“Good writers know that crime is an entre into telling a greater story about character. Good crime writing holds up a mirror to the readers and reflects in a darker light the world in which they live.”

-Karin Slaughter

“Indecision is the key to flexibility.”

-Kathy Reichs

“There was nothing more dangerous than people convinced of their own good intentions.”

-Laura Lippman

When Night Falls

She was walking down the street, whistling to herself. Night had fallen quickly, but she was almost home. She threw her head back and stared at the sky. Stars were sprinkled across it randomly, but it was as though a thousand eyes were watching her, smiling down at her. She smiled back.

She turned off the street and entered the woods. She didn’t usually like the forest much, but it was only a short walk and faster than taking the long way around. Today, however, she felt strong and confident.

Suddenly, she felt something curl around her wrist, then she was yanked backwards. Her mouth opened in shock. This was not how the night was supposed to end.

It was so dark; she only saw the silhouette of a tall man. Then she felt the shove right before she tumbled backwards onto the ground. The twigs snapped beneath her and her hands hurt as she caught herself. She tried to push herself up.

All of a sudden something hurtled through the air and she felt the force of the blow right before she blacked out.

The sounds were the first to return. She thought she heard soft scuttling and was reminded of the time her little sister kept a pet mouse and hid it in her room. The same panic as back then shot through her now. She hated small animals, as her sister had perfectly well known.

As feeling returned to her limbs, she realized the ground beneath her was hard and uneven. It reminded her of the few times she’d gone camping with her family. The smell of dirt filled the air. Normally, she would have inhaled this and thought summer was almost here, but all she felt now was dread. Where was she?

When her eyes finally opened, everything was black.

“Pain is very useful. It warns you of danger, teaches you of hazards and provides consequences for your actions.”

-Lisa Gardner, Fear Nothing

“Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”

-Lee Child

The End

I looked down at the tiny cars way down below. They were so far away, they almost looked like toy cars. I sighed and turned back into the room hundreds of floors above.

“You sure you want to do this?”

The man opposite me nodded solemnly. He was down on one knee, looking at me with pleading eyes.

“I can’t do this no more.”

I stared into his sea green eyes, wishing I could tell him not to do this, telling him to go back home to his wife and pretend like nothing had happened.

Slowly, I raised my right arm and pointed the gun somewhere between those eyes. There was no way I could let him do that and he knew it.

Silently, the bullet tore threw his body.

When I turned back to the window to look down, the two cars were gone.

Sunday Photo Fiction, October 22nd 2017

“The world is chaos, punctuated by brief outbreaks of civilisation.”

-Kyle Mills, The Survivor

“If everyone howled at every injustice, every act of barbarism, every act of unkindness, then we would be taking the first step towards a real humanity.”

-Nelson DeMille

A Lesson in Organic Writing by Steven James

Have you ever tried to write a thriller organically?

I’ve been mulling over mine for quite a bit now and I can never figure out how to keep the plot moving and fresh.

Reading this article by Steven James has been an eye-opener. He uses only these four questions, when he feels he gets stuck on the plot:

“What would this character naturally do?”
“How can I make things worse?”
“How can I include a twist?”
“What promises have I made as a writer that I have not yet kept?”

And somehow they lead to new plot points, new ideas that can be developed further as the novel progresses.

If you want to read more about writing organically, follow the link to the article, where Steven James explains how he used his questions to write his own novel, Every Deadly Kiss.

https://www.criminalelement.com/blogs/2017/07/a-lesson-in-organic-writing