the first thing when writing death scenes is making sure you're killing a character for a good reason. naturally, if you're writing a book set in war or it's a hunger games fic or something, this rule is less strict because you don't really need an excuse to kill people off, but for main characters you should be aware of what their death contributes to the plot or overall theme.
here's a good chart to help decide:
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if you've figured out what benefits a main character dying has in your story and have decided to go through with it, great!! (not for them tho lol) but you need to write it in a way that will make your readers feel it.
some questions to ask yourself:
— have i written a character who is sympathetic? did i give them enough screentime (pagetime?) that it's reasonable for me to expect my readers to be sad that they're dying?
— am i choosing the right place in the story for this scene? is it at the climax of the story, the beginning, or that middle point just before the story hits an all time low? is there potentially a better placement for this scene?
— did the character dying leave something behind or did they accomplish their goals? is the scene sad because the character died prematurely with so much life to live, or is it sad because they were ready to go?
— who is with them in the scene? what impact do they have—is something coming full circle for these characters? could the scene be changed/better if a different character was by their side? (i don't see this much but oh man, a character we love dying all alone? and i don't mean that 'they're almost dead and someone enters for their final breath' i mean they DIED alone... no last goodbyes or closure. we just enter the scene and they're gone. maybe we get their perspective at least. owie.)
— kind of a part two of the above question but—who needs to be in this scene to get closure and who needs to NOT get closure? both will advance your characters but in very different ways
a few other things to note:
— keep the death short. keep the grieving process long.
— use callbacks, nicknames, sentiments in your death scene that are subtle but your readers will read and remember a specific moment or special part of your character. maybe repeat a line they/someone they care about said, have them ask an unanswered question, hold onto a trinket that they love, etc. it can be something small but foreshadowed just enough that someone rereading would notice it and freak out
