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If this is a true-love-lost story, then too much imagery (especially bloody or especially realistic and repellent sickness) will ruin the romance. It is not generally done, the dying partner is typ...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42443 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/42443 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
If this is a true-love-lost story, then too much imagery (especially bloody or especially realistic and repellent sickness) will ruin the romance. It is not generally done, the dying partner is typically kissable until the end; they aren't vomiting blood, burned beyond recognition and still alive, or covered with blood and screaming from a car accident. You have to find an "acceptable" death that allows for final words, vows, and mutual tears. So on a scale of 1 (hardly noticeable) to 10 (horrific) keep in the 1-3 range; mild imagery. Knowing that death is imminent is all you really need. If what you WANT is violent imagery, make similar imagery scattered throughout the story, especially so in the earliest scenes, so the audience is inured to it. What happens repeatedly can add tension to the love story, this is happening in a dangerous place or situation, and the audience fears from the beginning one lover or the other will meet a grisly fate. Do not spring this kind of imagery on them at the end, that will ruin the story for them.