CT: It's Okay To Lie To Serial Killers

My mom has these little nuggets of wisdom that she likes to hand to us from time to time. We call them Mommyism’s. They’re not your traditional Mom wisdom, like how to correctly separate your laundry or how long you should wait before you call a guy after a date (I know none of these things, as evidenced by my mismatched socks and spinsterhood). They’re more like the cold hard truths of life. Things like:

“If there’s lava flowing towards you, you should be running- not walking- in the opposite direction.”

Looking at you, Brosnan.

I've thought long and hard about putting together a book of all of our Mommyisms, to share this wisdom with the world.

But my hands-down favorite was given to us during an episode of some crime show or another. A girl had been kidnapped by a stalker who was asking her over and over how much she loves him. The girl’s crying and struggling when she finally screams, “I could never love you! You’re a MONSTER!”. Which is when the dude kills her. Duh.

My mom turned to us all and said, “Girls, it’s okay to lie to serial killers.”

Which seems like a pretty basic thing. But you’d be surprised how few people on TV actually understand this concept. And it's one of those things that always runs through my mind when Caitlin and I are writing. 

It's those moments when a character on TV or in a movie doesn't act at all like a normal human being. You know what I'm talking about- the teenage girl goes into her clearly haunted basement by herself to look for what's making that creepy sound. Everyone hates that scene, everyone shouts at their TV, and yet we see that scene all the time. 

So in addition to my upcoming book of real world Mom wisdom (written by someone with no actual experience at Mom-ing), we try to keep the real world in mind when we write. We try to write characters that are a teensy bit tougher, smarter, more interesting than the average bear. 

Even if they can't all be Peggy Carter.

I can only hope that if ever Cait and I write a character who's been kidnapped by a serial killer, she's smart enough to say, "Yup. Love you too. In fact, I'm pretty sure bluebirds sang about our love while they braided my hair this morning."

Hope you're all having an amazing weekend!
CT