Welcome back to Colloquium, Jane Haseldine! You Fit the Pattern, the fourth installment in her Julia Gooden thriller series is available now. Yet again, the Detroit crime reporter finds herself enmeshed in a mystery that threatens her life. There is a killer on the loose who stalks his victims and stages the scenes of their murders to very exacting standards. Is he sending Julia a message? And is he destined to make her one of his victims?
Getting Inside Characters’ Heads
As a mystery writer, it’s pretty much guaranteed I’m going to put at least one of my characters into a terrifying situation.
Sorry, Julia Gooden and company, but that’s part of the job.
When I turned in my first book to my editor, he gave me a great piece of writing advice: Get inside your characters’ heads more and let the readers know how they feel.
That nugget has stayed in the back of my mind for everything I’ve written since.
Taking a cue from this critique (and not trying to sound too much like a method actor here), I sometimes get inside my own head when I’m trying to write a nail-biting scene, in search of authenticity and to avoid writing the clichéd “my heart was in my throat,” “my blood ran cold,” or “the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.”
And with this in mind, the same terrifying memory plays out in repeat in my head.
