I’ve always loved a good mystery, whether it be a book, a TV show or a movie. Here are ten tips I’ve found beneficial to breaking into the mystery genre.
1. Read mysteries, old and new. There are some wonderfully written mysteries out there. Read books from some of the greatest mystery authors. Some of my favorite mystery authors are Walter Mosley, Sandra Brown. I especially love John Grisham and James Peterson.
2. Associate yourself with other mystery authors. You could easily join a Yahoo group or find a book club, and get to know others who enjoy writing or reading mystery.
3. Watch mystery TV shows and movies. I love watching mysteries on television. One of my favorite TV shows are Law and Order, Monk and CSI. I also still watch the old Alfred Hitchcock shows.
4. Your plot is everything in a mystery. A mystery usually follows a certain type of structure. Think of it as figuring out how to piece together a puzzle. You’ll have clues, twists, crime, and the whodunit all wrapped together. You need to keep your reader interested and edging for more.
5. Take a tour at a police station, or better yet, interview a police officer or a detective. I have not personally done this, but am thinking about this for my next book. I have talked with authors who have interviewed a police officer to get some insight into piecing together a scene in their book.
6. Watch the mystery and crime shows of real life events – like on the Discovery channel. I really enjoy watching some of the real stories told of real life killers, murderers and so forth. And what I enjoy even more, is watching the police, detectives and Forensic Science piece together what happened and how the crime was solved. It would be worth while to check out the Discovery channel, both on TV and online www.dicoverychannel.com
7. Why not play a game or two of Clue. I always enjoyed playing this game as a child. It really got your mind thinking, and you got better the more often you played.
8. To learn the basics of a mystery, you can always pick up a children’s mystery book. It could count as an easy, but interesting read.
9. Check out www.mysterynet.com. There are lots of resources - online mysteries, games, authors, books, shows, movies, etc.
10. And lastly, write everyday, or almost everyday. Your writing only gets better if you put pen to paper. Practice makes perfect.
Tinisha is the author of Searchable Whereabouts. You can find more about her and her writing at her website.
Showing posts with label Mystery Writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mystery Writing. Show all posts
Monday, March 10, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
Tips for Writing a Mystery
First, you need to decide exactly what type mystery you are planning to write. Hopefully you’ve read enough crime novels (seems to be the preferred name for the genre these days) to know what kind of novel you are going to write. To name a few: the private eye novel, amateur detective, usually someone with an interesting or unusual profession, can be hard-boiled or a cozy, the police procedural, romantic suspense, woman in jeopardy (think Mary Higgins Clark),
historical mysteries–can be a combination of any of the above, thriller, when an innocent becomes involved, either by accident or coincidence, in dangerous events beyond his or her control (think Alfred Hitchcock movies), suspense, when the protagonist is in a constant and increasing state of danger.
Mysteries of earlier times were more interested in the hero solving the crime, now are as interested in the emotional impact of the crime of the hero and his or her private life. You have to create a credible protagonist to help the reader suspend disbelief. Though you must know the back story of your characters, you don’t necessarily have to tell it all. Bits and pieces should come out–maybe internally. Don’t lump it all together in one place. Don’t forget the villains–they should have history and issues also.
Here’s a check list of what you need to know about the book you’re going to write:
The Crime
Scene of the Crime
Victim
Murderer
Sleuth
Suspects and Motives
Where everyone was at the time of the murder; alibis.
Settings
Conflict that led to the crime
Conflict that follows the crime and leads to the solution.
Climax, the emotional high point of the novel.
Solution or resolution
Remember it’s not necessary to only write about what you know, but what you don’t know, you need to find out about.
Use your imagination, create unusual characters and interesting settings, either real or ones you’ve made up.
Once you’ve finished, print the manuscript out and go over it carefully. Make sure you tied up the loose ends and things progress in a logical manner. After that, have someone else edited it for you, someone who knows how to edit–preferably someone who reads and understands the mystery genre.
And yes, you can do something different as long as it works. My latest book, Smell of Death, is a police procedural, but there are several crimes in the book that must be solved. In this particular series, I wanted to show how the job affects the family and family life affects the job.
Smell of Death is authored by F. M. Meredith, a.k.a. Marilyn Meredith, available at http://fictionforyou.com and Amazon.com
historical mysteries–can be a combination of any of the above, thriller, when an innocent becomes involved, either by accident or coincidence, in dangerous events beyond his or her control (think Alfred Hitchcock movies), suspense, when the protagonist is in a constant and increasing state of danger.
Mysteries of earlier times were more interested in the hero solving the crime, now are as interested in the emotional impact of the crime of the hero and his or her private life. You have to create a credible protagonist to help the reader suspend disbelief. Though you must know the back story of your characters, you don’t necessarily have to tell it all. Bits and pieces should come out–maybe internally. Don’t lump it all together in one place. Don’t forget the villains–they should have history and issues also.
Here’s a check list of what you need to know about the book you’re going to write:
The Crime
Scene of the Crime
Victim
Murderer
Sleuth
Suspects and Motives
Where everyone was at the time of the murder; alibis.
Settings
Conflict that led to the crime
Conflict that follows the crime and leads to the solution.
Climax, the emotional high point of the novel.
Solution or resolution
Remember it’s not necessary to only write about what you know, but what you don’t know, you need to find out about.
Use your imagination, create unusual characters and interesting settings, either real or ones you’ve made up.
Once you’ve finished, print the manuscript out and go over it carefully. Make sure you tied up the loose ends and things progress in a logical manner. After that, have someone else edited it for you, someone who knows how to edit–preferably someone who reads and understands the mystery genre.
And yes, you can do something different as long as it works. My latest book, Smell of Death, is a police procedural, but there are several crimes in the book that must be solved. In this particular series, I wanted to show how the job affects the family and family life affects the job.
Smell of Death is authored by F. M. Meredith, a.k.a. Marilyn Meredith, available at http://fictionforyou.com and Amazon.com
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