People have asked me why I constructed Blood Will Out with an alternating dual POV.
It just happened naturally.
I began with two scenes. They blazed in my mind. One of them was of a girl in a well. The other was of a young person taxed with slaughtering a pig.
I think a lot of writers would have told the girl’s story in first person, because that creates an instant bond with the reader. And told the killer’s story in third person so that there was more distance. A safe place for the reader to dwell.
But I wondered (in my usual contradictory fashion) ‘what if I do the opposite?’ ‘How uncomfortable would that feel to be in the killer’s head?’ and ‘how would that increase the tension?’
I wanted a constant mounting pressure throughout the book. The way I sort of visualized it was as a piece of cloth, strong but with a little bit of give. I held the cloth in both my hands and then I stretched it until it was taut. And that’s what I kept in my mind, the fabric of the story as something almost tangible.
When things started getting too tight- when there was a chance that the cloth would tear, I eased up a little on one of the corners, but inevitably I’d draw it tight again.
Whenever the killer was speaking there was this rising dread inherent in all their actions and words, because the reader knew more, always, than my heroine. When the reader was with Ari they were present as an impotent observer- they were the person yelling ‘don’t go in the cellar’ over and over again, but mutely. Of course Ari was too smart to go into the cellar but she still got caught up.
When Ari flashes back to the events leading up to waking up in the well, the tautness loosens just a little. Not too much but enough to reveal her friendship with her best friend, her life, her family. The relatable normalcy that all (most) of us experience. Then it all tightens up again and we’re back in the well with her.
I wanted to capture that rise and fall of hope, of setback, the constant ebb and flow of things getting better and things getting worse. A steady propulsion towards some kind of resolution. Flipping back and forth between my two characters- one unknowing and one all-knowing was a great way to achieve that.