Tag: writing about a crime

Crime and Punishment

On By Terry ConnellyIn prompt, Uncategorized, Writing promptLeave a comment

            Back in the Middle Ages there were beheadings and amputations for what today would be considered minor crimes. People would be whipped so badly that little skin remained on their backs. Others would be locked into stocks and left to die.

Torture and imprisonment was sued to exact confessions. People were beaten burned alive, covered with boiling water, or worse, tar, and fingers cut off. Branding was also used to identify criminals.

Outlaw bands roamed about, robbing villagers and city-dwellers alike. The harsher the crimes they committed, the worse the punishment. What’s more important is that the punishments were public affairs, much like going on a picnic or seeing a play.

Your task is to establish the role that crime and punishment takes in your world. You can borrow from earlier times or create your own system, but whichever you choose, it needs to make sense in terms of the society you have built. Medieval torture might not fit in a contemporary society, but maybe it does!

Write a story in which a crime is committed and punishment is doled out. Readers will want to be there from the beginning, to walk with the criminal throughout it all. Or if you write from the perspective of the officials who hunt down, catch and then punish, make sure that the details are intriguing enough to entice readers.

Have fun with this one.

Crimes of Passion

On By Terry ConnellyIn prompt, Writing promptLeave a comment

            How far would you go to get what you want? Would you lie to a friend potentially destroying the relationship? Steal from a store knowing that if you got caught, you could go to jail? Date a married person even though it would end the marriage and destroy a family? Cause the overthrow of a government or CEO of a company?

            When emotions run high people often behave in uncharacteristic ways, putting themselves and others in peril. Acting to satisfy an emotional need could lead to crimes of passion. Doing and saying things that put ourselves and others at risk are caused by obsessions, strong emotional responses that overwhelm rational thinking.

            Your task is to write a story in which your character commits a crime of passion. Begin by creating a profile of your character, recording the things that she’s interested in, things she does, the way she acts. Next choose the one that can be expanded into an obsession, a desire so strong that she will ignore warning signs.

            Narrative is important, but so is dialogue, for through conversations personalities are revealed. Tension through danger drives the story.

            Have fun with this one.

What did the Villain do?

On By Terry ConnellyIn Uncategorized, Writing promptLeave a comment

If you’re a fan of thriller books and movies, you’ve seen a lot of evil. There’s always at least one villain who plans and executes a crime against an individual or a group of people. Sometimes people die. Sometimes they are horribly maimed. Sometimes they suffer life-changing mutilations. In all cases the victims suffer.

Your task is to choose a modus operandi for your villain to put into operation. Makes sure it is something that your villain has the capability and knowledge to execute. For example, if your villain is strong, then a murder by strangling, stabbing or beating is plausible. If electronics are involved, then the villain must have technological knowledge. If firearms are involved, the reader might need to know how the villain learned to shoot.

Here is a list of possible crimes. Choose on that you feel most comfortable putting in a story.

___ smoke inhalation              ___ beaten to death                ___burying alive

___ drowning (intentionally)  ___ hanging                            ___killing by machine gun fire

___poisoning                           ___ pushing in front of train  ___ running down with car/truck

___ shot with pistol/rifle         ___ slit throat/slashing            ___smothering

___ single stab/multiple stabbing                                            ___strangling

As you write, remember to include not just details, but emotions. We need to feel the villain’s and victim’s emotions.

Have fun with this one.