Have you ever pulled punches in a plot? In other words, when it came time to kill someone, you let them live. Or when it came time to find out someone was a villain, you chose someone else? Or if the plot seemed to veer in a dark direction, you pulled back?
Brenda starting off the week.
I'm basically a pantser, which means I don't do a lot of detailed plotting; however, I usually have an overarching plan for a novel and key plot points rolling around in my imagination. Sometimes, though, nothing goes as planned.
When I wrote my first standalone In Winter's Grip, I'd decided that it would not be a murder mystery. I wanted to focus on setting and a more literary style. By the second chapter, I had a dead body, and my foray into non-crime fiction effectively ended.
Have I ever changed my mind about killing off a character? Only once. I grew very fond of a particular character whom I intended to bump off. I couldn't do it. Instead, I killed off a less likeable character, and the entire manuscript ground to a halt. With some reluctance, I rewrote the scene and murdered my original target. The story was stronger for it, but I was a bit sad for a while.
As for changing the killer, this has happened once or twice. The one time I recall, the character I had in mind appeared too obvious to me. I like to keep the reader guessing, so I knew the killer had to be someone more unexpected. As a general rule, I know the killer, motivation, and crime before I begin writing and usually stick with these decisions except for those times when a better suspect shows up.
When the plot has veered into darker waters, I've gone with it for the most part, although I'm careful how these scenes play out. For example, when I was writing Cold Mourning, we had a serial killer, who was high up in the military, living a few blocks over from our house (true story). His murders were being made public through a trial, and I found the entire series of events very disturbing. This man became a fictional character in my book as I worked through the horror of what he'd done in real life. I didn't use any of what actually happened, only created a rather nasty character who doesn't fare well in the plot. (Therapy?)
If I've learned anything writing crime fiction novels, it's to be flexible and to follow along where characters and the story lead. Not only will there be unexpected developments but the book will be stronger for it. There's a magical bit to writing that can't be quantified, and that's half the fun - being open to the creative process and seeing where that leads.
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