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Shock Point and other books by April Henry are available via the following vendors or your favorite local independent bookseller.
home >writer's tipsWRITER'S TIPS
Special:
The Thrill of It All – 19 Secrets to Nail-Biting Success
Ten Steps to Writing Your Mystery1. Begin with a worthwhile idea - fresh and new
2. Decide on characters to dramatize your idea
3. Plot scenes which highlight the action
4. Omit everything that does not advance the plot
5. Start in media res—as close to the end as possible
6. Avoid cliches in plot, character and scenes
7. Appeal to the senses
8. Put main character in danger early and often
9. Revise
10.Submit
Manuscript Evaluation Checklist “Borrowed” From a Literary Agent (Intended For Critiquing Novels)
- Plot
- Characterization
- Dialog/narrative
- Setting
- Style
- Marketability
- Use of detail
- Point of view
Unique characters and setting are what make the book stand out. Plot is the engine that must run well to make the whole thing work. Think of the plot as the spine or the focus.
In your plot, you take regular characters and put them in an alien setting. They make their way by acting true to themselves. For example, a shoemaker in danger would get out of it by doing shoemaker things.
It’s great if you have unique characters, but the plot must still tick along. Manuscripts are often rejected because the character isn’t in enough danger, or the stakes aren’t very high.
- The caper. The plot mostly consists of the preparations the protagonist makes to achieve the goal.
- The ticking clock. The hero must try to stop a crime.
- Get me out of here. Someone must be saved.
- The puzzle. Think Agatha Christie.
- The past. The current crime is actually the result of a crime in the past.
- The change. The ordinary protagonist, mysteriously swept into crime or intrigue, is transformed into a stronger and/or more dangerous person.
- The whodunit, which begins with the body. The first task is to discover more about the victim.
Scenes are the building blocks of a plot. As you begin to write your book, make a list of scenes. Imagine the kind of things that might happen in the aftermath of the opening event. If your private detective looses his license, what might happen? He might be bothered by the police. He would probably lose his license to carry a concealed weapon—and then would need to decide whether to still carry one.
Problem with beginners: Scenes don’t take place in a specific, described place. At the end of each scene, things should be worse or at least different.
Lay out the story in blocks, like a checkerboard. Each vertical column is a time frame (Monday, Tuesday, last year, etc.). Assign a horizontal row to each character, who tells his version of the story in sequence, through the time frames. Then you can look at any time frame and see what all of the characters are doing at that moment. A great way to uncover discrepancies and gaping holes. Often leads to ideas to make the story better, increase the suspense, eliminate confusion.
Situations that create suspense:
- A prospective danger to a character
- An actual immediate danger to a character
- An unwanted confrontation
- A confrontation wanted by one character but not the other
- An old fear about to become a present reality
- A life crisis that requires an immediate action
Don’t eliminate the prospective danger to a character.Don’t let the character overcome the immediate danger without facing an even greater danger. If your character is apprehensive about an unwanted confrontation, make sure you hold off that confrontation as long as possible.
When an old fear is about to become a present reality, don’t relive the fear. Make the situation even worse than the character anticipated. If a character’s life crisis requires immediate action, make certain that the action backfires. Prolong the crisis. End each chapter with an unresolved issue.
- Exaggerated characteristics: more packed into one person.
- A little larger than life.
- Bad guys need a redeeming quality.
- Vary the cast emotionally, intellectually, spiritually.
- Show how they interact with a tool, an animal, a child.
- Show their quirks.
- Good guy—must be change agent, not reactive.
- Villain—show the source of his frustration.
- The primary goal of a character is preservation of self-concept. Does things or does not to them according to self-definition. We all see ourselves as heroes. Minor characters are also motivated—they’re not throwaways.
Write Sketches of All Main Characters. One Page Biographies About Their:looks
clothes
job
car
home
favorite restaurant
family
friends
education
childhood
personality
quirks
guilts, regrets, fearsThe personality of the protagonist determines the flavor of the book. Miss Marple vs. Travis McGee.
Secondary characters can provide information to the main character. They can also serve as a contrasting foil, and point up others’ strengths and weaknesses. And they can have their own subplots run throughout the book. Secondary characters can reveal things about the central character, especially if the novel is in the first person. They can also be a wonderful opportunity to provide color, tension, surprise, red herrings.Try throwing two contrasting characters together. It’s old, but it still works. A grizzled cowhand and a ballerina. A young punk and a ladylike grandmother.
Give your characters sub-goals in their scenes. Hunger, a desire to share their feelings about pollution, etc. Let the subgoals also play into the main dialogue.
Dialog shows character. Don’t put exposition into dialog unless there is a dialog reason to do so. Dialog permits characters to lie. To be wrong. To reveal less than the whole truth. To color or minimize.
First person is limited in scope—the reader only knows what the POV character knows. Something of a convention in detective fiction, because the reader discovers things along with the detective. Gives immediacy and intimacy. Sometimes leads to awkward contrivances. To get around this, James Lee Burke has main character (who narrates the story in first person) imagine things from other character’s points of view. Robert Crais’ latest book alternates first person (for his hero) with limited third (to show things his hero can’t know).
Second person. Has been done a couple of times successfully in literary fiction, but would probably be too off-putting to a potential mystery editor.
Third person can be as distant and impersonal as a camera, or as close as a person’s thoughts.Any POV shift must be marked by at least a paragraph change, and ideally a new chapter. Otherwise your readers get confused.
Past is the convention, although Scot Turow did very well with Presumed Innocent which was in present tense.
- Only you can tell that particular story—you’ll stand out in the agent’s and editor’s eyes
- Gives convincing detail that can’t be easily researched
- Good hook for interesting first a buyer, then the media
What Editors/Agents Want/Don’t Want & Some General Tips
Don’t write about something so topical that it will be out of date in one or two years. It takes a book about a year to be published, and if you add in the time to take an agent, maybe two years. There are probably already enough quilting mysteries, cat mysteries, mysteries set at bed and breakfasts and mysteries with recipes.
Mystery editors welcome deeper themes and the exploration of social issues.
It is good to be different, but not so unique that no one else has done it. There may be a reason there are no really humorous and gruesomely violent books.
Don’t have main characters whose names all start with the same initial. Series are more in demand than stand-alones. Give your character an occupation and/or psychological make-up that can logically involve him or her in murder after murder. Give him a best friend or co-worker who can serve as interesting foil.
Do not go with a fee-charging agent. Standard for agents now is 15% domestic, 20% all other rights.Query letters—pretend you’re writing the copy on the flap of your book jacket. One page is enough. Buy #10 and #9 envelopes at an office supply store. A #9 envelope will fit inside a #10 without folding, so you can use the #9 for your SASE.
If they ask for sample chapters, send the first ones. Don’t take from the middle, or worse yet, pick and choose, sending chapters three, seventeen and twenty-one.
Good Books on Getting Published
- The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Getting Published
- The Shortest Distance Between You and a Published Book
- How to Get Happily Published
- The First Five Pages
12 Things a Mystery Writer Should Do1. Read, read, read. Learn from the masters: Lawrence Block, James Ellroy, Donald Westlake. Read ALL types of novels, not just in your genre. Good writing is good writing.
2. Write regularly. Write every day, or every weekend. Start by keeping a journal or doing the exercises in Writing Down the Bones. Make writing a habit. Don’t wait for inspiration. Once you are published, you’ll need to make deadlines.
3. Join DorothyL. About 3,000 mystery fans and about 150 authors are members of this listserv, a daily digest of various people’s posts (usually 30-50) that is e-mailed out to subscribers each day. Eavesdrop as readers talk about what they like and why. Share the good news (also known as BSP, or blatant self-promotion) when you sign your first contract. To join, go to www.dorothyl.com.
4. Consider joining the national Sisters in Crime, which has about 3,000 members. (Guys can join, too.) It has a quarterly newsletter with good information. I generally find at least one piece of useful information per issue. Check out the SinC website at sistersincrime.org.
5. Join Murder Must Advertise by going to
MurderMustAdvertise.com. Here published authors exchange tips for promoting their books. You don’t need to be published yet to join.6. Consider joining Mystery Writers of America.
www.mysterynet.com/mwa There are four categories of membership, and everyone interested in writing mystery fiction will fit into one.7. In Portland: Join Friends of Mystery, a Portland group with a good newsletter and monthly meetings. Call Portland’s Murder by the Book to find out about the next meeting.
8. Think about going to a mystery fan convention, such as Bouchercon, Malice Domestic or Left Coast Crime. A great way to meet authors, fans, editors and agents. If you volunteer, you get free admission.
9. Go to readings at bookstores. You’ll learn something from every writer you hear. What would you do if you were up there? Nearly every bookstore, especially the independents, has readings. What makes each one succeed—or fail? What makes the audience laugh or ask lots of questions? What makes people look at their watches and get up? Which bookstores do the best jobs in promoting their readings?
10. Buy a book of baby names. Great for naming your next character. Or look through the phone book for inspiration.
11. Subscribe to free weekday e-mails from Publishers Lunch (publisherslunch.com). Has weekly information on which literary agents have recently closed deals, with advance info.
12. Make lists of local newspapers, newspaper reviewers, alumni associations, etc., who might write about you once you're published.
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