1) I guess a sad death with a really good storyline. I cried at the end of a book when the guy died from Cancer. The story was really good, made you want the boy to live.

2) Don't write cliches. Maybe write a story about a girls experience with something really sad. Like maybe have the girl lose her best friend?

i think you should focus your work on making the reader get in empathy with your main character: write about him, his past experiences, his feelings... use an interior monologue maybe: get inside his mind, make sure that the reader understands what he is feeling and why.

Then, just make something sad happen, but avoid cliches and exaggerations as soccer said

Really use the storyline to get to know the character, so they can feel how and what they are feeling, who they are, etc. As previously mentioned, build it up so the reader feels empathy for the character, and make the readers feel inspired by the character as well, someone they really respect and admire their qualities.

And again as already mentioned, try to avoid cliches. Be original and make it epic in a sense, but not overly dramatic.

I prefer stories that are more character driven than plot driven, these stories tend to build more three dimensional characters. It's all about making your reading invested emotionally in your characters. If you have weak and boring characters, then there's no reason for your reader to care what happens to them.

1) Ive cried from both happiness and sadness. I think it was because the story was written so well that it took me on a journey with the characters, so much so that as they progressed in some way I felt happy for them and so much so that I felt I could empathize with them. Empathy is the key, once you've got such a loveable/relatable character you can't go wrong. Also, probably because I had simular experiences as to what the character was going through, so again empathy really.

2) Just write about something you've been through in your life tbh. Sure sad stories will make someone sad, but only if they're really convincing and this can only happen if you've genuinely been through that yourself... or had insight from someone has experienced the bad things.

1) I don't normally read sad books, so I haven't cried.

2) Try to make a very strong attachment to a very lovable character and kill them off.