Basic Mystery Tropes and How to Start Writing a Mystery
I had fun with the first Mystery Monday. With an Ask Me Anything base, I answered a few questions as well as covering the topic for the day – Basic Mystery Tropes.
Individual Characters and the Story In a mystery, supporting characters provide conflict for the detective. Their role in the story is to confound, confuse, lie and make trouble for your protagonist. They enhance the story context and color how your story is revealed. The Character Bible A character bible is the place where you…
When Characters Try to Take Over The Story Every writer has the experience of characters acting and speaking in unexpected ways. With the most detailed story outline, once you begin writing a scene, characters do something that you hadn’t planned in your outline. When the protagonist or the antagonist speaks pithy words or acts in…
Check Your Scenes for Story Essentials Indie authors are feeling a big push to produce as much as possible in the shortest time. Get those books up! Sell more! At the same time your readers expect a great story rich in detail and emotional tugs. Sometimes when we rush to get the story done, those…
The Call to Battle Demons I’m a bit tired of heroes who seemed conceived to illustrate the author’s genius in coming up with exotic reasons why the hero has a character flaw or emotional challenge or disability that he/she must overcome. Life offers up challenges for all of us. So, following my own guidelines, I…