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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…
Setting – A Force In Your Story Setting is like a character in your story that has no dialogue. Setting not only grounds your characters and your readers, setting interacts with characters to enhance your story. Setting is what makes readers feel like they are there.Beginning writers often overlook the depth that setting adds to a…
Readers Want One Thing From a Scene – Change Scenes are the building blocks of your story. Each scene moves the story forward and shed a no light on the main character. Each scene is a mini-story with the same overall sequence as the main story—beginning, middle, end. Within that mini-story a change happens. …
Subplots in the Story Subplots add depth to your mystery story by giving readers a deeper vision of your protagonist, the detective. They can Add dimension to the main plot Test the protagonist’s motivation and ability to solve the puzzle Create different points of view on the central murder victim and suspects In a mystery,…
From Story Idea to Story Summary Once you create your one-sentence story idea, build out to a summary paragraph to include characters, main story points, and the climax. Expanding your story idea builds your story writing momentum. Years ago Randy Ingermanson proposed a way to summarize your story highlighting the important pivots: three disasters plus…
Harness Your Story Idea to Write a Better Novel When a writer has a new story idea, you spend time thinking about your novel before you ever start writing. You’ll do bits of research. You’ll brainstorm how the story will work. You hear the voices of different characters. You think about what the book is…
Photo by Jordan McQueen on Unsplash Backstory and Dreams – New Writer Pitfalls Backstory and Dreams are traps for beginning writers. When you’re just starting out, avoid them. Yes, I know Michael Connelly uses war dreams for Bosch. Use these two story elements with a light touch. Best to avoid them. If you use them at all, wait…
Create Obstalces for Your Sleuth With Alternating Scenes Scenes are the building blocks of your story. Each scene moves the story forward. As you build your story alternate between action and reaction.When you go through the first edits of your story make certain that all scene components are in each scene. You’ll take your reader…
Photo by Eugeniu Esanu on Unsplash How To Not Get Lost In Your Mystery Writing a first mystery can be challenging as a new author. With all the information out there about writing a story, you may be tempted to get “everything” into your story. And, with your creative mind buzzing, it’s easy to have lots of ideas…
Tips to Draw Your Reader Into Your Mystery Create a mystery that gives your reader opportunities to play and active part in unveiling the suspect. Mindset and Methods Beginning writers often are so involved in the process of creating a novel, they forget the reader. Readers are an author’s lifeblood. They post reviews which are…
