How to Write Grieving Characters

by Whitney Carter

Putting grief into words is futile. And trying to do so would bankrupt the vocabulary of all languages. -Mark Twain

Grief is a heavy and relatively ever-present part of life. Just as surely as we are born, we have to die too. While it’s true you and I, by virtue of sitting here, are still alive, we’ve all had to say goodbye to someone, and regardless of how deeply felt that loss might have been, grief changes who we are on a fundamental level. It makes us question our existence, how we function on a daily basis and what we really want for the short time left to us.