Telling a group of people how you'd kill them -- or just telling them what kind of killer you'd be -- is a genius conversation starter. It's a very personal thing -- murder -- and it divulges a great deal about a person's character.
I'm not the type to get my hands dirty. I'd be a Ted Kaczynski or a John Doe (Seven) minus the beheading, stabbing and prostitute killing -- John often manipulated his victims into choosing death over things they perceived were much worse.
I accidentally stabbed Jerod with a toothpick once. I was tickling the bottom of his foot, and he tried to kick my hand away, but he got the toothpick instead, and it lodged in his toe. I felt a little pop as it penetrated his skin -- I heard it too like a knuckle cracking. And I remember thinking at the time: how could anyone do this with a knife on purpose? It was awful -- almost as bad as the sound the cartilage in his ear made when I tugged it a bit harder than I should have. Ick.
I'm not the type to get my hands dirty. I'd be a Ted Kaczynski or a John Doe (Seven) minus the beheading, stabbing and prostitute killing -- John often manipulated his victims into choosing death over things they perceived were much worse.
You're perhaps wondering where I'm going with all of this -- those of you who know me might be reaching for your phones and security weapons right now -- I bring this up only as it pertains to my writing. I've had the darnedest time killing my victim characters, because it requires me to think like a murderer, and thinking like one makes me feel like a murderer -- much like the struggle Catholic teens go through with sex and feeling pervy -- the surly nun perched on their shoulders smacking their foreheads with her ruler scolding, "thinking about it is just as bad as doing it."
It's why I wish EA Games would come up with a Sims that includes "serial killer" in the aspirations menu. That way I'd simply observe my simulated people in action -- I'd throw them together in a house and note how they killed one another. Brilliant, isn't it; a simulated social experiment. But I doubt it will come to fruition considering the looks I get from people I talk to of such things.
So I'm back at square one:
What kind of a killer am I? How do I separate my villain's motivations from my own -- is it possible to create a psycho killer without feeling like one? Otherwise my murders will all be justified or committed cowardly from a sniper's distance -- boring.
What kind of killer are you?
Oh, Alexis.
ReplyDelete1. If you really wanted a serial killer picture, I could have forwarded you some from our "Those We Do Not Speak Of" photo shoot.
2. In the Sims, I used to kill my guys by drowning them in the swimming pool, or locking them in a room with 12 lit fireplaces. How they'd do it to each other, however would be interesting.
3. See you NEXT MONTH!
I'm afraid writers have the best and worst of the world jumbled in their minds. On one hand, they create beautiful, happy worlds, on the other, they murder, steal, and have to power of a god to destroy a characters entire being.
ReplyDeleteI think this is one reason why not everyone writes---why they say we have a muse. There is a lot of power, and thus responsibility, in creating words and deciding someone's ultimate outcome.