Takes one to write one?

My mom devours murder mysteries, action-oriented thrillers, and CSI-type books, and the other day she was talking about how she thought you probably had to be a little bit messed up to write them. At first I wasn't entirely sure what she meant, but when she explained it further I realized what she was getting at: in order to write about a convincingly disturbed or evil villain, you have to be a little disturbed yourself, or at least be in contact with that part of your personality.

I'm not entirely sure I agree, but I think that to a point, it's certainly true. It's probably a little like acting - you have to have something to draw on, whether it's a side of you that you endorse... or not.

Any thoughts?

Hmmm. I don't quite think so. I mean, I could think of some pretty messed up stuff right now, and I could write about it, but I don't think I'm messed up. It's just stuff you see on TV, hear on the news, little fears tucked away in your mind that you can dig up.

So yes, you do have to be in touch, but not necessarily touched. If that makes sense. =P Some people are so exposed to things, that it's not so bad. If you've been raised on horror novels, then you wouldn't have a hard time coming up with a horror novel. It would scare lots of other people, but you yourself might not find it scary just because you're so used to it. Does that mean you're a horrific person? I'd say the same for crime novels. It's what you know, what you're used to. How you see things.

=P If that makes any sense. *mind a little scrambled today*

^_^ Keek!

It's totally method acting--frankness alert--unless you're a bad writer. Bad writers rely on stereotypes, good writers rely on emotion and psychology. That's what makes murder mysteries and things like that polarizing. You can either have a really good murder mystery, or a really cheap, unbelievable one. The difference is in the way the writer went about characterizing the murderer. If they rely on Bad Guy logic, it's not going to make much sense. But when you get into the fun motive and history, then you've got a good character and likely, a good writer.

I agree. It is completely method acting. Certainly, I have an easier time writing about relatively innocent teenage girls, but in one of my books, said teenage girl is being tormented by an evil king with psychic powers. I just had to put myself in the situation of the king and imagine that revenge really is a good idea, and that I liked the idea of waging war. I mean, Johnny Depp isn't half as wacky as most of the characters he plays, nor is any actor who plays a villain really a bad person. Heck, if my aunt were to write a novel, it would bea grusome horror story, and she is a teacher's aid in a grade one class.

Not sure it exactly works like that , but yes, probably, to write really dark stuff you do at least have to be in touch with your dark side to be able to understand your characters etc.

I also think unless you write about fluffy bunnies, you probably have to be a little messed up write seriously well. I mean let's face it, especially writing fiction, it basically means you can create your own fantasy world. Most people talk about their characters like they were real, have conversations with their characters in their head and can imagine some pretty sick and twisted things, and start to feel quite crazy when they get writer's block, which is what's called having your mind empty for once, like normal people.

If you didn't write it all down and call it being creative, it would be called being delusional.

I think it is method acting, but it's also a lot about imagination, as all story writing is. You have to imagine yourself gone wrong, whatever circumstance it is.

I watch a lot of random murder things on television(trust me, I've only written one story about a murderer... YAY! 48 Hours!), so i can figure out how a murderer could work and live. I'm not a murderer, although i can write them, so it is acting.

Of course I think that everyone is a little messed up. This whole world is messed up, so you can get in touch with your inner evil to write something better and more believable.

I know i have mentioned this before, but making villains or scary characters isn't so much something i do on purpose. Writing them just comes to me; bad guys, good guys, random old men -- they all came with the story. I just have to write them down. Yes. I am aware that that last bit makes no sense.

Well, I've got a fun crazy-guy in the book I'm writing, and I'm told he's fairly convincing. I'm mildly psychotic, so there you go.

I dunno.

I could lie and say I'm completely normal and yet I write some pretty insane/disturbing stuff. But! That would be a lie. Now, I'm not going to go out and do any of the things I've written about, and this is the difference. Sometimes the problem with crazy killers is their inability to distinguish reality from imagination, or they aren't bothered by the pain of other people, or what not. I'm rooted in reality, and I really hate when people cry, and I dead bodies make me sick. Incredibly sick. [Note: No, I haven't killed things, haha. I saw a man after a car crash, in which he died, and I also went to a cadaver lab before.] So, no matter what creepy, evil things I may write about, I could never do them in real life.

I'm also not a man. But I can write one well!

Another good example: Memoirs of a Geish is a book about the life of a Japanese woman, a Geisha, yet it was written by a American man who had little experience with Japanese culture outside of university studies before he started working on the novel. It is utterly convicing.

Yes, my mum thinks Thomas Harris is derranged because he writes Hannibal so well - I say to her that "nothing is impossible with a little imagination and a gift for writing." I suppose writers of "psychopaths" really just place themselves in their character's shoes.

I guess it's just a mixture of Method Acting, as said before, and imagination. A person has many sides to themselves but I don't think you necessarily have to be a murderer - or have it in you - to write about a murderer. It's just what writers do.

Alainna
xxx

I think it's a matter of imagination and exaggeration. Everyone has everything in them... a little bit. If you want to have a completely messed-up character, you have to find that little piece of you that is like that (however remotely) and exaggerate upon it -- imagine how it would feel to have that bit of yourself magnified.

I know that all of my characters are based off pieces of myself, some larger, some smaller. I haven't yet written anything about a murderer or anything like that. But when my characters talk to me, I can see pieces of myself that I don't even think people who know me really well would recognize, they're that little. But yes, I do think you have to have something to draw on--and it's always there. You just have to look deep enough. ^_~

~Azila~

Everything we write, no matter how creative and original it may seem is based on things around us. So no that wouldn't really be 'copying'.

So I don't think you have to mentally deranged to write about a mentally deranged character. You've seem plenty of them on TV, maybe heard of real ones in the news, or maybe your Great-Aunt Pettunia is one.

The catch is that you can write stuff based on other things yet it still has to seem original and not stereotypical.

But of course the more you know about being evil/mad/crazy the easier it will be for you to write on that. And if you can relate it to yourself then that's even better!

Every antagonist I've created I've partially based off of myself. I'm not insane. I just have a few traits I think some antagonists could benefit from having....

I could do it - again.

Futzing, poking people's emotions is entirely too much fun, especially when you've succeeded in messing with their mind. Is it in me? Yes, of course. I'm not a stranger to writing horror. Am I deranged? Possibly. XD