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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: AsaTJ on June 14, 2010, 03:33:46 PM
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So, I feel like I have a pretty good grip on my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. I'm pretty good with character development, pacing, and exposition. One thing I've struggled with, though (and reading the Dresden Files has made me really want to get better) is setting up a good, layered mystery story. Something just complex enough that it's tricky to figure out, but not so complex that it seems like the author just artificially added more bends in the river to make it seem more complex. Jim does a stellar job of this, and frankly, I'd kill to know what his secret is.... and no that is NOT a literal statement to be exploited by any fairy queens that might be reading this. You know who you are.
You guys have any advice you'd be willing to share?
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Have you read his livejournal posts on how to write yet? He's really into structuring his books before he writes. I would assume having the big twists are pre-written and you just match your books to get to that end without revealing until the end. Trail-o-breadcrumbs.
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Hm, I haven't yet. Where might I find them?
The huge thing I admire about Jim's writing that I'm not sure I'd even be able to handle is the immesne web of motivations he seems to create with every new case. There are so many people with so many complicated motivations involved in each story, and most of them have one, two, or in some cases more layers of fake motivations on top of that to throw Dresden off. I just have no experience with how you keep track of all of that and have it fall nicely into place at the end. My attempt would look less like a spider web and more like I got into a fight with a sewing machine and lost. :P
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Here you go: http://jimbutcher.livejournal.com/
Start at the bottom post and read up.
Jim uses character sheets on every character in the Dresdenverse.
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With a mystery I think it's easier to create the bone struture of the murder or crime. Once you figure out the simple line u can start working on the other layers. Pick a location, season of year, murder weapon etc. Ie mrs. Peacock in the kitchen w lead pipe. Well sort lof...lol. then make it 50 times more complicated & interesting.
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I've written two complete murder mysteries and am about 2/3 of the way through a third--while that doesn't make me an expert by any means, I've learned a few things along the way:
1. Outlining really helps. I know some writers are dead set against having any kind of plan, but I personally need to outline each chapter just to help me remember who knows what at any given time and what everyone's motivations are. As the omnicient author of course I know everything that's going on, and one of the hardest things for me is to remember that every character is in the dark to some extent.
2. What I call the Alpha Story is the main plot line, e.g. The boss everyone hates has been murdered. Who did it and why? This can have a pretty straightforward answer, but since you want your novel to go on for more than half a dozen pages, you need to introduce a bunch of Beta Stories into the mix. Maybe everyone in the office is a suspect. What are their backstories, and how have they interacted with the hated boss in the past? Then there's the guy in the pinstriped suit who shows up every day at the water cooler at 10:00 AM precisely...but nobody seems to know who he is.
I'm a big fan of novels like Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, in which a number of seemingly random and unrelated events all turn out to fit together perfectly, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. Once your Alpha Story is in place, you can start to fill in more pieces of the puzzle: Your protagonist has a chance encounter with a woman in a red dress...but it's not so much by chance, as she turns out three chapters later to be the assassin hired to kill the tabloid journalist who's been blackmailing the cheating wife of a corrupt businessman...who is none other than the guy in the pinstriped suit. Or something. You get the idea.
3. Know your protagonist. Is he/she a professional cop, a P.I., a true-crime writer, or a curious bystander? Maybe she's the sister of the boss, determined to find justice for her sibling. Who and what your protagonist is will determine much of what he/she can and can't do, level of skills such as marksmanship and martial arts, and how much access he/she has to the information needed to solve the case.
4. The setting, be it a major metropolis, an isolated village, or a fashionable resort, will determine the characters' behavior to a large extent. Your setting, if you're really good, can also be as much a character as the people who inhabit it.
5. Do the research. At the very least, arm yourself with an up-to-date map of your location and some good photographs. If possible, visit the place and spend some time walking around. Talk to someone who actually lives there. They will know that it takes more than five minutes to walk from the library to the Post Office and if there's an ordinance against keeping poultry in your backyard. If your protag. carries a gun, make sure that it's appropriate to the time period and place, that the character would realistically own such a firearm, and that the damage it does to the victim, or whomever, is accurate. (You don't need to go on for a whole chapter about it, though, just to prove you did the research. That will bore the hell out of most readers.)
6. As with all writing, remember: it's okay for your first draft to suck! Don't let it hold you back, just keep going. It doesn't get any easier, but you WILL improve.
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I'm a big fan of novels like Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, in which a number of seemingly random and unrelated events all turn out to fit together perfectly, like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Dirk Gently is kind of a high bar, though; it's pretty close to perfection in having every single tiny detail fit together perfectly and hardly a word can be changed. Even tiny incidentals like the conversation about radio scheduling at the college dinner early on ("No such thing as too much Mozart") are clues to secondary aspects of the resolution (to what turns out to be going on with Bach).
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Hardly be holistic otherwise, eh?
EDIT: In a lot of ways "everything must fit" is actually safer imo. I just recently saw an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Priory School" which telegraphed the ending 10 minutes into the show because, in rewriting the story to fit TV, they had a character violate a basic Victorian code of conduct. In an "everything must fit" story at least you know your audience does not have more information than the sleuth.
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Hardly be holistic otherwise, eh?
EDIT: In a lot of ways "everything must fit" is actually safer imo. I just recently saw an adaptation of "The Adventure of the Priory School" which telegraphed the ending 10 minutes into the show because, in rewriting the story to fit TV, they had a character violate a basic Victorian code of conduct. In an "everything must fit" story at least you know your audience does not have more information than the sleuth.
There are worse failures.
"The serial killer is picking off country and western singers, and you still expect me to sympathise with the detective ?" is probably the most implausible one for me that the author made work anyway.
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There are worse failures.
"The serial killer is picking off country and western singers, and you still expect me to sympathise with the detective ?" is probably the most implausible one for me that the author made work anyway.
Depends what era they're from. ;D
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Ever seen the TV series, Columbo? A character (Usually a guest star) plans a murder, carries it out and sets up an 'Airtight" Alibi, then the rest of the show is watching Columbo find a small thread, a small mistake in the murder's plot and unraveling it as the murder's trying to do everything they can to keep him from doing it.
What I'm saying, is plan out the Murder (Char. A Shoots Char B in cold blood), every step they take so they aren't suspected, and look for places where they could make a mistake, and leve a clue. Now add in Chars C, D, E, F, and G, with their own motives, means, and opptunity to shoot B. Plant a few false clues along with the real clue. Some authours will have a chart showing where each character is at certain moments. Agatha Christie was one who excelled at well-planned, well executed murders.
Read Murder mystories and get a fell for the way theya re written . You will develop your own style after a while...
Craig
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What I'm saying, is plan out the Murder (Char. A Shoots Char B in cold blood), every step they take so they aren't suspected, and look for places where they could make a mistake, and leve a clue. Now add in Chars C, D, E, F, and G, with their own motives, means, and opptunity to shoot B. Plant a few false clues along with the real clue. Some authours will have a chart showing where each character is at certain moments. Agatha Christie was one who excelled at well-planned, well executed murders.
Craig
This is the way I'd do it, and have. Well explained trbo.
"everything must fit" is actually safer imo.
Can you believe that one comment I had from a wonderful reader/writer for my YA paranormal mystery was that I tied up ALL the loose ends too much when I didn't need to do so. Okay, scratched my head over that. I finally decided that the reader was pointing out a symptom rather than the actual problem. I must be over writing the wrap up. Keeping that in mind as I revise. i'm now about half way through...
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I once heard mystery writer Nevada Barr answer this question. She said she read and read and read mysteries, picking apart how they were constructed to be workable. And then she started writing. I always liked Track of the Cat best, because of the ending.
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Can you believe that one comment I had from a wonderful reader/writer for my YA paranormal mystery was that I tied up ALL the loose ends too much when I didn't need to do so. Okay, scratched my head over that.
There is a way in which everything being tied up too neatly and perfectly can diminish the realism, because it feels to me like the real world mostly comes with little loose ends and niggly bits; I would say you as author have to know what they do but not necessarily put them in.
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I tend to agree with this, I like that little bit at the end of the book where I get to put the book down, push it aside and stop thinking about it. Then a little later in the day I'll stop dead and say "Wait...what happened with______" and then I'll go back to the book and furiously look through it to find out.
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Cool. You are both so right. Forgot those details. .too much explanation and I'm not trusting the reader and sort of hyping their experience. Well said.