Peter Saint-Clair's Blog

Creating the Victim

April 27th, 2011 | by Peter Saint-Clair

Posted in: Writing | Tags: Author, Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Long Island, Murder, New York, Peter Saint-Clair, Red Herring, Serial killer, Serial Murder, Victim, WordPress, Writer |

I’ve spent a huge amount of time harping on how to create killers, but what of the victim? I think the victim is probably one of the most important characters in a story. Why? Well killers don’t kill for no reason – well in real life they might – but in fiction, that’s boring. When someone is killed, no one wants to hear that it was for no reason. We want to understand why someone died and some of us will spend a lifetime asking those kinds of questions. Even if you never tell the readers why someone died (I really hate when I don’t find out), you still have to know why they died.

There are some important questions that need to be answered when you sit down to write out a bio for your victim.

How are the killer and victim connected?

Were they family, friends or otherwise?

Where did they meet?

These are just a few of the things that you, the writer, need to be aware of.

Another aspect to the victim that you might want to know about ahead of time is where and how they lived. This information could help show readers why the victim may have ended up as a victim in the first place as well as plant some clues as to who their killer is.

As far as the rest of the bio, it might help to know their hopes and dreams, stressors and fears and goals. Knowing these things could help lay some of the groundwork for clues, red herrings and plot devices. I’m not saying that you need to go über in-depth with a victim character, at least not the first victim. I also don’t think it’ll be totally necessary to know what kind of childhood they had or how their parents treated them, unless of course all of that pertains to your story.

What are some other things that might help in shaping the victim? Hell, do you even think it’s necessary to put this much effort into a character that’ll be dead at or near page 1? Why or why not?

Oh and no one has solved the Weekend Mystery yet. The winner will receive 2 hours of my time in helping set up a WordPress blog either on WordPress.com or your own domain – or even still, if you already have one of those, I’ll help you optimize it and offer a consult. I’m doing this to create some interest in the NF book I’m currently working on that has to do with that very thing. Until next time…

7 Responses to “Creating the Victim”

Manon Eileen April 27th, 2011 at 9:50 am

Another great post Peter, thanks!

Peter Saint-Clair April 27th, 2011 at 9:54 am

Thanks Manon…just wait until Friday’s post….muahahahaha

Kristin N. April 27th, 2011 at 12:35 pm

Interesting post, Peter. I love thinking about all the backstory of characters and where the connections are that bring characters together. Killers and victims make it even more intriguing. I made a guess on the mystery, but I think I added too much backstory.

Peter Saint-Clair April 27th, 2011 at 1:30 pm

I honestly never thought much of it myself, I mean as far as the victim goes, but I’ve been reading a few craft books that push the idea that the victim should be well crafted as well. It makes sense when you think about the fact that the person was killed for a reason…lol Thanks, Kristen!

Terrell Mims April 27th, 2011 at 3:21 pm

I think it’s vital to know the backstory of all your victims even if they are very minor in a story. Their families and friends will be vital in it. That reminds me of the Natalie Hallowell movie coming out on Monday.

Saturday Smash-Up #1 « Terrell Mims University April 30th, 2011 at 10:14 am

[...] We all write blogs discussing the hero and villain. What about the victim in a murder-mystery? Peter Saint-Clair shows us in “Creating the Victim. [...]

Astrographer November 3rd, 2011 at 6:42 pm

Even if the killing was completely senseless(say the killer was obsessed with large-breasted blondes or some other jack-brained thing), knowing the victim helps to give the story a sense of sympathy. Too much sympathy with the devil can feel dirty, but to feel sympathy for a good life with promise brought to a stupid meaningless end, that’s pretty damned dramatic and drives greater desire to see the killer apprehended.

Author

The name's Chris writing under the nom de plume Peter Saint-Clair, mostly because it sounds way better than my real name. I'm a mystery author who's working on the debut novel that I don't know the name of yet. I like to read and write about things like cults and crime so you can probably expect to see a lot of posts on that sort of thing here. You will also find links to other, non-authorly projects I'm either working on, have worked on or am done with. I try to blog 3 times a week, but sometimes that doesn't happen. I do try to make sure that I post at least once a week, so if you don't hear from me for a couple of days, don't worry, I'll be back.