How to kill a gay character without Burying your Gays
A common piece of writing advice regarding writing LGBT+ characters is DON’T, NO MATTER WHAT, KILL YOUR LGBT+ CHARACTER
But I think this ignores that sometimes… you have to. Sometimes you have to kill your gay character because.. sometimes someone has to die, and sometimes that person happens to be gay, but you don’t want to make it tropey.
First, here’s a list of guidelines for killing a character in general:
Don’t kill them simply for shock value. This is not a good enough reason for killing a character
Don’t have this character be someone everyone expects to die or a minor character. Honestly its just boring. The character shouldn’t be simply introduced to die. (When I was writing my first novel I needed someone to die but I’d just introduced a bunch of new characters, and instead I showed one of the main characters who’d been there since the begining. My sister is still mad at me for her death.)
The character’s death shouldn’t be simply for motivations of another character. Come on, they’re worth more than that.
PLease kill them. Don’t do the thing where everyone thinks they died but OMG THEY’RE ALIVE????!!! I think the exception to this is if the death was off-screen. If it happened right in front of the narrator, they are dead. Honestly, I’m just sick of this trope.
OKAY here’s the gay-character specific guidelines!
1. PLEASE do not kill them if they were the only representation. Especially if they’re your only queer character (…please…add more…) But also if they were the only lesbian, or nb character, ect. How would you feel if everyone like you died?
2. Did their death have anything to do with their being lgbt? Ex. hate crimes, abuse for being lgbt, killed by someone their gender who flirted with them
3. THhs is optional but it’s a good note– it’s better if it was a result of their choice. The character should have enough free will to defend themselves. They should be a strong character
4. More generally, yes, they should be a real character. Not a stereotype, a strong, dynamic character.
5. Their death should matter to the plot. It shouldn’t be useless.
6. Not only should there be other lgbt+ characters, the other characters should get happy endings. They shouldn’t all suffer.
7. Their death shouldn’t be just to motivate or hurt a straight/cis character.
The BYG trope actually has a pretty fascinating history, but since the times have changed we can have LGBT+ characters survive! Please don’t kill them all.
Thank you! Feel free to use this post to instruct people. And we have mods now so follow! Ask! We’ll get this running smoothly soon, thank you for reading!
