Death scenes are easy, right?
Just make the character say, "I love you" and be done, all good!
This is a big no-no. Try to have as little cliché as possible- some is still good (Snape's death in J.K Rowling's Harry Potter) but less is more.(Notice how Snape is the only clichéd character- for the others there are no sad last words. The grief hits later. Those are two completely different types of scenes, and the latter is the best if you want to kill off individuals often- though if you did that I'm sure you would cry often.)
This is generally what readers think of cliché death scenes, to give you an idea. They also might be yelling, "cliché!" at the top of their lungs.
Tears ran down my cheeks as I leaned over Sprite. "Please, don't leave," I sobbed.
Sprite groaned. "All I wanted... was a Pepsi. Wh- why did-"
"Shh," I whispered. "You're gonna be okay. Right? We're gonna be okay- we've gotta be- if you hadn't taken that bullet-"
His eyes shot open. "It wasn't my fault- if I hadn't slipped on that banana peel I wouldn't have fallen in front of-" he was interrupted by a loud cough. "Please- please just defeat Dr. Pepper- if only for me." His eyes closed for one last time.
Okay, so maybe that was a bit overplayed. But readers hate lots of cliché- as you're a writer, you're probably a reader too and know this. So don't do it often! Death scenes should be sharp and shocking, and then the grief can hit, but don't let two much cliché run rampant throughout your novel. For one or two characters a bit of cliché is perfectly fine, to add some different depressing emotion, but scenes like this for more than two or so characters gets really boring really fast.
And no, I have nothing against Dr. Pepper- the name just worked really well. If you cry writing a death scene (like me) that probably means that you've written a good one (or are very emotional when writing, also like me). If you don't cry you are either an emotionless robot or the scene isn't emotional enough.
This is a big no-no. Try to have as little cliché as possible- some is still good (Snape's death in J.K Rowling's Harry Potter) but less is more.(Notice how Snape is the only clichéd character- for the others there are no sad last words. The grief hits later. Those are two completely different types of scenes, and the latter is the best if you want to kill off individuals often- though if you did that I'm sure you would cry often.)
This is generally what readers think of cliché death scenes, to give you an idea. They also might be yelling, "cliché!" at the top of their lungs.
Tears ran down my cheeks as I leaned over Sprite. "Please, don't leave," I sobbed.
Sprite groaned. "All I wanted... was a Pepsi. Wh- why did-"
"Shh," I whispered. "You're gonna be okay. Right? We're gonna be okay- we've gotta be- if you hadn't taken that bullet-"
His eyes shot open. "It wasn't my fault- if I hadn't slipped on that banana peel I wouldn't have fallen in front of-" he was interrupted by a loud cough. "Please- please just defeat Dr. Pepper- if only for me." His eyes closed for one last time.
Okay, so maybe that was a bit overplayed. But readers hate lots of cliché- as you're a writer, you're probably a reader too and know this. So don't do it often! Death scenes should be sharp and shocking, and then the grief can hit, but don't let two much cliché run rampant throughout your novel. For one or two characters a bit of cliché is perfectly fine, to add some different depressing emotion, but scenes like this for more than two or so characters gets really boring really fast.
And no, I have nothing against Dr. Pepper- the name just worked really well. If you cry writing a death scene (like me) that probably means that you've written a good one (or are very emotional when writing, also like me). If you don't cry you are either an emotionless robot or the scene isn't emotional enough.