Nina Dobrev has had a successful run on The Vampire Diaries, but the young actress says she’s ready to move on and see what else she’s capable of. The show’s creator, Julie Plec, says that she tried various tactics to get Dobrev to stick around, but in the end the choice was Dobrev’s to make, and she chose to move on. Fans are devastated, but Plec says they aren’t the only ones.

“She finally was like, ‘No, I signed up for six years. I’ve done my six years. I’m ready to move on and spread my wings. It was a beautiful shock, but there’s grief attached to that. There is a profound attachment to this character and to this show,” Plec told People.

Dobrev’s final episode will air on May 14, and while Plec says the change will be monumental, it’s also a challenge for the writers…in a good way.

“She was just looking forward to moving on with no hard feelings and no drama. This is taking the personal out of it completely, from a storytelling point of view it’s a great challenge. As writers in the room we’re finding it very rejuvenating. Just on a strictly creative exercise level.”

Plec says she chose Instagram to break the news to fans that Dobrev was leaving because she didn’t want to blindside them, like so many shows have chosen to do before them.

“I’m looking at Vampire Diaries, which is now six years deep, and it’s the main character. A lot of our audience — they’re still teenagers. I started looking at it from a fan point of view and being like, ‘We need to tell them that it’s happening before it happens. You can’t just end the season and do what we’re going to do to this character.'”

Everyone is barely holding it together in these pics from @ninadobrev's last #VampireDiaries episode: http://t.co/Z8kKexZbfJ

— MTV News (@MTVNews) May 4, 2015