Here's the truth: nobody wants a tasteful death. In some cases it is appropriate to stray from every graphic detail, like in cases of killing off main characters, the ones that your readers are bound to have fallen in love with. This is a rule that applies to plenty of genres, such as fantasy, adventure, drama, etc., but there is one genre in particular that this rule should always be put aside. When it comes to horror stories, there is no reason not to fill the mind with as much gruesome details of blood and guts as possible. In any case though, the one thing you never want to do is make it drag. Here's a hint: if your scene of someone's death lasts more than a page, it's probably dragging. In most cases, a death scene should be a paragraph or two at most, unless you know how to make it interesting enough for me to want to read. If you decide to have a scene of someone brutally murdering someone else last a full page, make sure not to make this the same case for every fucking victim. It gets dull after the first few times. Now what I'm talking about is death, that doesn't include what may happen before or the emotions after. If someone is strapped to a table being prodded and pierced by needles and hooks, it's safe to say that this is something that can last several pages and still be interesting if done right, but once that person's throat is cut, you've sealed the deal, let him/her die and keep on with your story. If you want to have a serial killer cut the corpse to pieces and make an art display or simply fuck the lifeless body, then you probably shouldn't have your victim clinging to life through half of it. After someone dies, it is plenty okay to dive into the emotions of that person's death and how it affected other characters, just try to write with the understanding that the shit gets boring after a while unless your book revolves around this event in some way. In any case, you can't write a good story and beat around the bush when it comes to something traumatic, make me feel like I just saw or experienced everything happening. Never erase and rewrite because it was "too graphic", if I'm a disturbed sociopath, do you think I'm gonna care what people think about me ripping your eye out and skull-fucking you? No. It doesn't work like that. Follow through. If I feel completely okay or comfortable reading any scene where someone dies, whether it is peaceful and in their sleep or someone being ripped apart, then you failed at writing a good death scene. I as a reader (and especially as another writer) need to be emotionally moved in some way by the death of any character in a book. Whether it's being caught off guard and just thinking to myself "well damn", knowing what's happening can't be stopped and shedding a tear, or being disgusted to the point of putting the book down for a moment to collect myself. Anything, make me feel something, but don't beat around the bush. Keep it real, keep it traumatic. Unless you're writing a fantasy genre storh, if someone gets a bullet to the noggin, there is bound to be some blood and a fleshy hole where the bullet enters. Don't be afraid to explore that in detail. Did the bullet come out the other end or did it get lodged? How big is the hole? If it did exit his skull, how well could I see through to the other side? How'd his chunks of brain look flying out the exit wound? All things to consider in something as simple as someone taking one small bullet to the head. Don't ever be mistaken either that going into graphic detail towards anything downplays the emotions you want someone to feel towards the scene. Reading through a first person perspective, a character can watch their best friend get fed his own fingers til he chokes and still have it be emotional. Here's how I look at it, when you write, you become God and every character that you allow to exist in your story is a person you're breathing life into, and their death should draw emotion, no matter who it is, but is still as real as any other event taking place and should be treated as such. What about other scenes though? Ones vile enough to make a person puke without anyone dying? Sickness, torture, rape, being made prisoner and forced to live in your own shit and piss until s/he dies or escapes or moves onto something worse. It doesn't need to necessarily violent, it can wither someone away over time, mentally and physically. These should all be cared for in the same way, but I'll address more on all of that in the next part.
