Love is such a quirky thing. You know he's bad for you. You know he'll break your heart. You've heard all the excuses. That first murder? It was a crime of passion. Never should have happened, but it did and you can almost understand why. But that second killing? The one where your sweetheart knocked off the nice guy in accounting? The guy who visited his mother every Sunday, and volunteered with the Sierra Club? How are you going to excuse that murder?
As we all know, you can't help who you fall in love with ... which is why, sometimes, despite your best intentions, you have to switch things up and make somebody else the murderer in your mystery.
In one of our earlier stories, we found ourselves unexpectedly intrigued by a character. She started off as an eccentric red herring, but quickly morphed into our number one suspect. To flesh her out, we created a backstory for her. That's background information that a writer creates, not for the reader to ever see, but so the author understands better the character's motivations. But the more we wrote this individual, her idiosyncrasies, mannerisms, hair, piercings, wardrobe, the more we discovered that she was a keeper. Despite the fact that in the backstory, she was a serial killer who couldn't be trusted around puppies, by page 50 of our story, she'd morphed from murderer to heroine.
And that's the beauty of being the author. Unlike real life, where you know you should never try to change your beloved, it's your book and you can change a character in any way you want.
But while it's fine to fall in love with one of your characters, enough to save her or him from the gallows, there are some pitfalls to these transformations. Here are some tips to consider before you start any revisions.
1. Who's your best friend now? Characters don't exist in a vacuum. You create more than just a name and face. You give them, even if only in your mind, friends, occupations, the color on the walls of their apartments. So if you decide to fundamentally change a character, you've got to make sure that you go whole hog. Figure out who are her new best friends – and why old pals no longer fit in. Changing a character has to be part of a larger piece of rewriting.
2. You've got your work cut out for you. If you decide to change villains, it's easier to do so early in the writing process. If you hit page 250 when you make the change, you will probably have to rewrite much of the book. That's fine if it will make it a better story, but it's not enough to simply change the gun to someone else's hands. You've got to make sure that your new murderer makes sense and that the smelly red herrings you've lovingly dropped throughout the story still have an odor.
3. Don't burn any bridges; you never know when you want to return to an old flame. Always keep copies of each draft of your book in case you change your mind. Be sure to put a date on each file. One of the many advantages of using a computer to write fiction is that you can work with multiple versions of a book at the same time. You can try a character "on-for-size" and if the change doesn't work, you can hit the delete key and pull up your original version.
4. Sometimes, it's just not meant to be. Despite your best efforts to keep the relationship going, one morning you discover you just can't stand one of your main characters. What now?
Dr. Phil may be able to spot what's wrong in the relationship, and with a little effort, so can you. Usually, the problem is that the character isn't well-formed so you can't relate to him. Whether saint or sinner, every character needs redeeming qualities, as well as flaws. If you've written an idealized version of either a hero or villain, chances are you and the reader aren't going to like him.
2007 is going to be a banner year for Evelyn David.
Murder Off the Books will be published in March, there will be book parties, book signings, guest lectures, more short stories (and contests!), more newsletter columns with mystery writing tips, and hopefully, the finished sequel to our first novel. We're so glad that you're along for the ride. All our best wishes to each of you for a happy, healthy new year,
