Fear
Or should that be FEAR???
What is fear about? I think fear keeps us alive. It is an early warning system that we're about do go some place that's not safe, or there's imminent danger. Terror is one step further when our body is frantically screaming at us "what the hell are you doing there? Get out now!".
The fairy tales of old days - have you ever reflected on how scary those were? Why do we tell our little tiny naive innocent children about Hansel and Gretel going into the woods and almost getting eaten by an evil witch? Because we want to scare those little children. We don't want them wandering off by themselves into the woods where there are lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Or we don't want them wandering the city streets where there are pickpockets and pedophiles and drunks, oh my!
Snow White and the poisoned apple? Don't take food from strangers. Especially appropros on Halloween.
Cinderella and the glass slipper? (or was it mink?) - well that one was way ahead of its time...Don't rely on a handsome prince for your happiness. But that's a whole entire other story.
And yet, despite this ancestral passing of stories, of instilling fears and cautions into our children, we still write about people that seem to be missing the fear gene, don't we? What would a murder mystery be without someone brave enough or stupid enough to go into that dark basement, when the power is out, and a serial killer is lurking?
And why d0 people buy into that? I mean, Leslie Horton from Global TV is a rapid fan of my Kate Carpenter, but every times she talks to me (or reviews the books) she says the same thing - why does Kate keep going into that basement or down that hallway? And then the next words out of her mouth are - when is the next book coming out?
Well, if your main character is a cop or a private detective, you know they do it because it's their job. But if you have someone like my Kate, who is just a poor little theatre administrator, you have to come up with a good enough reason to make them go down that dark corridor. To do the things we would never do.
You've heard of plausible deniability? I call it plausible believability.
Your situation doesn't have to be real, because honestly there is almost nothing that would make me go down the hall after a serial killer, but it has to be real enough. So I spend my evenings wondering why Kate would get in between an abusive husband and his wife. Ah-ha! Because she's Cam's cousin. Or why she would care about who hung someone from the second balcony in her theatre? Of course! Because her former college professor and lover, who also happens to be a gorgeous French conductor, is accused of the dastardly deed.
So there's my lesson for today....Plausible believability. Use it wisely.
What is fear about? I think fear keeps us alive. It is an early warning system that we're about do go some place that's not safe, or there's imminent danger. Terror is one step further when our body is frantically screaming at us "what the hell are you doing there? Get out now!".
The fairy tales of old days - have you ever reflected on how scary those were? Why do we tell our little tiny naive innocent children about Hansel and Gretel going into the woods and almost getting eaten by an evil witch? Because we want to scare those little children. We don't want them wandering off by themselves into the woods where there are lions and tigers and bears, oh my! Or we don't want them wandering the city streets where there are pickpockets and pedophiles and drunks, oh my!
Snow White and the poisoned apple? Don't take food from strangers. Especially appropros on Halloween.
Cinderella and the glass slipper? (or was it mink?) - well that one was way ahead of its time...Don't rely on a handsome prince for your happiness. But that's a whole entire other story.
And yet, despite this ancestral passing of stories, of instilling fears and cautions into our children, we still write about people that seem to be missing the fear gene, don't we? What would a murder mystery be without someone brave enough or stupid enough to go into that dark basement, when the power is out, and a serial killer is lurking?
And why d0 people buy into that? I mean, Leslie Horton from Global TV is a rapid fan of my Kate Carpenter, but every times she talks to me (or reviews the books) she says the same thing - why does Kate keep going into that basement or down that hallway? And then the next words out of her mouth are - when is the next book coming out?
Well, if your main character is a cop or a private detective, you know they do it because it's their job. But if you have someone like my Kate, who is just a poor little theatre administrator, you have to come up with a good enough reason to make them go down that dark corridor. To do the things we would never do.
You've heard of plausible deniability? I call it plausible believability.
Your situation doesn't have to be real, because honestly there is almost nothing that would make me go down the hall after a serial killer, but it has to be real enough. So I spend my evenings wondering why Kate would get in between an abusive husband and his wife. Ah-ha! Because she's Cam's cousin. Or why she would care about who hung someone from the second balcony in her theatre? Of course! Because her former college professor and lover, who also happens to be a gorgeous French conductor, is accused of the dastardly deed.
So there's my lesson for today....Plausible believability. Use it wisely.
posted by Deborah Nicholson | 6:43 p.m.
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