My main character has attempted suicide in some artistic way that I haven't cemented in my mind. I was thinking he swallows paint or something. The attempt takes place directly before the start of the novel, but it's the event that sets the novel moving. He's not exactly emotionally frail, more deluded about reality. I'm not imagining him using a weapon, more like doing something accidently-on-purpose, as if to see what happens. Thanks!
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[center] Cheers, [br] Teffie [/center]
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Jul 22, 2008 - 22 37
One girl I knew tried to strangle herself with her shoelaces in the psych ward bathroom. I don't know, it's kind of desperately tragic.
Also, there was a guy about a century ago (a pharmacist) who killed himself by swallowing acid. Apparently his screams could be heard up to a mile away as he died. Sad thing is, no one knows if he actually meant to kill himself or if it was some last-ditch attempt to get rid of a tumor in his stomach.
It's been done before, but a friend's mom's boyfriend's wife killed herself by putting a hose from her tailpipe into her car window and taping it all up (now the poor guy can't stand the sight of VW bugs).
Along the same lines as swallowing paint, there's also swallowing cleaning chemicals or something like that. And I've also thought that jumping off a bridge would be a pleasantly dramatic end, though chances are you'd become paralysed rather than actually die. Depends on the bridge I suppose. And what about stabbing yourself? That would take a lot of guts but would probably be pretty effective. Or instead of slicing wrists, go for some artery in the neck or something to change it up a little.
Hope that at least got you started. Good luck!
----------"you did what? for how long? for HOW many cocoa pebbles?!?"
JulNo 08 - Adagio (winner!)
Romantic encounters: 2
Fainting spells: 4
Fights with BFF: 2
Deaths: 3
Un-deaths: 1
50,492 / 50,000
Jul 23, 2008 - 07 27
What does your character do?
Hobbies? A job?
Why are they attempting to kill themselves?
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Jul 23, 2008 - 10 09
Heh. I've had talks with people about artistic ways of suicide. One of them involves attaching a collar with spikes sticking into the neck.
Yep. Most of the ways are absoulutely fatal. So they really won't work for you...
There's always the "trying-to-skin-oneself-alive" aspect. Or the "hanging-upside-down-with-weights-attached-to-the-head" idea. Don't know if it would work, but it sounds fun.
HEY! He could swallow paint thinner and then try to swallow a match! Someone could discover him in time and rush him to the hospital, where they pump his stomach and keep him away from matches.
Just an Idea. ^^
-Death (who had friends with weird ideas)
8,725 / 50,000
Jul 23, 2008 - 13 04
He's an artist, and he's not suicidal exactly, just deluded. Like, haven't you ever wondered what happens if you put a freshwater fish into saltwater, or vice versa? You know it'd die, but what does it do before? He's curious. He wants to know what death feels like.
----------[center] Cheers, [br] Teffie [/center]
80,557 / 50,000
Jul 23, 2008 - 13 14
Try looking at some of the past nominees and winners of the Darwin Award. You can find a partial listing at:
http://www.darwinawards.com/darwin/
Good Luck
rlp
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Jul 24, 2008 - 22 42
I have a feeling your artist would be too smart to try this, but I knew someone once who tried to smother themselves with a pillow. (If you somehow manage to keep yourself from breathing instinctively you will simply pass out and not die unless there's someone holding that pillow over you.)
Jumping out of a building and just being severely injured rather than dying because he didn't junp from high enough up?
Being hit by a car
deliberately getting into a massive car accident (i.e. leadfooting it or putting some kind of a weight on the accelerator) this one depends on your char's moral code--what about civilians?
Overdose (he either overdoes or underdoes it) of over-the-counter pills or prescription pills--or even ilegal drugs if he isn't the sort to buy them would make an interesting scene
----------"When she said she was dying to find out what happened next, she wasn't kidding...The gotta. ..You didn't know exactly where to find the gotta, but you always knew when you did." Stephen King, Misery
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Jul 25, 2008 - 06 33
Um, well, when I think about attempting suicide in some "artistic" way, I could see a guy sitting in a bathtub, one wrist sliced in the less efficient way if you're trying to bleed out, taking pictures of the blood dissipating in the water with the other hand. Basically documenting his own death and trying to capture some sense of beauty in it, hence why he cut the wrong way; it'll take longer and he can get more shots, and maybe he thinks he can stop it before it gets too bad ("if I'm in the verge of death, does my camera capture me... or my spirit?").
----------http://fyreflixiewrites.blogspot.com