Creating the Perfect Murder Mystery Victim by Dawn Arkin
Who your victim is can be just as
important as who your hero and villain are. Each has the same
importance in your story, and should have the same amount of care taken
when you create them.
Your victim isn't just a body to be discovered or someone whose death
can give your detective a crime to solve? Your victim is a plot twist
that can help move your story along. He is a crucial character in your
story. Here are five tips to help you create them.
1. Your victim should make sense. Think about your plot. The kind of
mystery you are writing will show you the type of victim you need. If
you are plotting a kidnapping and murder, you don't want to show a
98-pound weakling kidnapping a 230-pound fighter, unless you can do it
in a believable way. You want your victim to match the villain and
crime, so the reader can believe what you are showing them.
2. Give the hero a connection. Detectives will work hard to solve the
case, whether they know the victim or not. But giving the detective a
connection to the victim can make the story more suspenseful. If that
can't be done, then give your detective the ability to empathize with
the victim, to feel their loss, so he is more driven to find the
killer.
3. Make the victim human. Give your victim annoying character flaws,
something that others would find aggravating. Maybe even aggravating
enough to do him in over? Just about anything can be used for this,
from annoying personal habits to being too nice.
4. Mr. Popularity, or is he? There are two kinds of victims that make
great characters: the victim that everyone hated and the one everyone
loved. Both are good characters. The victim everyone hated would have a
ton of suspects, probably almost everyone they dealt with. The victim
everyone loved would have no suspects, since everyone adored them.
5. The cardboard victim. Too often the victim is the least fleshed out
character of a mystery novel. They are nothing more than a body the
detective has to deal with. Treat your victim like that and you are
doing a great disservice to your readers. The reader has to care about
the victim as much as the detective or they won't bother to finish
reading to find out who killed them. So give the victim a back story
and a life. Show they were someone and deserve to be avenged.
When creating your mystery's characters, give enough attention to an
important character; your victim. It will make your story more
suspenseful and give your detective a motive to get the job done. And
your readers a reason to keep reading.
About the Author
Dawn Arkin is an author on http://www.Writing.Com/ which is a site for Creative Writing. Her portfolio can be found at http://darkin.Writing.Com/ so stop by and read for a while.