I don’t write mysteries, but I loved this video Janet Reid posted on her blog the other day.
I’ve killed off characters before, to the extent that if I really were my protagonists, I’d be a serial killer. However, I’ve never actually had a murder in any of my novels, just short stories. I’m currently in the midst of researching how to murder/drown a large group of people from around 2100 B.C. (Thanks for not leaving a lot of notes on the specifics, Herodotus. Sheesh.)
Have you murdered characters before? Was it a pretty clean-cut death, or a unique sort of murder?
I have murdered some characters. They had it coming, and it was not mysterious! I don't think I'm a mystery kind of writer. 🙂
Amalia- I'm not sneaky enough to be a mystery writer. But I'll admit to a secret little thrill when I've killed off some of my characters. There's going to be one in Book #2 that I'll definitely enjoy.
Yay, a scene from one of my favorite Stephen King movies, and THE favorite of his books!!
Oh, I've murdered. Fictionally, of course. The most recent death was mass-killing by fire. Sometimes I prefer the up close and personal with a knife. Fictionally, of course. 😉
p.s. That video was hilarious! Especially the copy editor line. 😉
KarenG- There were some good ones in there, even some non-horror ones. That Fargo scene makes me cringe every time though.
L.T.- I love that copy editor line! I'm getting ready to get up close and personal with a knife. Someone else has to die before I can drown the others. There's a lot of bodies around these parts lately.
The drowning in 2100 B.C. has to do with Nitokerti? That's the protagonist in my story. lol
lol 🙂
I've killed off a couple of characters – not my MCs though! I had a little bit of fun using a new tinkering for the deaths in the Steampunk ms 🙂
I've never murdered a character. I should add that to my to-do list, though.
I confess to a corpse or two. Or three. All right, ten or twelve.
As to the manner of expiry, I say nothing, except to note that I had fun!
J.L. Jackson- Cool! Hers is a unique story, isn't it?
Jemi- Ohhhh! Steampunk deaths would be fun!
Guinevere- I'd definitely put it on the list. It's a lot of fun!
Gary- I had a feeling you'd have several corpses to your name. And I'm glad you had fun!
I've killed off characters, and I cried everytime I edited that part.
Yeah, I know, lame. 😉
I have a sickness. I'm a character-killer. 🙁 Someone's been "murdered" in every one of my books so far.
I don't know how much specifics I can go into without sounding like a real sicko, so I'll just say that I usually try to make them creative to some degree. Only one person comes to mind who will die of old age.
Nope! My little PB and chapter book characters have so far been spared the axe. He he. 🙂
I write mysteries, so I've killed off many, many characters. Some are 'clean' killings (poison) some are not so clean. In my plots it's not the method that's the mystery, but why the murder was committed. I've always found 'why' far more interesting than 'how'. On the other hand, sneaky methods can be fun.
Oh, yes. But as Arnold says, "Only the bad guys!"
Hilarious video!
I have murdered characters before! It was completely unexpected and I sort of cheated because it happened "off scene" and the others only found out about it later on. But it was pretty fun! (Does that make me sound creepy?)
Yes! I was drawn to Nitokerti. It is a very unique story.
Ha, ha. I haven't killed anyone yet, but maybe someday…
L.T., there's nothing wrong with killing people in sicko ways.
It's perfectly normal behaviour for a mystery writer. And you know my view on what you should be doing about that!
I've only killed one character. I remember I was talking about it with a friend and we were thinking if anyone overheard us, they'd think we were sickos.
I've had one character death in all the things I've written. And it was a clean-cut arrow-through-the-body type of death. Though the one who died wasn't the one meant to die.
Plenty-o-murders! Nothing beats a nice kill scene. Good times!
I kill people all the time…
..and in books too. ;D
LOL. I hadn't seen that video before. Wow. Violent… and yet entertaining. That might be a sign that something is wrong with me, though.
LOL! loved the video!
One of my current WIPs is a murder mystery. All I can say is, it was a messy process, but it got the job done!
I have murdered some characters.
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