forum Getting into the mind of a Serial Killer.

Started February 26, 2020 by @JasperHills

tune

How far do you go down the rabbit hole on creating the best serial killer for your stories?

It's hard to get into the mindset of those kinds of characters if you personally don't share the experience or the perspective. I always have trouble creating a structure for them :(

My biggest problem is getting their motivations correct. Some Serial Killers just spiral out of control, whilst others have an ideal motivation (Triggers mostly).

I've got you on this, I recently just researched some stuff related to this.

I've been buying a lot of college textbooks for Criminal Law and Justice, along with Psychology textbooks for some help. I have found my old files from a story I was working on through high school and decided to go back down that rabbit hole again.

For motivations, you have to look at who they are surrounded by, their pet peeves, or issues they have had or are having at the moment. Each of these things helps out in creating the ideal motivation for your little serial killer's motives.

Peers:
People are often the causes for killings. If your serial killer is forced to be in crowds of obnoxious people, they might kill because they hate entire populations, or obnoxious beings. If they're surrounded by quiet people, or someone quiet is bothering them, it might be they hate silence, and kill those who don't speak up for themselves. A final good example would be a serial killer with less intelligence, surrounded by 'geniuses'. They might be frustrated with their supposed 'dumbness', and kill the prodigies.

Pet Peeves:
Your killer might kill people that do or act in a certain manner. Maybe those who don't use manners burn them up, so they go at them without warning, killing the unkind in words? Or perhaps, ignorance would make them mad. The careless sort are perfect targets for this kind of killer. Loud breathing would be my favorite trigger for this section, one who kills those who breathe in general. hehehe…

Issues:
In this final section of assistance on motives, you could look at someone's problems. If they're having work troubles, they might kill company bosses or managers. If they're having a problem with their confidence, maybe they'll want to kill people who are confident in themselves. You have to make sure it isn't something totally random here. If one were having an issue with bullies, they wouldn't kill angels, if that makes sense.

I hope this helped! I'll be of assistance if you wonder anything more!

I've been buying a lot of college textbooks for Criminal Law and Justice, along with Psychology textbooks for some help. I have found my old files from a story I was working on through high school and decided to go back down that rabbit hole again.

Psychology, I took a whole class on that. Love that stuff..

That does help a lot! Thank you so much. I've been working on a character that is obsessed with the protagonist and will remove obstacles that stands in his way from them. Still fixing up his backstory and how he became a killer though, but I have an interesting idea for it.