Asphyxiation, suffocation, and choking. When writing SEETHINGS, I never used any of these words at all. I only described the process with other ones so that the reader would be immersed in them to let them decide if murder was the right thing to do.
Why strangle?
When it comes to death, choking is the most intimate way to deliver/receive it. It requires the proximity of two people to have skin-to-skin and eye-to-eye contact when it’s performed. It doesn’t need tools. And it takes time to get the job done. It’s not unlike another highly intimate adult act.
More about that in a second.
Diligence is required to craft an excellent murder story, especially one so close and personal that it includes strangulation. For the reader, there must be a logical reason to use it, not poison or a bullet. There is, and intimacy was my muse.
When such a murder begins to evolve, the action mustn’t come cheaply. Similarly, it can’t be easily discarded once it’s done. Readers would feel cheated if it arrived and left without meaning.
If this is to become the most intimate act of the story, our victim/killer pairing mustn’t be rushed, accidental, spontaneous or random. Instead, it’s purposeful to a tee. Death isn’t this murder’s primary outcome, anyway. It’s only a by-product of something else at play. Emotions have taken precedence, requiring time to develop and gain their purpose. Then, they must be allowed to flourish and thrive in detailed descriptors, which will be destroyed with the same respectful attention later.
When it comes to those final few breaths, our victim’s demise must be handled with the utmost care. Every gasp and gurgle must be crisp to the reader’s eye when they happen. Empaths should sense a tightening chest and clenching of teeth—for both characters.
The narrative’s theme is intimacy, which brings me to that other intimate act people like you and I indulge in.
Delicious sex allows my characters to get intensely close to each other and lose themselves in the moment. It’s only a tiny psychological step to switch from sexual intentions to murderous ones and turn trust into deceit, love to hate, and life to death. It’s that micro-moment of change that’s so important. I’ve spent studying and writing about in SEETHINGS.
Several micro-moments occur before the pivotal part of this story: the first kiss, the first love, and the first breaking of trust for someone we love. Each has a micro-moment when a threshold has to be crossed. It’s when life makes us let go of safety so we can be flung over to discover something new and wonderful (or tragically awful). It’s that crossing-over process that attracts my soul to writing. It’s what keeps me writing what I write.
If I’ve written this story of intimacy correctly, you’ll know what I’m talking about after reading it.
SEETHINGS‘ murder is another micro-moment when life forces the protagonist to leave sensibility and the safe ground to make a personal discovery. Was it right to do what they did?
Every fibre in our bodies screams the morally correct answer, yet there’s something deeper going on. It’s profound and cathartic—for the protagonist and the reader alike.
Siding with the villain isn’t a comfortable stance. I expect most readers to be repulsed by what transpires between the pages. That’s okay. I wasn’t thinking of the story’s destination when I began its journey. No one but me was to read it. Creating civilised cliches for strangers to enjoy was far from my mind. I sat down and searched for answers to life and love by asking many questions, and kept writing. I wrote until I found a common theme — micro-moments to the milestones of our lives, letting go of safety and putting trust in the process, wherever that takes us.
Sometimes, those moments lead us in the right direction, and we gain much from them. Sometimes, trusting the process leaves us with lifelong scars, and we gain something else instead.
I would say SEETHINGS is more a lifelong scar than a happy-ever-after story.
Please enjoy the scar I gouged out for you. (downloadable and free for a limited time)
Discover more from Michael Forman – Author of Dark Fiction & Drama
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