In almost every case in fictional writing it's better to make up a poison then use a real one. That way you don't have someone picking it apart later. Also you can give it whatever properties you want/need. Now excuse me while I continue to work on my immunity to iocane powder.
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2025
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They're gonna pick it apart anyway. A reader criticized the historical accuracy of a fantasy novel my sister wrote.
H-how does one even criticise something like that? Like, "you got this and that wrong about the world you made up"?
Not even that, (in a medieval-fantsy setting) one criticized the use of archer for defense, another wanted for her to write the exact years the events happened... Another one asked why one nation had an italian-sounding name, while the bordering countries had foreign-like names, and different languages! (hello, ever been to Europe?) @monarch@lemm.ee (is this how I mention someone?)
Yeah, best just to ignore pedantry, itβs a mental illness.
Mental illnesses are very clearly defined, for example in the ICD-10 puplished by the WHO. Pedantry is defnetly not listed in there.
And yes, this was an attempt of humour.
Bravo. Well done.
I've heard something about writers writing about guns -- if you describe a specific gun they'll come at you for being wrong, but if you say something like "a modified Kalashnikov" you're conveying the image you want, and the nerds will do the work for you in figuring out how it could have been modified.
Alcohol. Sometimes it takes 30 or 40 years to be effective. Not very good for murder, but wildly popular for suicide.
Yeah OP needs to define what βslowβ means to them. You could say that a one-week delayed effect is slow. Or you could say that itβs only slow if it takes months of exposure.
Iβm neither a writer nor a scientist, but thereβs a copy of this on my bookshelf and I wish I could lend it to you: Deadly Doses: The Writerβs Guide to Poisons
Thallium was pretty famous for this until its mechanism of toxicity and antidotes were better understood. Slow acting, tasteless, odorless, colorless, symptoms weird and mimic other things. Used to be used for rat poison but the risk of accidental exposure was too high. Requires late 1800s technology.
You could go for Paracetamol/Acetaminophen. The lethal dose is quite low and in theory low enough someone could poison someone else with it. And once symptoms set in people's livers are often beyond rescue and they die a very gruesome death unless we find a transplant organ in time.(And even then survival is not guaranteed)
And it's relatively save to use in writing as it is coated/mixed with enough bittering agent these days that it actually wouldn't work that well to secretly posing someone.
If you need something with a shorter timeframe Methanol is an option.
And of course there's always Dihydrogen monoxide-everyone who has even had one drop of it will die eventually but the time range depends on the dose. With very high doses people die in minutes,with medium doses (this is actually sometimes used by inmates to kill themselves) they die within a day, with lower dose after decades, but some die mere days after they ingested the mere last drop of it. Nasty stuff and very available.
I've now written the scene with death cap mushrooms, but I'll keep this in mind if I decide to change it later. Ty!
What do you mean by slow? Time till symptoms? time till death? Hours? Days? Weeks?
Raw castor beans contain ricin its a cool looking plant that gets big. My neighbor grew on once accidentally.
symptoms commonly begin within two to four hours, but may be delayed by up to 36 hours.
Unless treated, death can be expected to occur within 3β5 days; however, in most cases a full recovery can be made.
Actually a lot of beans are toxic when raw, but not deadly. Raw lima beans are special though; they contain something that the human body breaks down into cyanide. No clue how long that takes or how many it would take to cause harm.
Heavy metals (mercury, arsenic, cadmium, lead) are known for building up over time with many exposures. Think mad hatter syndrome, etc. but exposures can also be acute if high enough. IIRC acute arsenic poisoning makes you vomit and diarrhea until you die of dehydration after days or weeks.
Depending on your setting and desired outcome for the poisoner, uraninite (aka pitchblende) might be an option. It has historical uses in glass making and pottery glazing, which could provide justification for why someone would have it.
It contains Uranium, which is radioactive, but I don't believe will bioaccumulate, but can build up on surfaces, tools, and clothing providing a source of long-term radiation exposure. In addition, it contains lead, which does bioaccumulate, providing a source of gradual long term poisoning as well as radium which also bioaccumulates and is radioactive, providing an additional source of longterm radiation exposure.
Alcohol
As a writter you should get enough details wrong that someone trying to follow your recipie fails. Ideally they are also caught.
Go ask chatgpt or something similar for old medical herbs used back in the day that might also posion you. I inspire to write a book one day, and ive found ai to be really informative. The best part is, even if they're wrong its going in a fiction story(i hope) where it wouldn't matter.
I hope since you want to write this will be appreciated: for that sentence you're looking for "aspire" not "inspire".
Hey i said i want to write one, i never said it was going to be good.
That's what editors are for π€·ββοΈ
Mushrooms are a good option, and you can just make up a species if you want specific time frames/symptoms. Mushrooms can cause a lot of weird symptoms.
There's also a brain eating amoeba or other sickness from still water (people back in the day were very aware of tainted water).
If you have access to polar animals, a unique poisoning would be vitamin A toxicity from their livers. It's a horrific way to die, though (skin sloughing off).
Was going to say that. They to go through the digestive track, so it needs a day or so to work. The toxin of amanita is heat resistant so you can make a stew of it, and when the first symptoms show up your liver is probably already beyond repair. If you want it to be more interesting, there are some species that are poisonous only with alcohol, like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coprinopsis_atramentaria , although the symptoms are less severe as in death cap, but maybe it's not unimaginable to give a hearty stew a day before a known heavyweight drinking run to kill the dude(ette).
I'm a writer
"A writer" π
hey guys, i am looking to write an obituary for my ex husband....
I knew it. Come on.
Theoretically speaking... Do you need an alibi as well? Just for the book of course.
Iβm partial to βI was writing my book, alone, at home, with no witnesses.β
Apple seeds contain cyanide. You'd have to crush and eat anywhere from 150 to a few thousand seeds for it to be fatal though. I'm sure that hasn't stopped authors from using it before.
Breaking Bad did this IIRC
I forgot about Breaking Bad! That was ricin from castor oil beans, but ricin is the opposite of slow acting.
yup, I misremembered it being apple seeds, maybe they discussed it before moving to the ricin idea. I should rewatch bb
"Honey, I've made your favorite meal! Crushed up pulp from 150 to a few thousand apple seeds!"
How slow are you talking? Days? Weeks? months?
A couple days or more.
There are a number of options for things you could dose such that it takes 2 to 7 days. Cyanide, Atropine (belladonna) Arsenic, Thallium.