Three Steps to Murder

My current series of blog posts is focused on how to read a suspense novel rather than how to write one. Today, let’s look into the way an author goes about the business of offing a character. There’s no one correct way, of course, but for what it’s worth, here’s how I go about the writing process when I want to dispatch a character in one of my novels:

Step 1. I become a method actor and play the role of the killer. What's the killer's motivation? What's the killer's back story? Is the killer ex-military? Ex-police? A drug-crazed psychopath? Is the murder a planned execution or a crime of passion? The weapon comes out of the character's back story and motivation. Where does the murder take place? The killer in a crime of passion finds his or her weapon at the scene usually because there is no premeditation. The exception is a case like the O.J. Simpson trial where the killer clearly premeditated his or her actions by bringing a knife to the scene. In this case, you would want your character to have extreme anger issues and a history of violent behavior.

Step 2. I describe the scene as a dark place. Even in the bright sunshine of a usually happy place, I look for ways to describe the scene as dark. If the killer strikes on the fifth fairway of a golf course on a sunny Saturday afternoon, I bring in an unexpected cloud cover. I kill off some bushes or trees so the place starts to look like a graveyard. I have the groundskeeper neglect this particular fairway so it's weedy and overgrown in spots. Nobody replaces their divots on this fairway. The idea is to make the reader feel the darkness.

Step 3. I focus on moving the plot forward and hooking the reader to want to continue. While learning "Whodunit" is usually sufficient reason to turn the page, I might break the scene just before the crime. Or I might break the scene with the reader knowing the crime was committed but not certain the victim died. Or do something to make the reader want to know more. I want the reader to go: "Huh, is that it? There has to be more. Oh, wait. Look, there is more. There's another chapter."

Choose your weapon
Unless you are making the weapon a kind of character or important plot device like the yellow Rolls Royce in the film "The Yellow Rolls Royce" (sorry, couldn't think of a new movie), the weapon isn't important but the reader likes to know specifics. If using a pistol, the reader wants to know not only that it's a Glock, but also which model and why the killer chose that model (it's compact and hides well in your pocket).

You can get that sort of information with a Google search. Since most of the time, the weapon is not as important as the fact that someone got bumped off, the weapon is only important to the investigation, not the crime itself. What does that mean? It means that the candlestick is just as deadly as a well-placed homemade explosive device that required the killer to spend six years in the military perfecting his or her craft. You don't need an exotic weapon to make your story interesting. You need an interesting story that makes the reader want to turn the page. The choice of weapon is at best the icing on the cake, not the cake.

Free weapon ideas: In an episode of Alfred Hitchcock's TV series, the wife murders her husband by clobbering him with a frozen chunk of meat, probably a leg of lamb. She then cooks the lamb and serves it to the investigating police officer. Another great weapon is the ice cycle which is a self-destructing chunk of evidence.

The Literary Weapon
Sometimes the author chooses the weapon because he or she wants the reader to connect the weapon to some larger point the author is trying to make. For example, if I want to convince you that war is evil, I’ll blow up a school filled with children with a misplaced artillery shell. If I want to make a point about the villain’s sexual prowess or lack thereof, I’ll choose a weapon for its phallic import, such as a Bowie knife.  If I want you to think the victim is the true villain, I’ll have the killer hang them or electrocute them or give them a chemical injection. And If I just want to make a mess, I’ll have the victim visit a busy industrial machine shop at the wrong time.

As a reader, consider the author’s intent in picking the weapon. In some cases it’s simply a plot device to remove a character from the stage. But when the author connects the weapon in some additional way to the story, making a symbol of it, you are in for an interesting read beyond the plot itself.

Sometimes to kill off a character, I'll let Satan do my dirty work. To learn more about my suspense novel Fulfillment, click here for Amazon or click here for paperback.

Here’s another novel idea…
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