THE TRIALS OF A CRIME WRITER: CRAFTING A KILLER
If there's one thing I've learnt since I started writing crime fiction back in the day it's that killers and criminals come in all different shapes and sizes. They can be pretty much any age and can have a wide variety of motives. When you sit down to plan out your crime novel, you're gonna be looking at ways to craft a killer that both leaves everyone guessing until the big reveal, and makes sense for your story. I thought I would do a piece on five tips to remember when you're plotting out your killer and their backstory and what have you.
#1. MOTIVE MATTERS
I know that it's the big thing that people talk about on crime shows, they want to know the "why" someone does something. Now while it's not always needed to prosecute, it is needed in a book. In my experience, if you can't give a good reason for why the killer does something, then you've missed a pretty important step. The other issue is that the motive needs to be believable. I know sometimes coming up with a convoluted motive can be fun, but it has to make sense. It can't just be "because they're evil". That's not a motive, it's an excuse and it doesn't really jive with how things work in the real world. While yes it can be a reason for some of the motive, it's not the whole motive.
#2. VICTIMS MATTER
If you're writing a serial killer, which y'know, happens in crime fiction, then who they kill is important. While serial killers are rare in the real world, there is still a lot known about them, and that knowledge can help you in the fictional world. Even if you're not writing a serial killer, who they choose to kill can be as important as their motive. If you're writing someone forced by circumstance to kill someone to save their family, that's going to be a different experience than say, someone who got into a fight with the intent to kill. Their victim is important and how you portray them is too.
#3. BACKSTORIES
This is where people go overboard sometimes. It's not always relevant to include every little detail about your killers childhood, including the time they were called mean names in primary school. Some details will be relevant and it's always good to have some idea about it all even if you never use it. However, I would warn to try and avoid the tragic backstory trope. Not all killers have a tragic backstory and even if they do, it doesn't explain or excuse the way they're behaving now. They are, after all, a killer. But this is also a place where you can have a little fun with your imagination. Because the majority of it won't make it onto the page you can go big and even if you're the only person who knows everything, it's still pretty cool for those snippets to share with your fanbase should the time arise.
#4. VIOLENCE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE EXPLICIT
Now as someone who writes dark fiction, and is pretty damn unapologetic about it, I know that some of you will be looking at this and thinking: huh? My point isn't that you can't have dark scenes, but that the whole book doesn't have to be dark scene to dark scene and on and on it goes. There can be some light, and that is also true when it comes to crafting a killer. You don't have to depict every violent step they take, you can leave some things for the reader to imagine. In doing that you create different scenes depending on the reader. You also create darkness without having to describe it. When a killer is doing their thing, you can leave some of the grisly details for the reader to interpret.
AND FINALLY, #5. SOMETIMES ONE VICTIM IS ENOUGH
I know that sometimes it feels like you have to kill a ton of characters otherwise you'll lose the suspense and that's just not true. You can build the suspense by doing other things than dropping a new body. On top of that, considering point one, sometimes the motive is only going to apply to one person. Sometimes killers are driven by more than a body count, like jealously and rage and anger and fear. There are so many different reasons to cross that line, but just because they did it once, doesn't mean they'd do it again. That's a big point to remember. If your motive is one thing, you can't change it because you want to add a new victim and up the tension.
So those are my five tips for how to craft a killer. Usually when I post a piece like this, I get emails telling me that I shouldn't write on this subject because of the effects it has on the general public. And while I get it on some level, I just want to say: guys, it's fiction! I am not, and never would be, writing about my own murderous ways! So you have any tips or tricks on crafting a killer? Leave them in the comments below!
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The Trials Of A Crime Writer: Has This Been Done Before?
Every writer, no matter whether they are published or not, is looking for the original idea. The one thing that hasn't been done before. A lot of the books I've read on the subject say that there simply aren't any original ideas anymore. They've all been used in one way or another, and that you just have to look at how to turn your unoriginal plot into something with a twist. I don't necessarily agree that there are no more original ideas, after all, history has changed the way things in the world work, and with all that history, there has to have been new things happening. The other bit that bugs me is that every single person is different, is unique and therefore the majority of us don't all act the same when placed in the exact same circumstances. I think that means that there are plenty of ways to turn a previously used plot into something original, or to think up something completely off the wall that hasn't been done before.
Of course though, this is more about my trials as a crime writer, and therefore what I'm mostly talking about is the central plot or theme that runs through each crime novel. When you're thinking up ways for people to break the law, the motives can be as unique as you want, but sometimes the crimes tend to repeat themselves. It's a fact of life that people kill each other in many different ways, but also that most police officers don't deal with serial killers, nor do they deal with unique crimes every single day. The motive may be something they haven't heard before, but the crime itself is usually the same no matter how different you try to make it.
Having said that, it doesn't stop me from trying to make sure that the motives behind each central crime - whether they be a serial rapist, murderer or petty thief - all have their own unique twist on them. Sometimes you can't do that because there are rarely convoluted reasons for why someone stole drugs from a drug dealer and then got murdered for it. As a crime writer, you have to be aware that by not repeating the crimes, by trying to make them all different and unique, you've already started to stretch the boundaries of what is and isn't believable. So while it's a good idea to not have every victim act, respond and/or die in the same way, there are patterns to crime and if you want your book to hold a reader's interest, you have to be sure that you follow some of the laws of the world.
Yet when I sit and write my chapter notes before I start a book, or read through what I think makes a good crime to talk about, I still try to make each case somewhat different. It's a difficult trap to avoid, but at the same time it's something you have to be flexible with. Outside of the pages of crime novels and the Hollywood movies, you have to realise that the majority of police officers will never really deal with a serial killer. They make for good fiction, but are not as common as fiction and the media would love to make out. That said, they are a great way to tell a story and have the characters work towards a common goal. After all, fiction is a way for the unimaginable to happen and although there are unimaginable things done to people by others, sometimes it's nice to believe that the only horrible crimes happen between the pages of books, where you can see that justice prevails and all ends well (hopefully!)
Usually I deal with multiple cases when writing a DYING THOUGHTS book, with Tara helping the police, and there needs to be some level of difficulty in the cases she's called in on. Otherwise it gets to the point where I, and the reader will be asking if her gift is really needed or if the police are just lazy. The joy of fiction is that there is some level of being able to suspend belief. The aim is to not push it so far that it snaps in two. So, as I sit here at 1am, writing a piece about believable and unique crimes, I find myself wondering if it is possible to achieve both those without breaking the believability of the scenes. To be honest, I'm not really sure, but that doesn't mean that I won't continue to try!
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The Trials Of A Crime Writer: When Your Friends Ask You About Murder
It's a running joke between me and some of my friends that if they were ever to be driven to the point of committing a crime, such as murder, then I would be the best person to ask about how to get away with it. It's true that for a lot of crimes, I have done extensive research, I even own the "Forensics for Dummies" book which I have used in the past to help me with plot lines. I also really recommend "The Crime Writer's Guide to Police Practice and Procedure" (link here) if you're in the UK and looking for down to earth and simple explanations of how the police force works. However, while I'd never claim to be an expert, and because the majority of my criminals get caught, I don't actually know the way to commit the perfect crime.
I would imagine that it would take a lot of forethought and planning. While getting ready to write a book about someone who works in a Forensics lab took a lot of research, I don't think I have the commitment, or the stomach for a life of crime. The added knowledge of watching shows such as NCIS or Castle, is that no matter how careful you are there is always going to be something you leave behind which will lead the cops right to your door. I have though, in the past, thought about the validity of so called unsolved crimes. On TV they usually get their guy...eventually, but in real life there are so many "cold cases" which may go unsolved for decades if not longer. So, how does one go about committing the perfect crime?
Well, I have some ideas, but feel the need to make it clear to everyone reading that I'm not planning to ever use these ideas in anything other than fiction. First you'd need to pick a victim who is, in no way connected to you. The first thing police will look for is an identification of the victim and then anyone who may have had a reason to want them dead. So, if you're desperate to commit a murder, then you need to make sure there is no way for the police to join the dots from them to you. The problem is that most people are not the kind of people to just randomly murder someone, which is why the perfect crime is so hard to achieve. Unless you're a psychopath or serial killer, you generally would need some kind of motive before you go around murdering random people. The motive is usually your downfall.
The second thing to remember is that if they can't identify your victim then they can't always connect the dots that will lead them to your door. This means you'll need to get rid of the hands, head and any other distinguishing marks that could leave a hint as to who the victim is. That's grisly work, I've never had to amputate or disfigure a body (and I don't think I ever will have need to) but I imagine that it takes a lot of strength and a strong stomach to deal with all the blood, guts and gore. You also need to cut through bone and remember that the CSI people will be able to tell what kind of instrument was used from the cut marks, so you'll have to be extra careful in your choice of hacking instrument.
After that comes the forensics, the human body sheds DNA through skin cells and hair. All it takes is one stray hair and if you're in the system, you're caught. Hell, even if you're *not* in the system they have something to match you to that body should they catch up with you. All in all, I'm not really sure how you'd go about making sure that there was nothing incriminating left behind. You also have to take into account "Locard's Exchange Principle" that states that for every place you go you not only take something with you, but leave part of yourself behind. So, even if you manage to pick a random victim, remove their identity, the forensics are probably going to get you in the end.
So, while my friends and I joke about the perfect hiding place for a body, the chances are that we'll be caught before it's even cold. There is nothing like the perfect crime, and with my search history, I'd probably get the death penalty, if that was still around in the UK. For the time being, I'll stick to fictional murder, it's less messy and doesn't carry a life sentence!
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The Trials Of A Crime Writer: Maybe I Should Get A Hobby...
When you spend as much time as I do thinking about death, robbery, assaults and other assorted criminal enterprises, you start to wonder if it's "normal". The short answer is that no, it's probably not, but then again, when you have a somewhat healthy outlet for those thoughts, is it really that big a problem? I know what you're thinking, acting out any kind of crime that involves hurting someone else is not healthy no matter how you do it, but for a crime and mystery writer, it's the best way I have so I'm gonna stick with it.
I know I'm not alone in this because there are many other crime writers (and even people who aren't) who sit at home and think up ways to kidnap people, hold them hostage, possibly kill them and get away with it. I know that just because I'm not alone doesn't mean I don't have a problem, but for the moment I'm okay with that. While I would never really kidnap someone and play out my fictional story lines, people pay good money to read about them, so I guess it's more the human race that's unhealthy and not just me!
However, I do think sometimes that maybe I should channel my creative forces into something a bit more productive - like cross stitching or scrap-booking. I do play a little Ukulele and I do cross stitch too, but the majority of my life is taken up with either writing, thinking about writing or doing the admin work that comes from being an indie author. (That's a piece for another day!) I find that because of my health conditions, and the debilitating pain and fatigue I experience on a daily basis, I just don't have the energy to do hobbies, uni work and keep up with my writing. I know that it's probably not all that healthy to focus on the two important ones - uni work and writing - but thankfully, I'll be graduating from uni after five years in October and will have my degree. I figure once I'm done, I'll have all the time in the world to write and be able to spend time on less murderous activities.
That's not to say that I don't love what I do, I honestly don't know what I would be doing if I wasn't a writer. After being retired at nineteen and told that I would probably never be well enough to work in a conventional nine-to-five job again, I turned to writing to fill my "retirement" years. At thirty-two now and no better health wise (actually, I'm worse but that's a story for another time), I have found that my time is closely monitored to make sure that I get my required rest time as well as do the best I can do with my writing. I do like to do the occasional cross-stitch and I also love to read during the times I'm not well enough to work. That's another hobby I suppose. I spend a lot of time reading books by fellow indie authors as well as many traditionally published authors too. I like to lose myself between the pages of someone else's worlds, characters and adventures and while I mostly read crime and mystery, I have been known to go for something a little more light-hearted.
When you're a crime junkie like me, you'll find that you see inspiration everywhere. You read a news report about someone faking their own death and you wonder about how you can weave a similar crime into your own work. Same with many other aspects of everyday life. There have been numerous conversations I've had with people that have found their way, in some form or another, into my work. The human condition is that crime happens, the writer's condition is that you see inspiration in everyday life and you use it for the greater good. I'm sure many other writer's will agree with me when I say that although hobbies such as making cards or crafts would be a better use of our creative talent, they just don't do it for us. Our creative flow needs to be in the written word; basically, we're word nerds and proud of it. But maybe I will look into a hobby...
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The Trials Of A Crime Writer: How Many Ways Can You Kill Someone?
I was thinking about this today as I wrote one of Tara's many visions. I was also thinking about it as I wrote the piece about my search history (found here) and the one about the things I really shouldn't know (found here). As a crime writer, there are some things that cross both of those subjects and then there's others than come into their own little bubble. Working out a myriad of different ways to kill someone is one of those things.
I wasn't always someone who would look at a case on TV and wonder how to describe that kind of murder. I was always someone who liked crime and mystery media - both books and TV shows - but I like to think that I didn't always wonder about death and destruction and the many different ways you could inflict harm upon a person. Of course, my parents would probably disagree as I was always kinda fascinated by death. I would probably have called it childhood intrigue, but it was rather unhealthy.
So, I decided that when it came to writing my own books, I would delve into the dark recesses of my mind and exploit my own little "hobby" and start to put fictional characters through these things. I know that makes it sound like I'm both a psychopath and a sociopath in that I'm admitting that I enjoy putting people through pain and eventually killing them. I'm not, and I can assure you that I'd never actually do this to a living soul.
My biggest problem now is not that I can't get creative with death, murder and all other kinds of grisly things, more that while I am creative, I have my limits. There is only so much torment a human body can bear and bringing someone to the brink of death and then pulling them back is something that you can only do a handful of times before it starts to get a bit ridiculous. I know that when writing the DYING THOUGHTS series, I have sometimes found myself struggling to make Tara's cases both unique yet believable. I don't like to repeat myself too much, but at the same time, these are generally cases that I'm saying regular people in the police force would see and sometimes, let's face it, murder repeats.
For me it's not just about finding a new way to kill someone, but it's also about the killer's motives behind choosing that manner of death. Is it revenge? Spur of the moment? Are they actually a serial killer who has chosen their own mode of operations and stuck to it? How much forensic evidence are they leaving? Why is Mike calling on Tara? Is there another way it could have happened? What would the victim feel and see at this point? These are all valid questions that I have to answer on a case by case basis and sometimes, it's hard to know the answers until you're actually writing the story.
That said, when it comes to the regular cases that Tara works, I usually have them all planned out before I even put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard in my case). I'm a meticulous planner as mentioned before (a piece about my planning can be found here) and so once I've done the chapter plan and know exactly how many "normal" cases she'll work, I make a note card with all the details about it there ready to be used when I come to that point in the story. However, like I said, some details about it all don't come to me until I've got to the point writing where she's about to have the vision (and sometimes it's WHILE she has the vision) and for those things, it's back to my old friend - Google.
Of course though, there are only a limited number of ways to kill someone even when you do get creative. Shooting, stabbing, poisoning, bludgeoning and suffocation are just a small selection of the ways a person can be killed, but if you're going to do all of those things, pretty soon you'll have a dead person with whom you're just going through the motions. As Tara's gift only works until the person expires, I find that there is little need for me to work out all the details of the crime. Mike's job is to find all of that and mine is to plant the seed, which I have to admit is one of the perks of the job.
When it comes to the overall plot and "case of the book" as it were, that's when things can start to get creative. It's not always a murder that runs through the book and sometimes it's not even a crime that Tara can solve on her own with her visions. As she's developed as a character, I've found other ways to keep her focused on what matters - catching the bad guy without getting killed herself. If you look at some of my other books, BLACKOUT or LYNNE & HOPE for example, they both have crimes that would have been outside of Tara's purview and so while I like to give Tara a good murder or two to work through, I also enjoy putting other characters in situations that don't involve blood and gore.
I think it was a friend of mine who said that one of the perks of being a crime writer is getting to kill people for a living...I don't disagree, it's just that with me writing young adult fiction, people kinda look at you sideways when you say you enjoy torturing teenagers! Can you really blame them?
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The Trials of a Cirme Writer: Things I Shouldn't Know
As with my last piece on this subject about my internet search history (found here), there are things about certain topics that I shouldn't have any knowledge of. I mean, the average crime reader these days has some idea about Forensics - even someone who casually watches something like CSI or NCIS knows that too. People often say that criminals are getting smarter, but I think it has more to do with the fact that there is often a play book on the TV or online that shows how to do certain things and not get caught.
Now the majority of my books that deal with crime have a murder plot. It's rare that I deal with any other kinds of crime, other than in passing. My latest book, WAITING ON YOU, is one of the exceptions to that rule. While I wouldn't class it as a crime or mystery book at all, it does include some aspects of criminal behaviour, which of course means that you have to either have watched enough of CASTLE or THE BILL to have some idea about what the police would do in those circumstances. It's not all blood, guts and gore.
However, there are some things that I have no business knowing. I touched on it slightly when writing the other piece in this series about search histories. I shouldn't know that there may not be something called the "perfect" crime, but there are possibilities that come pretty damn close. I am an avid consumer of procedural crime show - I love NCIS and CASTLE and will pretty much give anything a watch a few times if it's crime related and has piqued my interest. I also have numerous books on the subject - both fact and fiction and use those to plot murders (I'll have another piece talking about that) as well as what kind of things police look for when they arrive at the scene of a crime.
Due to the fact that the DYING THOUGHTS series focuses on Tara's ability to see the last moments of someone's life, I do deal a lot with the grisly details of death. I have a pretty good idea how long it would take to alert passers-by to a body on a hot summer day. I know the various stages of decomp, and while I'm nowhere near ready to start separating DNA samples and comparing them to suspects, I also have some idea how a crime lab works from my book, LYNNE & HOPE. These are all things that interest me, and are relevant to my job, but still, I wonder how much of it I just shouldn't know!
In one of the books I'm working on now, there have been a string of violent assaults and deaths. While the deaths are pretty straight forward, the beatings and violence have needed a creative mind. I didn't want the attackers to have a plan. I wanted them to try new things and use different weapons, so at one point they will have used bleach to blind and chemically burn someone, another time they will have just kicked, hit and slashed until they were happy with the damage caused. In another work in progress, I am dealing with a series of violent sexual assaults and murders. Whilst I did want an MO for these attacks, I also wanted them to escalate, starting with just kidnappings, moving onto violent rape, and then onto murder.
These are subjects that require a lot of creative thought and I don't know whether to be proud or horrified that I haven't really struggled to think up new scenarios for each of these pieces. There are some parts of the job that make me question the state of my own mind and staring at bodies in different states of decomposition is one of them. I guess you could say that I've always been rather morbid and at least I'm only killing people in print. Still, you do have to wonder. As they say in CASTLE, there are two kinds of people who sit around thinking up ways to kill people: Mystery writers and psychopaths. I think to think I'm the first.
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The Trials Of A Crime Writer: Search History
I often wonder what would happen if I were to be suspected of a crime, and the police were to seize my computer and check what I'd been looking at. Is the fact that I'm a crime writer really going to answer to their queries as to why I was wondering how much damage industrial strength bleach could do to a person? What about when they discover the pages I looked at telling me what happens in the moments after death? Or the ones about how much acid would be needing to dissolve a body? Or even the ones looking for answers as to whether there is such as thing as a perfect murder?
Sure, I write YA fiction, but that doesn't mean the facts have to be any less accurate! I do wonder though, if I became famous, would I get away with killing a few people and claiming my search history was research? I'm not a psychopath, officer, I was just checking for my latest novel! I also wonder about the times that I've tested a theory. I'm sure those who have written their own crime novels have done something similar. They've handcuffed themselves and worked out how easy it would be to pick the lock, or they've put a tight zip tie binding their wrists and have to stay sat down whilst they slowly saw their way out with a pen knife...or is that just me?
It's all part of the learning curve and while it does take some time, you eventually start to realise that if you were to go on a murder spree, you would probably have a better idea about what to do with the body or bodies than the average person. I won't give you my perfect murder because I might need to use it one day and I find that putting these things online make the lawyers start the throw around the word "premeditated"!
Then again, it's not just the grisly crime stuff that litters my bookmarked pages and recently viewed history. I also have a pretty good idea about how an autopsy is performed, the manner of a corner's inquest in the UK and the pecking order in the CID branch of a police station. I also know, after years of wondering, what CID actually stands for: Criminal Investigative Division, though technically, isn't that the job of every police
officer?
I know where to hide a body to aid decomp, I know how to estimate time of death and I know various other tests to work out drug levels and other interesting facts once someone has died. I know how to hide the taste of certain poisons, or how to make a murder look accidental and I also know that if I keep going, then one day I may end up regretting posting this piece on the internet for all the world to see.
So, let's be honest. I could probably pick my way out of handcuffs and I know how a lock works, but at the same time, it's purely research. I don't intend to break into someone's house and commit the perfect crime. For one, I think it would be a lot more effort than just writing about it. I've seen a lot of quotes about crime writers and their search histories. One that springs to mind is this: "I became a writer because kidnapping people and forcing them to act out your plots is technically illegal". Only technically because if done right, no one would ever have to know!
I've killed a lot of people, all in print, all in various different ways. I have another piece planned about how many different ways you can kill someone. It's rather interesting when I'm writing the case details for Tara in the DYING THOUGHTS series because I don't like to repeat too many scenarios, I like to keep people guessing, which means that I have to go on the internet and search - or at least I do for the ones I haven't already thought of. Be warned though, I may not be a danger in person, but in print? My keyboard is loaded
and I'm not afraid to use it.
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