I wanted to respond to this, although it's a little askew from the topic.
But.... doesn't everybody?
If I had four characters to murder in making my story work, I would definitely put a lot of thought into getting the order of their deaths right. Which has the longer story? Which is more emotional? Which one is quirkier? Which one is more about plot than impact? How heavy is each one compared to other things happening at the time in the story?
And I would spend a lot of effort carefully tweaking the story of each one to serve the purpose of its place in the story, to have a different (but on-tone) impact with each one. Did they all have long stories? Some have to be cut. Were they all super sad? One needs to be adjusted, go for shock value and focus on timing. Is the first story too "heavy"? Are there too many characters left "dangling" after one of the murders? Things like that have to be worked out.
I mean, maybe there's a point in saying something like, you have to put what works for the story ahead of your fears over offending people. But "does anyone put this kind of effort" into it? The answer is yes, if you want your novel to succeed, put the work into every. Little. Thing. Let alone the big ones, like a complicated gay family murder subplot. And especially those things that will have some kind of an impact on your readers.
Auror
