People ask why fictional detectives are so often
dysfunctional figures. Why can't we have nice, well-adjusted detectives, with happy
families and settled lives?
And the answer? Because that would be… ordinary. And if something is too ordinary, it becomes boring. The
strength of crime fiction is that it allows us to escape the mundane and go to
extremes, seeing people at their worst and their best. So it shouldn't surprise
us that fictional detectives are often broken, or haunted, or crippled by a
tragic past… anything to make them more interesting.
But I like to go further.
Why should we spend all our time with the detective when we
can spend some quality time with the villain? After all, "police
procedural" stories have been done so well, and so often… why not focus more
on a wildcard character? Why not focus on the murderer?
As soon as we take the killer's viewpoint, everything
changes. The normal rules no longer apply – anything can happen when your
character isn't bound by the law, or by rational thinking.
Anything can happen.
I like that as a starting point for a story.
But of course, writing from the villain's perspective has
its own challenges. Most of us (I hope!) would find it difficult to empathise
with a mindless thug or a sadistic monster; if the killer is entirely evil,
we're unlikely to have anything in common with them. And without some common
ground, it's difficult to empathise.
Perhaps that's why I prefer more complex characters –
characters that you can't immediately gauge, who surprise you, who make you
feel things you might not expect to feel. I want you to like my villains (well,
some of them, some of the time) because that allows you to get closer to them. I
want to let you get right inside their heads… because that’s the best seat in
the house.
Yes, it’s dramatic when we read about a character doing
something shocking. But I believe our experience is much more intense when we understand, when we’re so close to the
action that we can see the world through
the killer’s eyes.
So if you find yourself liking a villain, or feeling
sympathy towards them, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes, that’s the
author’s intention. Because sometimes, that’s just where you need to be, to
best experience the story.
