Getting Inside Your Character's Skin by Betsy Ashton

Any of you who have read my work know I love writing in the first person singular. Why? Because I can get deeply inside a character and gaze out through her eyes. I can say "her," because so far all of my first-person works have had female main characters. I really like the narrowed lens of a singular point of view. I don't want to know more about what's going on beyond what my character sees, feels, smells, etc.

I've stayed with one character for a three-book series, the Mad Max Mystery series. Max is a grandmother, a youngish grandmother. She's smart, rich, sexy, and snarky when she needs to be. She's strong minded and strong willed, a force of nature not to be messed with, particularly when it comes to her family, extended and nuclear. She can go from mild-mannered to tiger mom in 3.5 seconds flat.

Max is as familiar to me as my own husband. I know what she thinks (not the I ever really know what my husband is thinking). I know what she carries in her Jimmy Choo handbag. I know what she keeps on her bedside table, on her bureau, in her medicine cabinet. I know what caliber of gun she carries.

Writing Max is as comfortable as sliding into a favorite bathrobe and pair of bunny slippers, until she does something that surprises me. As I said, writing from inside her head leads me places I hadn't anticipated. I can put her in a situation and get out of her way. Readers seem to like her, so I continue.

On a challenge, actually a dog-dog dare, I decided to leave the Max comfort zone and delve into the dark realities of a psychopath. At least, I think That Thing is a psychopath. She's not sure, and since she tells her own story in EYES WITHOUT A FACE, who am I to argue.

I had to do a ton of research into various personality disorders. She could have been a sociopath or a psychopath, except she denies she's either. She is a narcissist, because she thinks only she can get revenge for people who are victimized and can't stand up for themselves. She hates people who prey on the weak, women, children, the elderly. A compendium of our society. She thinks she's the only one who can get rid of the perpetrators, because justice is too slow for her liking. She might be a vigilante. She might not.

That Thing doesn't want you to put her in any kind of box, with or without bars. She refuses categorization. She acts with conviction and with a range of poisons, knives, and ice picks. She doesn't use guns. Too noisy. Harder to kill up close and personal. No exploding heads, either. Her kills are tidier.

How hard was it to write Mad Max and That Thing concurrently? Damned hard. One was easier. I took a break from dark personality disorders, until Max had to deal with a demented, delusional villain in UNSAFE HAVEN. Then, the personalities merged.

I've heard from readers of both books. They say I scared them with That Thing. Good. That means they got into the story and into her rationale. What they didn't like was rooting for the "bad guy." Actually rooted for That Thing.

Thank you. You got the book.

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Betsy Ashton is the author of the Mad Max Mystery series. Her stand-alone serial killer novel, EYES WITHOUT A FACE, is a departure from her normal fare.

The Yin Side of Writing by Betsy Ashton

On March 17th, I wrote about the yang side of the yin-yang dichotomy. the hot female side of the equation. Today, I turn my schizophrenic brain to the yin side, the cold, calculating side of writing psychological mysteries. As I've said before, I listen to the voices in my head. I get inside the skin of my main characters. I get inside their brains.

Many writers counsel that you should write what you know. That won't work, because I have no firsthand knowledge about how to kill someone. Nor do I want to have it. David Baldacci counsels to write what you want to know. I like him. Good advice. I followed it.

Why the heck did I decide to write about a sociopathic serial killer?

I wanted to see if I could craft a story around a killer that's interesting, not likable, and who doesn't get caught. In first person. Singular. From a woman's point of view. About a female serial killer.

First, I had to craft a character who didn't fit the female serial killer stereotypes. She's not a black widow, killing her spouses for their money. She's not an angel of death, putting sufferers out of their misery. She doesn't fit any male stereotypes either. She's charming in her own way but not the way Ted Bundy was charming. She doesn't want to eat her victims. She thinks some people should not live. Period.

Okay, I have the character. I know what she looks like, where she grew up, what her profession other than killing is. I know where she lives, where she went to school, how smart she is. I now had to decide how she would kill.

I'm so tired of long-distance snipers who get off on pink mist. My character doesn't even own a gun. She's much more up front and personal. How about poisons? Exotic or common? I settled on common, things that you'd have in your house. How about sharp pointy weapons? Hmm, ice picks and K-Bar knives came to mind.

I started doing research on how poisons work in the body. Do you have any idea how much information there is out on the Internet about poisons. (NSA, you already know where to find me. Drop on by if you're in the neighborhood. I'll leave the laptop on.)

I developed a cadre of experts to advise me on how much rat poison can be mixed with cocaine without the user being any the wiser. I wanted to know how long snorting such a combination would take to make the user really sick or dead.

Is it scary to be in the head of a serial killer? Yes and no. It's not too bad because I know I can leave anytime I want. I think. Maybe I checked into Hotel California. The jury is still out.