A Defining Question by Mary Dutta

What are you willing to do to become the person you want to be?

It’s a question that has launched a thousand self-help articles. Are you willing to get up early to exercise? To write? To meditate? Are you willing to drink less? Fast more? Reach out? Let go?

The question took an interesting turn for me when a mystery writer suggested asking it of our fictional characters. Then the possible answers are as limitless as the writer’s imagination. You want to be the queen bee of the cul-de-sac. Are you willing to gaslight your neighbor? To poison her? You want to be the richest person in town. Are you willing to defraud your siblings? To rob a bank? You want to be a restauranteur. Are you willing to bribe a food inspector? To torch a competitor’s kitchen? 

For most of us, the answer to such questions is, presumably, no. We tend to live by the rules and to assume that we all have lines we won’t cross no matter how much we want something. Enter the race? Sure. Cheat to win? Not so much.

But mystery fiction allows readers the thrill of experiencing what happens when someone is willing to do anything. And the genre is broad enough to allow authors to create characters who are willing to do a wide range of very different things. In my stories, a character may kill someone but would never torture them first. Or they might choose dishonesty but never in a way that appalls or disgusts the reader. A police procedural, on the other hand, might feature a more true-to-life criminal. And a supernatural thriller can feature characters willing to do things that are out of this world.

Crime stories keep the reader guessing about what exactly each character is willing to do. Figure that out, and you may just solve the mystery. 

So, what are you and your characters willing to do?