How do I kill off a character cleanly and smoothly without any regrets?(Unedited)

[kokiboki]

Title: How do I kill off a character cleanly and smoothly without any regrets?

I'm practicing my writing skills and making writing down short stories that would take me a minute to finish but whenever I get to the part where someone has to die...It was hard for me to eradicate the character because I grew attached to it.

And I don't want them to die. I see them as the children I will never have in a lifetime. I recently started making some Man-eating plant stories in my notepad. I will later publish the story because I like and love it. But I'm stuck on the first chapter.

I don't know who to kill the old man or the young man, The old man already lived a life but the young man has a whole life ahead of him and he hasn't got a taste of the world yet, But if I kill the grants it would be considered heartless and he hasn't gotten enough screentime it wouldn't have a dramatic sad effect.

I could kill off the antagonist but the story wouldn't be a story without it.

Please tell me what you think I want to know your thoughts about this.

---

Chapter 1: The Gilliflower has escaped from the Defense Lab Of The Regeneratiofrom n Of Synecology.

A 6ft flower that resembles a golden bird with its large triangle-shaped petals spread outward like wings, at the edges of each petal holds a row of pointy blades dripping with translucent purple venomous liquid.

Its inflorescence parallels a bird's bill when all petals close except the teeth that glare brightly in the moonlight. It's a rare flower that can be only found in the United States of America the only country which has Hamburgers as its national dish. It's native to Kansas...

This monstrous plant sits on the roof of a small boat under the disguise of an ordinary flower as it wiggles and jiggles to the music on the radio. The skipper driving the boat a tall young man smiles as he looks at the vast ocean in front of him.

「The fish in the sea are the best, Lake fish are so dirty and ugly I want to eat something colorful. 」

He sighs as he continues to speak to himself with a voice full of disappointment while he looks straight ahead, He noticed something big and yellow peeking from the top of the covering of the boat. 「Oh my, what's that?」

He looks over at his companion who appears to be a middle-aged man with a big belly who appears to be sipping some water from a white styrofoam cup, He's the type of person who would say 'It's too far.' though the object they're looking for is right in front of them.

The passenger speaks not once looking at the driver.「Did you bump into something boy?」

There was no response back just pure silence

from the young man whose eyes are glued to the yellow unknown object sitting above the boat covering.「Boy, what's up with you answer me...Did you get bitten by a mad dog or something?」

Boom!

A loud booming noise echoed through the air, The boat starts the shake violently from side to side and the booming sound continues as if someone or something big is walking on the boat.

A garish strange roar could be heard, The delicious Gilliflower walks around the boat inspecting the items on it, It stumbles upon a cooler filled with frozen treats for the tummy.

「Yum...Yummy...food?」 the beast said to itself as lifted the cooler with its big green healthy leaf.

Bringing the cooler towards its wide-open jaws while dropping the cooler inside with a big gulp, but then it quickly fell to the ground and started squirming in pain.

「Ew, what is that thing?」the older man says in disgust as he gets up from his seat reaching for the lifeboat nearby, 「Grandpa, I think it's the rare flower that escaped the lab.」 The young man said scratching his head.

「Xie Tingguang! enough with the 'I think' crap stop trying to act educated and help with this darn thing.」 Grandpa says trying to open the lifeboat.

Xie Tingguang quickly helped his grandfather with the lifeboat,「ow my knee...」 he muttered after his knee banged against something hard. His grandfather slapped him in the back of the head. 「You mocking me?」

Xie Tingguang looks around the corner the plant is still on the ground, This is their time to escape and avoid becoming plant food the lifeboat was thrown into the water and they jumped in with no time to waste.

Just as the plant was getting up from the ground and was ready to pounce on them. There's land not too far away they can go there to his from this beast.

Grandpa started to paddle with his using them as oars, Xie Tingguang joined his grandfather and they started to make progress the lifeboat is moving away from the boat.「Ah! Ah! Ah!!」the monster cried as it watched them leave.

It's the biggest fear is being abandoned in the middle of nowhere, without no food, no freshwater...Gilliflower will truly shrivel and die. It whimpered as watched them get farther and farther away.

All I ever wanted was a friend...

 

[RavenRunes]

If they need to die for the story, then they need to die. You can do it however best fits the scene at the time. Readers don't necessarily have to be attached to the character who's dying for it to have a dramatic effect - as long as the character really meant something to your protagonist, then it's fine. Your reader will still feel the effect because they're attached to your protag.

A good part of learning to write well is to write outside your comfort zone. They're not real people so you can screw them over in every way you can think of, and rewrite if you want to!

Fix your tenses though.

 

[kokiboki]

If they need to die for the story, then they need to die. You can do it however best fits the scene at the time. Readers don't necessarily have to be attached to the character who's dying for it to have a dramatic effect - as long as the character really meant something to your protagonist, then it's fine. Your reader will still feel the effect because they're attached to your protag.

A good part of learning to write well is to write outside your comfort zone. They're not real people so you can screw them over in every way you can think of, and rewrite if you want to!

Fix your tenses though.

What are tenses does the involve past tense? I was never taught about that.

 

[Nekroz]

What are tenses does the involve past tense? I was never taught about that.

Past tense is writing something as if happened in the past. Present tense is writing it likes it happening right now. Most stories are written in past tense. They also generally stick to that tense, which you should do as well. It makes things easier to read.

 

[Ai-chan]

Don't be afraid of killing off your characters. Killing characters that you love is never clean or without regret. Emotion is good. Don't sterilize your story by only writing what's 'safe'. If you're attached to the old man, then killing him off could be a good idea.

Because now, your sterile composition has your feelings inside it. Don't fear death. Embrace it, and tell people how you feel about it.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Really? The one place where the shitty meme can be used perfectly and no one used it? *sigh*

---

Carefully

 

[Varstark]

One of the oldest writing tips in the book is to not be afraid of killing your darlings.

 

[RaizarP]

Make the character suffer first then kill them
On the side note, just kill who you want to kill, even the MC

 

[CarburetorThompson]

I always start my writing by writing a short description of each character, and what I want them to accomplish and happen to them in the story. If you know when and how a character dies from the moment you write the first word of the story it is very easy. At least for me.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

The problem with killing the character is the loss of potential. So, does killing the character create more potential then keeping him alive?

Which story is done?

Kill that one.

How? Death by snu snu is good. However, that might not fit.

What ever death makes the reader hate the MC the least.

 

[K5Rakitan]

They're not real people so you can screw them over in every way you can think of, and rewrite if you want to!

If they are based on real people, think

carefully

before you kill them. Back in 2015, I was essentially just goofing off in my paper notebook and doing some practice writing just for me and killed a character based on one of my boyfriends. I should mention here that I'm polyamorous to avoid confusion.

The next day, his wife sends me a Facebook message telling me that he's dead. My parents drop me off at their house a couple of days later because I don't drive, and she's in no emotional state to pick me up from the station. Around the kitchen table with a few other familiar faces, I learn that he took a spill off his motorcycle, and truck-kun broke his pelvis. Jokes ease our pain. His wife tells me to sleep in their bed while she snuggles up with their toddler in the kid's room. The fairy godfathers sleep in the guest room, and everyone else crashes on couches downstairs.

The next morning, I sit with his wife in front of the funeral chapel. She tells me about a place she would like to take me sometime. I sit with her until more people arrive. The funeral chapel is PACKED with people arriving from all corners of the country and perhaps even farther. I whisper to his coworker that I want to scream. He tells me to scream, but I cry into his shoulder instead. On the second night, I crash downstairs while the witch godmothers take over the master bedroom.

When I finally get home and settle in for the night, I turn to my paper notebook for comfort and have a rather shocking realization. I open it up, and it's all there. He fell off his horse and got trampled by pursuing horsemen. I toss the notebook in my stack of used notebooks and never look at it again.

There is something that gives me peace of mind, though. His wife said that they once spoke to a psychic who said that my boyfriend had many past lives going back to the Middle Ages. He has always been a warrior, and he has never made it to 40. Perhaps I was merely channeling one of his past lives.

 

[doravg]

You can't. All life is precious. The life of your character is even more precious to you, seeing as the character was created by you. But, look at it that way: If it makes you regret, then your reader will feel the emotions you have put into the death, and feel for the character's passing.

 

[Ai-chan]

Oh, by the way. Did you know that Xie Tingguang 解挺銧 means 'the answer for erect swords'? It is!

Now you can make a joke about your own character being the solution for horny guys!