Nothing is more satisfying than watching a victim’s life flicker out at the end of a pen. Mmm. Delicious. Don’t you agree?
Committing actual murder is complicated and messy. There are real investigations with actual jail sentences. I have issues with them. But that doesn’t stop me from wanting to make a kill or two in words, y’know, for fun.
As a dark fiction writer, I feel luxurious when ending a character’s life. It’s intimate — memorable. And it’s not just about choosing the best words used to describe how a murder is performed. It’s about why it was committed in the first place. More importantly, what relationship the killer had to their victim and what the kill trigger was. There are many ways to die, and just as many stories that talk of them, but only a few good ones take the time to explain it as it happens.
There’s that thing that ruins a killer narrative for me:
Depersonalising murder with emotional distancing.
Death is dulled to a body count and how someone died. Every human sensitivity is lost in the noise of motives and in-depth forensic investigations. Police show us a summary of events surrounding a murder but not the electricity felt between two people at the time of one. Humans are complex creatures. We have electrical impulses. I needed to explore those further.
Creep Alert!
Hatred is an exquisite emotion. It’s like love and attraction: pure, tender, and uncertain when it starts. Hate has the same electrical connection. It takes an extraordinary story to provide a hate-based love story that’s good enough to win readers’ hearts.
Committing Intimate Murder
In love, we go through a moment of perfect vulnerability and arousal. Trust plays a HUGE part before we take the next step. Murder can be written into this same framework. To kill, we must also pass through those feelings of uncertainty, vulnerability, and arousal. And we won’t know the outcome of our actions until after we commit them. For some, the anxiety of crossing over is about all their emotions can take. For others, it is a leap of faith where we close our eyes and hope we make it to the other side, which makes it even more exciting.
All I need to do is write that right type of romance into my hate narratives to make readers believe.
SEETHINGS was written to make murder that twisted. I wrote it to get my reader to love the foreplay of the kill. They’ll even bask in the same afterglow when it’s done.
Committing murder is not a sport in SEETHINGS. Our killer is trying to make sense of intimacy but getting it wrong. A new character enters the picture to right the wrongs of the heart. But it’s not who you think it is. And it’s not an ending you’d ever expect to see coming.
That’s SEETHINGS. Please read it now! (Free for a limited time)
–Michael Forman (Author)
SEETHINGS promises a gripping psychological thriller that blends murder, passion, and secrets of a sexless marriage. Forman’s vivid prose draws readers into a world where lightning illuminates the skies and hidden truths. As the storm clouds gather, Mitchell’s journey promises to unravel more than just the mystery of the murders.
ORDER NOW – (Free, Limited Time)
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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