stage of planning and writing, trust me I know, I get halfway through writing my novel and realize that it doesn't make any sense and it might actually improve the story line or completely change what your plans say, you'll be okay. Good Luck
THANK YOU. It's not just newbie writers who are killing off characters poorly, just for shock value, as if it's somehow deep. Jason Rothenberg being a case in point.
Why is the video unlisted? It was very helpful!
“We can all think of fictional kills that caught us off-guard.” Yeah, thanks for reminding me, Jenna.😭😉 That first one in TSC really got me in the feels. Well done. 😈
Thank you Jenna, I've been writing a story for a while now, and I've actually froze when writing a coming battle. I've been flip-flopping between killing a character and not, and hearing these tips really helped me figure out what I needed to do. From the moment the video started, I was thinking about how I could apply what I was hearing to my story, I was even talking to myself. Most notably killing a character and having their death go against their life choices and the story's message. This is really what I needed to hear, thanks.
Is it weird that just before she posted this I watched both of her videos about killing off characters?
No? Okay 😐
I'm so glad you changed your stance since last video. Last time you argued that deaths should always be shocking, that if a reader sees it coming a mile away it loses its impact.
But some of my favorite deaths are the ones you see coming but aren't quite sure they're gonna happen. The suspense followed by agonizing despair is extremely powerful
One hundred percent agree, the character matters most. Kill off a character with no fanfare or forgetting to make the reader grow attached to them is pointless.
The final novel of my series has a team of four characters developed over previous novels. At the end there is a titanic battle and two die. I always knew that one couple would die, and thought I knew who they were. I finally changed my mind, for good reasons I think. But I am sure when others read it they will think that was the way it was planned from the beginning. Being a writer makes you realise how fluid stories are with so many different paths.
was actually thinking about this earlier on. i’m planning on killing off one of the characters in my book but i wasn’t exactly sure how. great timing, and thanks for the tips!
hi jenna! im late but i want to tell you, im ten and writing a book called unexpected royals, i will comment when the book is out. i took your advice during the whole book writing and thank you!
I'm obviously not Jenna, lol, but I wish you good luck on this, it sounds amazing, I started my first novel when I was 9. You'll probably be a lot older now, that I've looked at how many years it was. I hope it all went well for you.
Two-thirds of both my main and supporting characters die in the climax part I of my story. Pretty much everybody gets their own perspective on it (while still in 3rd person). They're killed defending a mansion from a raidng party, and then in the subsequent break out from said mansion, so they die in a variety of gory and over the top ways. Their deaths served the purpose of allowing others to live, and motivating the survivors to honor the memory of the fallen..
That sounds like an amazing story line. Mine is similar too, in another novel I've planned out, where the main character and side kick (sunshine character) die together. Their deaths spite fury into someone who was very close with the main character and that's how they killed the villain. Good luck on ur story
Sometimes we have to ask if it truly serves the story. That is something I struggled with. I ultimately decided not to kill the person off after being very stubborn about it lol
I really needed this video. A couple of characters dying is the trigger for reality to hit my characters. It's currently first draft at the moment. I've signed up for Skillshare. Thank you so much! I'll be watching your author platform lessons this weekend. ❤
Epic Rap Battles: George RR Martin vs JRR Tolkien
My readers fall in love with every character I've written
Then I kill 'em
And they're like "No he didn't!"
lol
From that very same battle:
We all know the world is full of chance and anarchy
So yes its true to life for characters to die randomly
But newsflash:
the genre's called fantasyy!
It's meant to be UNrealistic you myopic manatee!
I 1000000% expected to find a comment like this one 🤣
Currently outlining a potential death scene for my book. This was very helpful, thank you!
RUclips is drunk again there’s only 8 views
We stan good deaths, I just cut off my character's leg OwO
In my novel so far I have killed off several minor characters. The last one kind of got to me though. When I finished writing the scene, I felt mentally and physically drained. I guess it is because I had several main characters invested in saving this individual. Each one of these characters has been affected in different ways. One is filled with rage and revenge. While others have felt depressed and overwhelmed. Yet another character will not understand the change in his friend until he is told why. The poor guy is young and naive.
I'm trying to think of a book that I read when I was in like 4th grade. It had a really graphic death scene where somebody got impaled somehow and they were like choking on their own blood, AND I CAN'T THINK OF THE NAME OF IT FOR THE LIFE OF ME. It was a kids book, but I can't think of what it was called.
If you’re writing a big battle scene then I recommend that you either have your characters have very serious injuries or kill of at least one character to show the costs and consequences of the battle
I always hate it when the battle ends and they run over to the person as they’re dying, and then the character that’s dying had these dramatic last words that will make sense later in the series or whatever. Like, how does dying suddenly make you realize the secret of the universe as you are dying? Most of the time when people die you don’t get to say goodbye to them
Dying brains go on overload in an attempt to refuse to die?
Omg Jenna, I’m designing my character that gets killed off rn, thank u!! I needed this for my comic ~
The strongest effect a character death on me was when my favourite character died and I was so sad and angry that I spent 60€ on online store for merch. A pin and a keychain of that character, and a plushie of the killer to abuse.
"if you put some people in a room and blow them up, then you get a few seconds of shock, but if you tell the audience there's a bomb that will go off in ten minutes, then you get ten minutes of suspense."
I can't remember the whole quote, but it's at least 80% accurate.
There’s an audio play called “I always kill Juliet” A jam actor auditions for Romeo. A part heis too old, too fat and too lazy to play. He finds out the director of this production is William Shakespeare himself. It was written and
Directed by Willis Cooper for his radio series “Quiet Please.”
This reminds me of a series that I stopped watching the moment the only character I was invested in died. The death was staged to motivate her brother to act but the moment the producers callously bounced her off a car hood, I turned off the show.
Huh, I feel a lot of writers in the mainstream should probably check this video out, because there are many writing stories for the biggest franchises and they are not handling the concept of killing off characters well...
I'm not going to kill off too many characters, but this is such a helpful guide!
Thank you! I have this ongoing story with a bunch of friends and an important one to the story just left, so this really helps
One amazing example of a death done right is Cayde-6 from the Destiny series. Throughout the first game, he was the witty comic relief to help make this dreary, dystopian experience more enjoyable. He synergized with almost every character he met, and kept this quality in Destiny 2. He was witty and charismatic all throughout the Red War. It was kind of disappointing that he wasn't in either of the first two DLCs, but they were small potatoes for what was to come. In the first mission of Forsaken, we see Cayde about to die. This works in this scenario because it sets the mood. This DLC isn't going to fuck around, and neither are your enemies. The mission leading up to his death works well as a way to remind us why Cayde is such a fan favorite. He's funny, charming, and he likes to be a little too gung-ho. It is devastating seeing Uldren Sov kill Cayde with his own gun, The Ace of Spades. This acts as a wake-up call to the guardian. The Darkness isn't going to play nice. It's time to stop this baby shit, time to kill.
Oh yeah Spoilers for Destiny 2 btw.
The most absolutely evil thing that an author can do is make you get attached to the MC and the love interest and then kill them off at the end of the book. This happened to me once and I SOBBED for literally days lmao
My gosh that happened to me I cried soo hard I also know their fate because of a spoiler but it still hits hard
Here's my scenario.
My one character is killed to revive someone else, and her soul is stored in the totem that held the soul of the revivee. However, killing them would lead to their arc being unfulfilled and would make the death pointless. However, reviving them would make the death seem cheaper and pointless, although it could be done at the very end to fulfill their arc.
And killing off characters is pretty much my favorite thing to do.
I've been writing and planning my novel out for a long time, then I realized now it was time to kill my favorite character off. It's one book and it's right at the end when they think they finally escaped. I cried while killing her off, because I've been planning this character out for many years, and she dies for the girl she loved, and her girlfriend didn't even know until after, she didn't get a funeral either. The tips helped me improve Hop's death. Love ya Channel
I always preferred either an "outta no where, sudden death" trope or the "character noblely sacrifices themselves with maybe a quick goodbye an a heading out to perform a suicide mission sorta thing.
An GOT an TWD... they took the "who's gonna die this week" cliché way too far and way too often
My Copy of The Saviors Sister came in the mail today and I'm so happy!!!!!
"Readers are gonna be pissed"
YOU KILLED MY MISERY! 😝
I definitely agree with Tips 1 and 10, although I agree with a few others. You don't need a high body count in order for it to be good storytelling. I enjoyed the Aquaman movie and that barely had any deaths, but I still felt a lot went down and I went on a journey with all the characters. I'm even writing a screenplay. The only major deaths in the screenplay are the main character's girlfriend/fiancée's parents (at the beginning) and the main villain and the main villain's love interest. Everyone else makes it out alive. But with the lack of "major" deaths, I think anyone who reads the screenplay (or watches the movie if it ever gets made into a movie) will go on a crazy journey and be all over the place emotionally by the end. I also did play around with the idea of killing off the main character's girlfriend/fiancée (she becomes his fiancée around the halfway point of the screenplay), but I don't think it's necessary. I want the re-read or re-watch factor to be WAY up there, which I think would be possible if the main character and his fiancée "ride off into the sunset" together. And I do want to reward the audience. I put my characters through hell and even the audience because they have to witness all this crap being piled onto the characters for what they have to deal with. I just want to keep escalating stuff and make it seem like everyone is going to die in the end, but then BAM, I give them a highly positive ending. Even the main character's fiancée goes through hell. She deserves a happy ending. Then there is also I have plans for the main character and his fiancée for sequels, and would like the main character and his fiancée to have a future together. Oh and I did put a lot of work into the relationship. Might as well give them a happy ending. I even played around with the type of person the main character would be if his fiancée was killed off. Knowing the main character very well and how big of a role his fiancée plays in his life, he would become a monster if his fiancée was murdered. He'd turn on everyone. I'm not trying to turn him into a villain or a tragic character either. Plus I'm not a fan of killing off protagonists/main characters. And if I'm going to write a main character that loses his love interest, I'll save it for another screenplay. But yeah. More deaths do not equal better storytelling. Just like jumpscares don't equal horror. Jumpscares are more annoying than scary, so quit relying on them. Deaths should count and serve a purpose and not really be thrown in just because. They need to have some kind of weight to them and be earned and play a key role in the overall plot. My screenplay could easily have a higher body count, but I also kept Tip #10 in mind while writing. My screenplay needs some re-read or possibly re-watch factor to it. And I want to take the audience on some insane journey that is rewarding in the end because of everything they have to witness the characters go through. I want them to cheer for the characters to have a happy ending, and then allow them to see the characters get that type of ending in the end. I want them to be like, "man, that was emotionally exhausting, but with that type of ending, it'll be worth it to sit through it again and go on that emotional roller coaster once more."
My only advice I could give fellow writers is this: If your character dies, you should almost always let them stay dead. It impacts the plot more and, if it affects other characters, it won't make a character's struggle with said death feel any less important. Of course, there are some ways to get past this. For example:
A few characters in my own story died, but they still show up every now and then. That's because later on in the story, the characters can access the realms of the dead. The characters stay dead, and there has to be a split up between the cast even after reuniting, but they still get much deserved screen time. Another example of this I could think of is the use of force ghosts in Star Wars. They show up to give the characters advice and move the plot forward, but they're still dead nonetheless.
If you want to resurrect a character in your writing, go ahead! I'm not your gender-ambiguous clown parent. The only thing I ask is that you keep said resurrections feasible in the fictional world you've made. Make sure it's known that a character/spell/Frankenstein experiment/previously mentioned legend can be used to bring back a character. Also keep in mind that it makes the readers feel satisfied with the overall arc (if that is what you're going for).
In general, just have fun with it! Writing is supposed to be fun, even if you choose not to publish. Enjoy yourselves, and keep on writing.
11:38 THIS is the BIGGEST problem with GOT season 8. So many character deaths that were complete character derailment/crashes.
This also reminds me of my WIP, near the start I have a big (offscreen) battle that results in the death of several characters, including one of the MC's basically adopted kids, and a big part of doing so is even more motivation for the MC to go after the Big Bad, cause she wants to avenge the baby.
Excellent video as always, Jenna. Great Clockwork Orange costume.
Very good content! I think there are so many ways a character can die necessarily and it doesn't have to be violent, there are even stories revolving around a dying character. For instance, if you're writing a story about a person who has a terminal illness, then it's no surprise if they die at the end of the book. I'm going to have to kill off a likable character in my book but it furthers the plot and it is a bit twisted, but I'm definitely going to ask my betta readers to be overly critical about it because I want to make sure my character isn't so likable that it pisses off my readers when she has to die and I want to make sure I don't take it too far. I also don't feel the need to kill off more than the one character because my killer isn't a serial killer, he does it more out of desperation - a means to his end goal and the character who dies was an obstacle. I think attempted murder in a book should count though even if it doesn't result in death.
Isn't it funny how I'm not planning on killing characters anytime soon because I'm still too attached to them but I still watch this video just because Jenna's writing advice is always really good and I will most likely need them in the future?
Yeah, I killed off two of readers most favorite characters in the story and I basicaly killed the story itself. Listen to Ms. Jenna, kids, don´t do it!
I mean in my current story, I killed the fan favorite, Hop, near the end, which ended on a plot twist. I probably killed it but the story needed it, and her death served a strong message
*loads gun*
Oh don’t mine me, imma just sneak up on my characters
All my characters r already dead in my fantasy book, but i decide to get attatched to my main character and kill him off again at the end and its the same person who killed him the first time. This is my first novel why am i so mean lmao
(putting on my best German analyst voice)
"I think that you might have some rrreprrresed anxiety issues vrom your childhoot. By vorking them out on the page you can examine them in a healthy atmosphere, und also earn some cash. Mit the cash you can buy food, and mit the food you will find your feelinks of anxiety will be reduced."
That's all the answer you get for free. Good luck.
I just like how Danganronpa gets almost every single one of these tips wrong.
I really love how protective Jenna is of LGBTQ+ community in some of her videos. It's truly heartwarming.
Bit of an irony to me, but many of the posts here (that I get alerted-to*) seem to be about the "resurrection" - rather than "killing" - of characters (*maybe because that's a thread I followed).
To resuscitate a character - no matter how - is, to my mind, an "undoing" of what you (likely worked hard) to write before:
We were at Bob's retirement party, and Bob, 40 years at the company - gods help me, I won't be here that long! - was finally about to get his gold watch. He certainly earned that, and helped me kindly in his turn at tutoring the newbie. As he approached the podium to receive his due credit, Bob suddenly lurched, clutching at his chest, and fell over dead, literally inches from his gold watch.
...
Then, before our very eyes, Bob stood up again, and groaned "Give me my watch!" - in a voice that was somehow his, but also inhuman. He lurched toward Margaret at the podium; she recoiled at his approach, but he grasped wildly after his prize.
Most of us were frozen in disbelief...
...but ~I~ took a moment to be reminded of a previously never mentioned "odd" look in Bob's eyes, which "I" now "remember" from when he was only my kindly mentor in chapter three...
UNDOING is the death of writing !
Thanks for the video!! ♥️
Let's be sadists together! Yay!
#1 was my biggest issue with Snape. i was annoyed to go through the entire series and she kills off the one character that deserved that happy ending.
The one character that deserved a happy ending to you was a weird creepy stalker that mistreated his students to the point of traumatizing one of them?
yeah snape did not deserve a happy ending
"Don't Kill people off needlessly!"
Me, writing a story about war: uh...
"Switch up how people die!"
Me, writing a book about fighter pilots: UH...
"Don't just kill off female characters to make a main character grow."
Me, who's Goose/Biggs Darklighter-type best-friend-who-is-gonna-die character happens to be female: UUUH...
'but Jennaaa-' 'shut up you big baby let the adults speak'
best llline so far lol
Make them rage.
Sounds like someone found out about The Last of Us 2!
Oooh, perfect timing, Jenna! I needed a short video to watch before bed. :D
Also worth considering: _Don't spoil a death with bad foreshadowing_
> Character suddenly starts talking about what they'll do after [major plot point]. "If we get through this..." Yeah, they're dead.
> Character suddenly receives a boatload of development and closure before [major plot point]. Yeah, they're dead.
> Character suddenly does something incredibly stupid and out-of-character ie: wandering off along. Yeah, they're dead.
> Narrator suddenly gets nostalgic for character while they're still alive. Yeah, they're dead.
i love your channel jenna i am a aspiring writer i love it this video has helped me get back into writing my books i was having a hard time deciding which of my two characters i should kill and this video helped me immensely thank you so much
I have plans to write an FMA 2003 sequel series where Winry dies and I think this video was very helpful for that. My plans have been to make it something that is built up from the beginning that the viewer doesn’t pick up on, and I want the actual scene to be incredibly peaceful and heartbreaking
So excited for Skillshare! Thank you!
Me, writing for fun and never planning on sharing my work: Mmmm yes I need to write this well for my audience
I’ve already gotten started on my notes app for a list of ideas to kill off my story villains. One of them is a reference quote to frozen when Olaf got impaled.