Behave!

Cricket McRae

Like Kathleen, who posted yesterday, I recently finished my latest mystery for Midnight Ink. It’s the sixth in the Home Crafting Series, which I’ve been calling Digging Up Darla. However, Darla is out, and the official title has been changed to A Deadly Row to Hoe. The backdrop for the murder this time around is vegetable gardening and community supported agriculture. It will release in November of 2012.

Of the nine novels I’ve completed, this one was possibly the hardest to write. I say possibly, because I think writing a book is a little like giving birth – joyous and painful, and after it’s all over your memory of the difficulty fades. All that remains is the happiness and sense of accomplishment. So I could be wrong.

The memory is still pretty strong right now, though, and I remain surprised at how I struggled with characters who are such old friends. I’ve always enjoyed spending time with them and have a good notion of how they’ll develop over the course of the series.

But this time they refused to behave.

I’ve done a lot of thinking about why they suddenly got their backs up, dug their heels in, pick your own cliché.  My protagonist in particular was moping around one minute and then freaking out the next. Sophie Mae is not that kind of gal. In fact, she wonders to herself about her unusual reactions before realizing it might have to do with hormones. I swear, at one point I was ready for her to go into therapy.

Now, you can rightfully scoff at the idea of an author not being in control of her characters. The whole idea of a writer avoiding responsible for her writing bothers me. So blaming my characters is a cop out. It did, of course, feel like they were fighting me at the time, but it was all in my head.

Right?

One possible reason things went awry is that the story I originally intended to write had to be thrown out for various (valid) reasons. But it was still there, in the back of my mind, messing with the story I was actually supposed to be telling.

And then there’s the fact that I’m usually more of a seat-of-the-pantser writer. In some of the mysteries I’ve written the killer ended up being someone completely different than I intended. All the clues were there, as well as real, believable motivation. I love it when that happens. As Robert Frost said, “No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”

Well, I was surprised all right, but not by the story. Due to what Zorba the Greek called “the full catastrophe of life,” I had a tighter schedule for Deadly Row. So I put together more of an outline than usual and wrote to it. I don’t regret the outline, but I do regret that it was too sketchy. As I neared the end of the book I could tell the character motivations were off. Their misbehavior was likely my subconscious waving its hands in the air, trying to get my attention before I’d gone too far.

However, I had a deadline, and I’m stubborn.

Finally I gave in, ripped out the last half of the book, and totally rewrote it. That required some rewriting in the first half, too, but it was worth it. I hope I’m not the only one who thinks so.

Have you even had a character misbehave? As a reader, can you recall books that fell flat because the characters seemed to be following a plotline rather than what their personalities would dictate?

Why Characters Kill

A lot of real people kill for really stupid reasons. I mean, Darwin Awards dumb. The only way you get away with that in fiction is to make it so funny that the stupidity feeds the humor and makes it all worthwhile. In real life it's never worthwhile.

Serial killer books and many thrillers make use of antagonists who are raving lunatics. This works because the reader knows from the beginning that the bad guy is nuts. After all, if you pick up a book that has the words "serial killer" on the back cover, you know he (or she, though rarely) is crazy. Unpredictable. Scary. Few aren't certifiable. This is why Jeff Lindsay, the creator of Dexter, is a genius. His serial killer is his protagonist. He's broken, he knows he's broken, and he deals with it in a way we almost approve of. Plus, we can relate. Being broken in some way, however small, and having to deal with it is a universal experience.

Other motivators for fictional killers:

Self-defense is a good one, and can apply to either the protagonist or the antagonist. It's understandable, even in a character we loathe. Still, the protagonist deserves a strong opponent, and one who kills out of self-defense is off the hook legally. So this one usually needs a plot or character twist to make a truly interesting story.

Protection of another is even better in the sympathy/empathy department. What mother couldn't relate to a fictional mother protecting her child at any cost? (Well, there are some, but I wouldn't want to have them over for dinner.)

Those are almost laudable reasons to kill unless you're a dyed-in-the-wool pacifist. I wonder how many murder mystery readers are pacifists? Probably more than expected.

A few more:

Greed. For money, but could be for anything the character really wants. This covers envy, too.

Fear. This one is HUGE. Look at all the killing it's caused in real life in the name of defense. Cripes, don't get me started. But on a smaller scale we could be talking about anything from murdering a blackmailer to shooting a stranger cutting through the backyard.

Love. Either killing someone because it would benefit the loved one (in a way that falls beyond the scope of protection of another, mentioned above) or love-turned-to-hate, which gets kind of close to the whole being crazy thing. Jealousy would probably fall under this category, too.

Addiction. People do some scary -- and sad -- stuff because of addiction. Characters can, too.

As a profession. Mercenaries, hit men, etc. fit in here.

Anger. Revenge. Crimes of passion. Religious beliefs. Most of these are somewhat related to the motives above, except perhaps the last one. But I know there must be a ton of other motivations for our characters to kill. Any favorites? Can you think of any unusual ones you've either written or encountered in others' books?