I gave some of this advice to a fellow author earlier today (hello Faith_Laufeyson if you're reading this lol), and I thought I'd add it here too! Here's some things I do when writing a sad scene or death scene.
1. Write small.
There's this one piece of advice I read about and it always stuck with me. It said something like, "when writing a heartbreaking scene, write small. Don't write about the big things. If you're writing about a war, don't write about the horrors of war such as bombs and deaths. Instead, write about a child's burnt sock, laying in the middle of the street. Write about an injured dog laying in the rubble of what used to be it's home, curled up next to its lifeless owner."
I'd say write about the heartbreaking little things no one thinks about. Write about the things people over look. Don't talk about the body in the casket, write about how the weight of the casket matches the weight the person carrying it feels in their chest. Don't write that family watched the casket being lowered in the ground, write about the reality the mother felt when her son's lifeless body was lowered into the ground. Don't talk about the funeral just being a sad day, mention the cries of the loved ones that were so loud, strangers who walked by had tears in their eyes. Don't write about the wife's tombstone, write about how angry and heartbroken the husband was that his wife was now 6 feet underground where people got to walk on her everyday.
2. Feelings and thoughts over description.
Disclaimer: description is still necessary, but to some extent. I'd say don't focus on how the person died. Write about what they were thinking. Write about their final thoughts as they passed. Write about what a loved one did/thought/said as they watched them die. It's more so not writing about the death itself, but who the death effected. The ripple effect of the death, I guess.
3. Don't do what's expected.
Only if it fits the story, make a death/sad scene totally unexpected. Not only for the characters in the story, but for the readers. Catch them off guard. I wouldn't suggest to use this a lot, because if it's too much, the readers can get too sad/confused, and not continue to read.
Some examples...
• kill your character while they're having a good time.
• make your usually happy and joyful reader start crying after cracking a joke or sharing a happy memory.
• have your "strong" reader reach an unexpected breaking point and cry during a dinner date.
• give your readers hope by having your sick reader start to be on the mend to recovery, then rip that hope away.
• make your character's death slow and painful, with help within their eyesight, but just out of earshot.
• don't show your character's death at all. Show your reader that is alive finding the dead body.
• kill the character that knows something that the main character needs to know, but before they can tell them, they take their last breath.
• show the funeral before their death.
• have them die before they reach an important goal.
• have their loved one kill them unexpectedly or for the wrong reason.
Bonus: A lot of people like animals more than people lol. If you want to add some extra ✨spice✨ to your story, kill off a pet or an animal.
4. Don't overdo it with details.
Though it's hard not to, I try not to write too much detail. Sometimes we can write so much detail, it takes away from the tragedy that just occurred. Sometimes less is more.
5. Choose dialogue or actions.
Okay, lemme explain the best I can. I personally will switch back and forth between choosing dialogue or explaining actions/thoughts/descriptions for emotional details. If you are going to use have a character go off on a detailed heartbreaking rant, I use little detail to explain how they said what they said.
