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I hadn't noticed. Lol. I think it all depends on the writer. An 'elegant solution' written by the blunt force writer won't really work that well, even well written, because of the style. Which I'm probably repeating… I think, too, it depends a lot on what sort of feeling You, as writer, want to convey. A quick death can be intense, fast, and portray a "blink and you miss it" situation. A slow one can also be intense, but be meant to show a devastating death that's meant to linger in the minds of the reader. Maybe I shouldn't answer when tired...

Why do I feel like this might be dragged out into court? “Objection! Just because my client may have been discussing slow cooking vs flame broiling their murder victims has no relevance to this case!” (While also ignoring the BBQ pictures in the evidence pile.) I’ve done it both ways, and it comes down to the circumstances. An illness can easily be drawn out, however, the quick can be a blink-blink-unexpected sort of thing, really jarring to a character (especially the one getting unexpectedly murdered). I drift to elegant, appropriate, it’s still a situational dependent thing. As I also tend to strive for realism, this restricts how the deed can be carried out, also tends to make me focus on simple/available ways. i.e. rage+fight on the platform to the train becomes a push in front of an incoming train.

Elegant solutions are totally a good way to go. I think it takes a certain kinda writer with a sense for that kinda thing to keep them meaningful and interesting, and I envy that. My mains are very rarely the elegant solutions type though, so the proverbial blunt-weapon-to-the-head solutions tend to happen. My favourite type of book is the fast paced, thriller, so I tend to lean in that direction in my writing. When at all possible. For some reason when I try to get too poignant and meaningful, my readers get confused lol.

With rare exceptions, all my characters do have names even if they’re just “the cashier” in the story, and I do get attached to my characters, especially the leads, so on that rare occasion one must die, I have to remind myself it’s for the greater good of the stories/universe. A lead’s death generally has a point to be made, a reason it’s being done. In my original universe, death is permanent, the character cannot generally appear in another story after said date. (Dreams/nightmares/etc in the living are the exception to that). Of course, characters that are presumed to be dead … ie, missing, or mistaken postmortem identification … different matter entirely, because that can be fun, like my 2015 halloween story can attest to. Most gruesome/grizzly death written by me (for any character, lead or minor) has to be the woodchipper. Most gore, I’m thinking my 2017 halloween story. Now this has me thinking about my unfinished Harry Potter story… that had a bunch of deaths, but at least that Weasley herd was getting thinned a bit.

I am going on hiatus. I’ll write and stuff...and finish updating what I need to update...but my sister passed away sometime today, and I need to be here for family.

Ugh. Phase one of my VERY LONG WORK WEEK is done. 12 hours Wednesday, 14 hours Thursday, and 14.5 hours yesterday.