How to Kill Characters in Creative Writing

[@CloudKitten]

I COMPLETELY FORGOT TO TEASE IT buuuuuuuttttttttt there's a super special announcement at the end of the video

[@sararusch]

Totally love how at 16:28 the grandma is holding the tray of cookies with oven mitts (implying that the try is still hot) but the little girl just grabs it with her bare hands lol

[@CloudKitten]

I did not at all notice that and it is amazing lmao you get all the observation points

[@sararusch]

@@CloudKitten I think it stems from being a kindergarten teacher for so many years. I see a small child and my brain/eyes immediately scan for ways they're about to injure themselves haha

[@CloudKitten]

Lmao that makes sense

[@a.j.torres3131]

lmao I love your Deathnote opening XD

[@CloudKitten]

I'm so happy you liked it!!

[@RobinEgbertss]

Aaaah the moment I heard the music I was waiting for it. The foreshadowing, the intensity, the dramatic shots of the bag~ "I'll take this potato chip..." Yaaas "And eat it!" Whooooo!!!! World class performance. Would watch 5 times in a row.

[@CloudKitten]

Lmao I'm so happy you liked it!! As soon as I started scripting the video last year I was like "I NEED to do the potato chip scene". Shout out to my husband for all the great camera work.

[@sailor.britters]

THIS INTRO GOT ME DYING LMAO.

[@CloudKitten]

I'm so happy you liked it

[@myfocustoprogress7228]

LOL Ok Ive never comment on here, But that intro made me belly laugh On the For Reals lol good stuff

[@CloudKitten]

Ahhh that's awesome!!! It's been so long since I did a sketch I was nervous (especially with such a long one), so this comment is perfect and I aprecite it

[@thebraxtonater8466]

"They are like my children. I love them therefore they must die" E.W

[@bluemelon]

Your intro quoting the death note was amazing, loved it! : )

[@SirenChats]

I have a fantasy setting where the rule of healing magic is the character can be healed as long from even the most fatal wound as their heart is beating. If the heart is not beating, you either have to start it up again or give up. The first death in the series is one of the main character’s wife, whose heart gets OBLITERATED by, what is essentially, a miniature ballista. She tries to keep her awake, but she bleeds out and dies in a few second, and since her heart was gone, she couldn’t have been saved to begin with. Idk, that’s how I keep the stakes up in my fantasy setting.

[@AmiraLala99]

I think Rogue One: Star Wars did a good job of killing most of their characters after their victory but its to show symbolism and realism for a movie series about....war. (also, memento mori with clips of unus is perfect)

[@CloudKitten]

YOU GOT THE REFERENCE. I'm so fucking sad it's almost over. I'm already in the denial stage of morning the loss of the channel. Also good point on Rogue One! It definitely added a dose of brutal realism to the end that made the whole movie feel much more serious.

[@AmiraLala99]

@@CloudKitten I DID. Me too, im binging back their videos in these last few days :') (Yess, agree with Rogue one! I guess why it made it one of my fav sw installation)

[@CloudKitten]

@@AmiraLala99 We've been watching them basically daily so it will be like losing a pair of friends. It's so odd.

[@CamWolfeAuthor]

well that intro was intense 😂

[@CloudKitten]

The live action Death Note didn't have the chip scene and it was criminal. We had to right the wrong. But seriously it was so much fun to make. Even with Echo refusing to flail for the camera.

[@nethersworn14]

But NaNoWriMo just began! Too soon to think about killing that first character. ...or is it? Hah! Great video Megan.

[@CloudKitten]

Yeah . . . Halloween special became a NaNoWriMo special lol. Funny enough as I edited the year old script there was a whole section joking about me missing the Halloween deadline (in 2019) and the video still being appropriate for Nano at least. Then I decided to put the video off. So I cut that section of the script last month. And lo and behold I could have left it in.

[@margaret_adelle]

I like the resurrection trope when the character comes back, but is fundamentally different than they were previously. They've permanently lost memories, are forever changed emotionally or psychologically, or must eventually go back to the land of the dead at some set future date (or after "The Thing" has been accomplished.)

[@yourlocalgrubdog3345]

(Yes I know this video is old shhhhhh) I do personaly think resurrections can work ONLY if they function only within rigid rules. Being able to confidentially say "oh, so that's why so-and-so had to die but they were able to bring this other guy back" helps a lot. It also helps if there are strict consequences for the resurrection. What exactly these rules/consequences are is of course up to the author. And they'd need to make sure that these rules/consequences actualy work within the rules of the world and generally flow well.

[@A_Wee_spook]

Im soo excited for the audiobook!! Ahh!!

[@CloudKitten]

Same!! I love it so much ❤ it's basically done but now it has to go into the Amazon approval process which can take up to 30 business days *cries* so we're looking at January

[@A_Wee_spook]

@@CloudKitten Yay!! Good luck!!

[@ace_of_cups4096]

I have a request/question if possible... If done right, would mixing POV's bw okay in a book? As in, prologue/epilogue is in 1st person to make the scene more impactful, and the rest in 3rd person?

[@CloudKitten]

Good question. The answer is both yes and no. It bothers some readers but most don't mind. I think Carve the Mark is an example of this done through the whole book so you can look up reviews to see the takes. But doing it with just prolonged and epilog will be MUCH less grating on those readers than switching back and forth with each chapter. So I'd say you're probably good. Betas and critique partners are your best friend though. Make sure to ask them how they felt about it. With just a prolonged and epilogue it's easy to change later based on feedback so that's good.

[@CloudKitten]

I'll also add this to my script for my upcoming video on choosing POVs

[@ace_of_cups4096]

@@CloudKitten Okay! Thank you!

[@PartridgeQuill]

Such great videos! It's so good to have another video!!!

[@CloudKitten]

Thank you!! They've been pretty sparse lately. I need to work on time management lol

[@ace_of_cups4096]

I have to do fake deaths... What do I do for that? Just saw that there is a Fakeout section xD

[@CloudKitten]

I wasn't able to cover how to do fake out deaths specifically as much as I'd like but I'm going to cover them in a video at some point. The biggest thing is when the person is brought back there should still be a cost (just not neccesarily their life). It can be a grave injury they have to fight to overcome (like both Aang and Korra), it can be PTSD and/or survivor's guilt, it can be a price paid to bring them back. Just something to have there still be a downside so it doesn't just feel like a miracle.

[@GodOfMoxie555]

That Deathnote intro killed me 😂

[@thebraxtonater8466]

I love the intro

[@CloudKitten]

I'm glad you liked it! :D

[@victorcobane6644]

The Death Note opening is perfect and hilarious!

[@CloudKitten]

thank you! We had waaay too much fun making it

[@hudsonwarm4224]

I LOVE THAT YOU USED THE HIMYM SCENE

[@CloudKitten]

That was actually happy timing. I was grabbing a clip for my last video on Unreliable Narrator's and just happened to end up on that scene and once I remembered it existed I knew that I needed to work it into this video lol Gotta love HIMYM

[@Chronicle_MV]

What's your opinion on characters being brought back to life? Whether it's literally (like what they did in Supernatural) or like what happened with [SPOILERS] Vision in WandaVision? Sorry if this wording sucks. My brain is garbage.

[@CloudKitten]

I think it depends a lot on why they're brought back and why they were killed. If it's done for cheap shock value or because the audience didn't like the death I generally don't like it, but it it's thematic or usefull I'm down. Vision is thematic and usefull and though I haven't read the source material the show gives me a strong feeling he won't be alive at the end. So in Wanda Vision I think he was brought back to explore grief and therefore it works. I haven't seen supernatural so can't speak on that

[@tkb3042]

Haha! Defs started nano with a killing spree. Also, now I want chips.

[@CloudKitten]

Yes!!! So me missing Halloween was okay because it just became a nanowrimo video in the end lol

[@trilingual3631]

FUCK. I screamed I love the death note reference

[@a.j.torres3131]

OH MY FUCKING GODS! YOU HAVE A NARRATOR!? SO I CAN LISTEN TO ALETHEIA!? ON AUDIO!? FUCK YES THANK YOU!!!! p.s. I can't freaking wait for Indiecember!

[@sailor.britters]

Okay that's it, I'm killing a bunch of characters today.

[@CloudKitten]

Do it! I mean as long as it makes narrative sense. But definitely do it!!!

[@sailor.britters]

@@CloudKitten If it doesn't make sense I"LL MAKE IT MAKE SENSE you got me in the Mood lmao.

[@2fsycho]

Okay Light xD

[@chronicbackpain6047]

Memento Mori, dear sister to the cult

[@CloudKitten]

Not going to lie, I just got a "00:00:00" wrist tattoo on the 7th. My first and only tattoo, and a reminder that the clock is always ticking. Though as a double bonus I can now find fellow members out in the wilds.

[@PhoenixWrightAceAttorney]

Is that…? Surely it’s not……Could it be?! DEATH NOTE?!

[@CloudKitten]

It is indeed

[@brittvaughn9447]

Immediate like for appropriate Death Note ref.

[@CloudKitten]

It seemed criminal to not reference it

[@ashblackmoore5052]

Great, I have a daughter in the fridge with two chapters of establishing relations with a protagonist. But I can't kill dogo or even a CAT. Cats in my stories are immortal beings that should be Worshiped. Thanks for the video it charged my writer murder bateries.

[@CloudKitten]

You had me at immortal cats @.@

[@jaykellin3639]

Hahahaha, amazing intro

[@thebraxtonater8466]

First!

[@ace_of_cups4096]

ah aha ah ah ah Ah Ah Ah aH AHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA YOURE AN UNUS ANUS FAN!!!!

[@zacharywood9416]

Hey uh… you don’t have to say LGBTQ+ to describe a single person. Saying “I killed a gay lesbian bisexual transgender questioning plus person” is not being inclusive, it’s a just clunky lol

[@EmperorZelos]

some portions seems needlessly political

[@CloudKitten]

Equal rights are political to you?

[@EmperorZelos]

@@CloudKitten Nope, but slamming it when it serves no context makes it political. When you talked about the topic, it'd not been, when it was plastered up where it made zero contextual sense, it became political =/ While to me the message is self-evident at that point it served no purpose for what was being said.

[@CloudKitten]

The context was that I was using a clip from Harry Potter, and I wanted it to be explicitly clear that I do not share the highly public, very well known transphobic beliefs of the author. Many are calling for her works to not be used as examples, but rather than punish the great many creators involved in the film by never referencing it, I chose to include a simple supportive message. You might want to take a second to evaluate why you're so deeply bothered by a single line of text and image overlay in support of human rights. Human rights aren't politics. And if you do not believe that trans rights are human rights, you can go ahead and unsub from me right now.

[@EmperorZelos]

@@CloudKitten I believe all humans have the same rights, no more, no less and that we all deserve the same. I reject "Trans rights" on the basis that they are humans like anyone else, no different than any other and as such, their rights are human rights and deserve the same as everyone else. In case it is not obvious, I don't reject them basic human rights, I reject that it would require a different label just because of a group they belong to (which goes for any group you might divide humans among) I do not however buy into pointing out differences however because that is the safest way to make certain they remain viewed as distinctly separate from the rest, or "normal". I think it is much more detrimental than assuming they are part of normality until others try to say the opposite at which oen would logically react. I also agree that it shouldn't be politics but unfortunately, behaviour such as cancelling culture etc do make it into politics. Especially because they engage in conforcement often just like the right does when it suits them. I want a true pluralistic open society where different views can co-exist, and we humans move on with our lives and live together in a society where each is treated with decent respect, same rights and can hold views without being punished, as long as one does not act on them of course.

[@CloudKitten]

But you see, the author of HP is saying the opposite, and this is my reaction. And the different label is currently neccesary because trans people are being denied basic human rights on a frightening level that should frankly upset you. Using a clip of HP implies support, my overlay and single line is my way of saying (in a highly unintrusive way) "I support the art (which involved countless numbers of artists), but not the very well known views of the author". This isn't a message I sneak into every video (this is the first time I've used it), but it's one that was relevant given the example I wanted to use in this video specifically. An example that I might add was marked on my script when I wrote it last year, before the author went on her rampage. An example that now has the potential to hurt trans members of my community without a confirmation of my beliefs paired with it. I did it for them, not for you. And it honestly still seems kinda sus to me that in a 30 minute video of painstakingly made content, a few seconds of a trans flag overlay and a supportive line is enough to get you commenting and possibly even disliking. That's a highly sus level of discomfort for someone who supposedly supports equal rights.