Carnage and Carnal Delights - by Matthew Greene

Would you prefer to write a sex or a murder scene? Is it important to include both in a crime novel?

They say you should write what you know. And I only have first-hand experience with one of these. (Please don’t guess; it might hurt my feelings.)

I’ll add that one of the joys of writing cozy mysteries is not having to delve into the details of graphic violence or explicit sex. They’re remarkably hard to get right, to describe with much novelty. I admire the hell out of the people who can bring their own fresh take to carnage and carnal delights, of course. But when I sit down to write either one, during my less-than-cozy pursuits, I find myself oddly blocked.

If it’s a sex scene, I worry I might be sensationalizing the spicy bits, using titillation as a cheat code to cover up cliché. I wonder if there’s any element of wish fulfillment at play, and even if there’s not, I wonder if other people will wonder the same. 

If it’s a murder scene, I fret over the details, well aware from my EMT training how ludicrous a lot of fictional deaths can be. In a world so saturated with violence—both real and imagined—I have real moral qualms about anything gratuitous. But should I really be afraid to delve into the real, visceral consequences of the story conventions that underpin the crime genre generally? Am I overthinking? Probably.

(Not to mention the fear that someone may be looking over my shoulder while I I’m typing either of these types of scenes, strangers assuming I’m a pervert or a murderer or both…)

All that being said, I would so much rather write a murder scene.

I think a lot of mystery writers try their hand at romance at least once. It’s too big a market not to be tempted by, after all. But my forays into the realm of longing looks, heaving bosoms, and (REDACTED TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT) have been less than stellar. I can’t manage to construct a narrative around something as trivial as…love.

No, for me, it’s not really a story until somebody dies.

A lot of the books I read and write keep the violence off the page. (And the sex purely speculative.) But the threat of death is the beating heart (or lack thereof) of the genre I love so much.

Maybe I’m not much of a romantic. But at least the stakes stay high.