Ah, the Peril!
You know, plotting to kill people is hard.
It's not just enough to have an opportunity or a method.
It's that darn motive.
It's understanding forensics and how investigative technique works.
I was telling my best friend earlier today that I must be utterly twisted, because one of the reasons I watch so much Court TV, Dateline, 48 Hours Hard Evidence and other documentaries about the evils humans do to one another is so I can write about it.
Because I make up murders all the time.
I have to understand how people kill.
Why they kill.
And what the police do afterwards.
My husband came home last night to find me on the couch, typing away. He barely got an acknowledgement of his arrival, because I was busy killing someone. He knows not to interrupt when I'm going like that. He knows I'll start asking questions about law enforcement or shove the laptop under his nose to check my reality-quotient.
Poor guy probably wishes he'd never gone into law enforcement.
Or married a crazy English teacher who plots murders for fun and profit.
I've heard writers claim that love scenes are notoriously difficult to write, as are gripping emotional moments and beginning and ending scenes. You know, I tend to have a grip on those.
It's plotting out those darned murders.
And making sure the killer gets caught, leaving clues for the reader along the way.
What's your most difficult thing to write?
It's not just enough to have an opportunity or a method.
It's that darn motive.
It's understanding forensics and how investigative technique works.
I was telling my best friend earlier today that I must be utterly twisted, because one of the reasons I watch so much Court TV, Dateline, 48 Hours Hard Evidence and other documentaries about the evils humans do to one another is so I can write about it.
Because I make up murders all the time.
I have to understand how people kill.
Why they kill.
And what the police do afterwards.
My husband came home last night to find me on the couch, typing away. He barely got an acknowledgement of his arrival, because I was busy killing someone. He knows not to interrupt when I'm going like that. He knows I'll start asking questions about law enforcement or shove the laptop under his nose to check my reality-quotient.
Poor guy probably wishes he'd never gone into law enforcement.
Or married a crazy English teacher who plots murders for fun and profit.
I've heard writers claim that love scenes are notoriously difficult to write, as are gripping emotional moments and beginning and ending scenes. You know, I tend to have a grip on those.
It's plotting out those darned murders.
And making sure the killer gets caught, leaving clues for the reader along the way.
What's your most difficult thing to write?
Labels: Linda's Posts
posted by Linda Winfree at 4:16 PM
3Comments:
Sex scenes used to be easy to write. But after writing, er, lots of them over the course of 8 novels, it's tough to get original. Hard to keep the emotion there, the intensity fresh. Go figure.
Although, I also find other types of scenes difficult in their own way--transitions without boredom, action that's gripping and realistic, emotion that's true to the character and the situation.
I'm finding that writing for me is getting harder the longer I do it.
Why, why, why is that?
Augh, I hate transitions!
Love scenes I don't seem to have a problem with -- mine usually seem to grow out of the unique people the characters are.
I have to work hard at not repeating plot twists.
And I feel like my characters spend a lot of time riding around in cars talking about case clues!
I don't mind writing love scenes, either. As long as my kids aren't running around distracting me. ;)
I tend to struggle with scene endings sometimes, making sure there's enough of a hook to make the reader want to turn the page, and action scenes - keeping them fast paced, but with enough detail to ground the reader in the scene.
J...as to your question...a friend of mine who's pubbed 30+ books said the same thing to me the other day...that it gets harder the more she writes. The only answer I can see is that we put pressure on ourselves to make the next book better than the last, so there's that internal struggle to work harder and challenge ourselves. And really, if it weren't a challenge, would you do it? I know I wouldn't. The ever-raising bar is what keeps me working harder from one book to the next.
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