Poignant Death Scenes Course Class Notes
One of the best ways to learn to write is by reading good writing. This is particularly true when it comes
to writing death scenes that resonate. Guidelines are helpful, and this class certainly offers them; but
what will help you the most is reading the literary examples we go through and pondering what works in
them—and what doesn’t. For this reason we will spend a fair amount of time in a variety of textual
examples. Don’t rush through these and when possible, read the passages in advance.
I have given you the texts as I am able, the rest are generally easy to access either online or at a library.
Please see the Recommended Reading at the bottom of the notes for a full list.
Below is a general outline to follow along with as you watch the course. I highly recommend taking
notes! You will remember so much more.
Also, please download the worksheet for the course—it gives you many good questions to help you flesh
out your characters and write a good scene.
Thank you for watching!
~Barbara
Video spoilers
1. Intro – all clear
2. Setting the groundwork—what is the desired impact? – writing for impact – all clear
3. Five stages of grief – all clear
4. Emphasizing Relationships and the effects of death on others -- Little Women, Charlotte’s Webb,
A Tale of Two Cities
5. Memorable Character Reactions- Little Women, A Christmas Carol,
6. What surrounds a death scene – Little Women, Charlotte’s Webb
7. Detail and length—Charlotte’s Webb, Little Women
8. Horrifically descriptive scenes – Madame Bovary, Little Women, My Brother Sam is Dead
9. How People Die- Composure – Little Women, Madame Bovary, Charlotte’s Webb, My Brother
Sam is Dead, To Kill a Mockingbird
10. Sacrificial Death – A Tale of Two Cities, Little Women, To Kill a Mockingbird, My Brother Sam is
Dead, Madame Bovary, Little Women
11. Learning About Death After it Happens – Bridge to Terabithia, Charlotte’s Webb
12. Common Pitfalls – Charlotte’s Webb, Bridge to Terabithia, My Brother Sam is Dead, Little
Women, A Tale of Two Cities, Madame Bovary
Poignant Death Scenes Course – Class Notes 1
© Barbara Vance 2020
Setting the Groundwork
• Well-established characters are a necessity—both the dying and the survivors
• Consider the reader experience
Reacting to Death: Stages of Grief
1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance
• What truly makes a powerful death scene are the relationships:
o Between the dying and surviving characters
o Between the dying and the reader
• Remember, a story is not generally about one person, it is about people.
• Generally speaking, do not over-focus on the death itself.
• Notice in the examples as we go through them how each survivor interacts with the dying. How
does discussing each survivor’s reactions to the death in Little Women add new information
rather than re-hashing old territory?
Memorable Reactions
• Focus on the characters left behind
• Show the death through another character with whom we can empathize. Remember, in a death
scene the reader is more in the head of survivors than the dying.
• Focus on thoughts and feelings rather than too many gory details (unless the latter is your aim).
• Show life without the character – how is he/she missed? What does that look like?
• How much emotion to show?
• Whose emotion to show?
• Don’t make everyone react the same
• How a character behaves is about more than that character. Different reactions calibrate the
reader.
Poignant Death Scenes Course – Class Notes 2
© Barbara Vance 2020
Leading up to and Following the Death
• Make sure to build to this scene well ahead of time.
• How will the character be remembered? Determine this and then write that into him before he
dies.
• Notice in the reading:
o Setting
o The soliloquy that sets up the death
o Survivor reactions
o How the character dies
o The role that setting plays in the final description of death
o The irony of the death considering the character’s goal in the book
Horrifically Descriptive Scenes
• It may be that your goal is to be a bit gory and descriptive – that is its own unique style.
Generally, editors will advise against spending a long time describing the actual death, but in the
Madame Bovary example in this video, it is the author’s aim. Part of why the gritty realism works
here is because of the contrast it provides to the dying character throughout the novel.
• Notice how both Madame Bovary and My Brother Sam is Dead give very visual accounts of the
death – but one is much shorter. How does this affect you as a reader. Pay attention to the styles
and methods you like. They are both good.
How One Dies
• Generally, the true core of a person is made known when they are dying.
• A character can die many ways: accepting, fighting, angry, resentful, etc. give thought to what
will have the most impact.
Sacrificial Death
• The chapter in A Tale of Two Cities should be read in its entirety. Notice how the character thinks
about his death, the Christ-figure Dickens makes him, and how is treatment of the seamstress
makes the death more poignant.
• Note the space given to the dying’s last words. Be very careful with last words. I have seen many
writers have their dying characters give long soliloquies in which they pass along a lot of
knowledge, and it does not work. The last words in this passage are succinct and poetic, which is
what makes them memorable.
Poignant Death Scenes Course – Class Notes 3
© Barbara Vance 2020
Hearing of Death After the Fact
• When we hear of a death after, we have an additional lens placed on it because often one
character is relating the death to another character. Take care to consider the lens you want the
death viewed through.
• Note the stages of grief in Bridge to Terabithia and how this makes the character’s reaction so
real. Note the different responses to the grief exhibited by all of the characters and how this
fleshes out the narrative and pushes the plot forward.
• I recommend reading this whole book. If you do, notice how the author writes in such a way that
the death is a genuine surprise to the reader.
Common Pitfalls
• Avoid cheap shock value. Shock in Bridge to Terabithia reads as genuine because it has been
carefully built to. Unsuccessful shock is when the dying character is not developed, you do not
have a good reason for the death, and the character responses to the death are not genuine.
Every death must truly push the plot forward and be a reason for the story.
• At the same time, avoid predictability. We can see a death coming, but the language we use to
describe the death, and the way the death occurs should have uniqueness to it.
• Do not over-dramatize
Poignant Death Scenes Course – Class Notes 4
© Barbara Vance 2020
