killing characters
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R. Richard
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Sputnik57
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what's the most gruesome way to kill a character? I prefer decaptiation. I would also like to create an opportunity to throw someone out of a plane, but I wonder if that's bloody enough.
I should be careful if you're thinking of writing this in to a story to submit; see 'Editors Choice' and the thread about 'Snuff'!
lovecraft68
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To go along with what another poster mentioned, don't get so caught up with gore that you screw up the story. Sometimes more subtle cruelties pack a bigger wallop than out right brutality.
Example; to me the movie Seven was quite disturbing, as was Silence of the Lambs. But slasher films, which seems to be the type of death you seek are laughable.
Readers can sense when violence is fitting and when you are just being contrived.
Example; to me the movie Seven was quite disturbing, as was Silence of the Lambs. But slasher films, which seems to be the type of death you seek are laughable.
Readers can sense when violence is fitting and when you are just being contrived.
Handley_Page
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Ah - the Mikado techniques. . . .
It always strikes me that decapitation is unnecessarily messy (the chief executioner in Paris at the height of the Terror was seriously worried about the quantity of noble blood causing his beloved machine to fail, thus putting him at some risk himself).
I reckon that a spike of some sort, driven into the back of the heart, would prevent such a mess, by stopping the heart real quick.
D
DeeZire
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Standing on the roof of one of the Twin Towers, contemplating whether to jump or roast to death.
PoppingTom
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I will never understand the fun of brutality. I don't say this in a moral manner, I just simply don't get it.
OK, I liked "Seven", which was a dirty-morbid version of "The Cabinet of Dr. Phibes", and while Phibes was cool old-fashioned English and the movie like a walk through a museum, "Seven" had a wonderful, dark-scaring atmosphere. But this wasn't made of brutality, it was more the mystery thing. Same on "Silence of the Lambs". The brutality was like a painting. It was the mystery and the intellect of Hannibal which made the tense.
So I don't get the competition of cruelty. The winner will always be disgusting, even for people who seems to like it.
lovecraft68
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I think excessive cruelty steals from a story. I mean we write fiction so I think sometimes people expect over the top, but as I said when it reaches the point where it seems to me that the author is pushing the envelope just for shock value then they lose me.
You gave a great example bringing up Dr. Phibes. I'll give another, the remake of Last House on the left. I am not feint of heart or easily offended, but I shut the thing off at the point where the girl was not only being raped, but it went to anal.
To me in the end if you have to really go out of your way to shock me you are just masking the fact that you are not that talented an author or director and have to resort to things like that.
R. Richard
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I agree. The reader needs to have some sense as to why the violence/death is occuring. If the person doing the violence/death is insane, what kind of insanity and maybe why.
D
DeeZire
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I agree with the sentiment in the previous couple of posts, which is why I posted my 9/11 scenario. Violence as entertainment sickens me, especially in light of the real-world violence that visits us in the most unsuspecting ways. Down here in Tucson, we're still processing the Gabby Giffords shooting, which may be why I'm so bothered by the subject. Historically speaking, the crimes of the Third Reich come to mind, as do Saddam Hussein's son, the ongoing carnage in the Middle East, and the Norway shootings. Granted. I've killed people in my stories, but the focus is on what occurs before and after, not during.
For the OP, perhaps the Final Destination or Saw series would be good places to look for ideas on creative killing. I watched one of them, hoping for some gratuitous T&A, but the violence-as-porn aspect was just too much. Whatever. I suppose there's a market for that, since both franchises are up to their 3rd or 4th sequel. The applause Rick Perry received in response to bragging about executing over 200 criminals indicates that a significant portion of the population does have an appetite for blood. That fact that most of them claim to embrace the tenants of Christianity is a bit puzzling, but that's another subject.
Personally, I'd like to see more focus on the glorification of conflict resolution, rather than conflict escalation, but I'm not holding my breath. (I just did that in a recent story I was planning on submitting to the SL contest. I wrote it years ago, revived it, and then realized it would "feel better" if I didn't kill off the crazed sister but rather force her to come to grips with her uncontrollable temper. With the rewrite, I have to let it sit a while and then revisit it to see how it reads.)
I think if you're going to kill someone off in a story, it needs to follow the arc of the characters. As a reader, I would be much more shocked if a character lost his temper, shoved the victim, and the victim hit his head on the pavement and died than if the character spent ten pages planning and carrying out an elaborate killing routine involving sharp objects, ropes and chains and such.
For the OP, perhaps the Final Destination or Saw series would be good places to look for ideas on creative killing. I watched one of them, hoping for some gratuitous T&A, but the violence-as-porn aspect was just too much. Whatever. I suppose there's a market for that, since both franchises are up to their 3rd or 4th sequel. The applause Rick Perry received in response to bragging about executing over 200 criminals indicates that a significant portion of the population does have an appetite for blood. That fact that most of them claim to embrace the tenants of Christianity is a bit puzzling, but that's another subject.
Personally, I'd like to see more focus on the glorification of conflict resolution, rather than conflict escalation, but I'm not holding my breath. (I just did that in a recent story I was planning on submitting to the SL contest. I wrote it years ago, revived it, and then realized it would "feel better" if I didn't kill off the crazed sister but rather force her to come to grips with her uncontrollable temper. With the rewrite, I have to let it sit a while and then revisit it to see how it reads.)
I think if you're going to kill someone off in a story, it needs to follow the arc of the characters. As a reader, I would be much more shocked if a character lost his temper, shoved the victim, and the victim hit his head on the pavement and died than if the character spent ten pages planning and carrying out an elaborate killing routine involving sharp objects, ropes and chains and such.
sr71plt
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Although characters die in some of my stories (I write murder mysteries), most of the time the final act is done off stage. I do a reversal of most mainstream murder mysteries in my erotica (although I write mainstream mysteries too)--the graphic sex is on scene and the gratuitous violence is off scene.
avidreader_01
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I'm not a huge fan of the subtle approach, I prefer to go out guns blazing. My stories are about vampires/werewolves/dragons so violence is a natural part of their lives. Is it just random violence? Of course not, but death is a part of their world and when betrayal enters the mix... well lets just say my readers would be disappointed in a tame demise
sr71plt
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Because of the nature of what my brand of vampires need to thrive, that's the one type of story where I'll cover the actual death inside the story. I at least make my vampires' victims enjoy their farewell and be numb to the pain involved. I don't write many of those stories, though.
Virtual_Burlesque
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If you want them, religion is a great source for images of gruesome death.
There is the ever-present Christian image of crucifixion, which is basically death through slow asphyxiation. And let's not forget the heretic’s death of by being burned to death at the stake.
There is the ever-present Christian image of crucifixion, which is basically death through slow asphyxiation. And let's not forget the heretic’s death of by being burned to death at the stake.
J
JAMESBJOHNSON
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lovecraft68
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Are we still discussing erotica?
Don't let manyheadedhydra read that remark. You'll be told to STFU
sr71plt
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lovecraft68
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I think manyhydra has an unusually keen sense of (lack of) character.
Really? So does that mean that they have you on ignore like a bunch of other people here?
jomar
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JAMESBJOHNSON
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The real horror of death is how it terrorizes the living.
The best example of it is a Holocaust memoir I read. At Treblinka death camp Jews died wholesale almost as soon as they arrived. They were processed like cattle thru a slaughter house.
But on one occasion a little girl got loose, ran, and led an SS officer on a wild chase for a few minutes. She fled thru a yard filled with Jewish men but none of them intervened; soon the SS officer caught her and shot her in the head.
The best example of it is a Holocaust memoir I read. At Treblinka death camp Jews died wholesale almost as soon as they arrived. They were processed like cattle thru a slaughter house.
But on one occasion a little girl got loose, ran, and led an SS officer on a wild chase for a few minutes. She fled thru a yard filled with Jewish men but none of them intervened; soon the SS officer caught her and shot her in the head.
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