Author: Elizabeth Spann Craig

I’m feeling daring today, so I’m going to touch on one of the more difficult topics—religion. (Hope this isn’t one of those things where I wonder later what the heck I was thinking….)

Now, the books I’m writing are very secular in nature. We’re talking murder mysteries here. But I’m a Southern writer, and these books are based in the American South where life and religion are more naturally entwined. So the characters go to church meetings (where they, naturally, discover all kinds of clues to the murderer), attend funerals in churches….and even discover bodies there.

I’ve been reflecting that it seems actually more unnatural to ignore religion or spirituality in books that feature major conflicts. After all, these folks are having a rough time. In murder mysteries, people are dropping like flies and the characters may be endangered, themselves. Isn’t it stranger that they wouldn’t look for a little spiritual guidance? And in most fiction I’ve read, the protagonist is beset by a myriad of problems. But Eat, Pray, Love was the only book that I’ve recently read that included a spiritual quest (and it was nonfiction.)

The trick is to fit religion or spirituality into secular books in a non-preachy way. I usually use humor to make the reader more comfortable. And I try to weave my references in naturally. Because….I’m not writing Christian literature here. The church is the background, not the focal point.

Has anyone else dabbled in religion in their manuscripts? Why or why not?

So I was at Costco, buying a couple of bottles of wine (great prices there, by the way), and went through the check-out line. I have long hair, so my face was shielded while I rifled through my massive pocketbook (see previous post) for my debit card. The guy doing checkout said, “$45.67. And…I’m gonna have to see some ID.” Well, my head just bobbed right up in surprise. And then he said, when he saw my face–I will never forget this–: “Oh. Never mind.”

Let’s couple this episode with another one. This time I’m in the grocery store and I had just popped in for a couple of forgotten ingredients for what would pass for supper that night. I had some sour cream, some breadcrumbs, and maybe a container of chicken. So the bag boy bags them up prettily and says, “Do you need help to the car with that?”

Oh dear God, I thought. I look old and feeble! So I scampered to the department store and shopped in the Junior’s section for an inappropriate dress that will embarrass my children if I wear it out.

I will probably return this dress in a couple of days, because I no longer feel old. I realize that I was jumping to conclusions…at least with the bag boy. He probably had to ask everyone if they needed help. Maybe.

Mystery writers rely on their readers to jump to conclusions, too. One of Agatha Christie’s favorite tricks was “the unreliable witness.” She would introduce a character, usually a garrulous one, who would rattle off all kinds of nonsense. Then she would have them slip in some information that was a genuine clue. But because the reader has come to expect little of this character in terms of believability, the clue would frequently go unnoticed. A clue in plain sight.

I think other fiction writers could use the jumping-to-conclusions-ploy, too. Maybe you could have a character that the reader finds completely trustworthy because of some good behavior at the beginning of the book…but then they can become turncoats and start behaving badly. To Kill a Mockingbird had Boo Radley, who seemed like a terrifying person to the children in the book, but who ends up saving Scout from an attacker.

I love adding the element of surprise to a novel, and I think leading the reader astray by having them make assumptions is a great way to achieve surprise.

And now for something completely different.  This post is for writers like me who are impatient with clicking between open windows and open programs, or who want to quickly move through their manuscript. 

There are really dozens of such shortcuts, but here are the ones I find myself using most often. I use Windows, but there’s a link below for the Mac lovers, too.

ALT+TAB: Switch between open programs

CTRL+Z: Undo

CTRL and either + or – :makes text larger or smaller on websites for easier viewing on eyes that are getting older.

CTRL and click a website link :opens links in a new window

CTRL + TAB: switch between open windows that are all in a line

Useful Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Word:

CTRL  N :quickly opens a new document (great for those times you want to jot down a note, but keep writing on your current scene.)

CTRL end :moves the cursor to the end of a document (when you suddenly want to change your ending)

CTRl home :moves the cursor to the beginning of a document (when you suddenly want to change your beginning.)

These are shortcuts that I find the most useful for me, but there are tons more.  If you’re interested, there’s a shortcut list for Word and one for Windows in general.  If you’re on a Mac, their website lists some helpful shortcuts, too.

I went to lunch with a friend and, at the end of the lunch, looked in my purse for one of those reward card thingies. You know, the kind where they hole-punch the card and after six meals, you get a freebie.

Fortunately, this was a good friend and did not flinch when the gobs and gobs of stuff came out of my bag.

There was a book light, my daughter’s nylon wallet, an old retainer in a plastic case, expired coupons, pictures of my kids in case they get lost (the authorities would have to do a time-lapse thing on them, because the pictures are years old), headphones, a necklace…well, you get the sad picture.

The only useful things I did have (besides the reward card, which I finally did find), were paper, pens, and a box of pencils.

I think the reason I carry so much in my pocketbook is a somewhat misguided attempt to be prepared. Because I was a Girl Scout, back in the day.

But, unless I needed to suddenly straighten someone’s teeth while peering in their mouth with a book light, I really wasn’t prepared to do anything but write.

That’s the nice thing about writing—you can pick it up at a moment’s notice if you have just a scrap of paper and a pencil. And I spend a lot of time writing on the go.

If you’d like to be able to write at a moment’s notice:

Know a short scene you can write. Have a smattering of dialogue you need to write? Need to write some setting descriptions to intersperse in your book? These are quick things you can write.

Know where you left off. The nice thing is that you can pick up in a different part of your book if you’re not sure. Because, by golly, I have rewritten a scene while I was waiting for my car to be washed and didn’t remember for the life of me that I’d already written that section. If you’re not sure, pick up at a different point.

You can find interesting extras for your book almost anywhere. I believe I mentioned the tanning booth lady at the roller skating rink. Sometimes, just like a movie producer, you need some extras for local color. If you’re out and about, this can be a good time to canvass the area for traits, unusual habits, and dialect.

Write short outlines. This is a great time to sketch out a plan for the next few pages, the next scene, or the next chapter if you’re feeling ambitious.

Brainstorming lists can be done in minutes. Think about something completely different. What if your plot suddenly took a tragic turn? What might happen next? You don’t have to commit to this plan…it’s just there to fire up your imagination.

Describe your characters. In only minutes, you can think up as many adjectives as possible to apply to a character (and get to know them better). Or you can think of different scenarios and how they would react: If John were in a dentist’s chair, he would be acting ________.

I’ve actually managed to get some quality writing time on the go, thanks to having paper and a pencil in my pocketbook and a plan in my head.

Now I just need to work on getting the rest of that stuff out of my purse.

I’ve frequently found that there are many people who don’t think of themselves as mystery readers. But because there are so many different types of mysteries—police procedural, thriller, private investigator, cozies, etc.—there’s really a little something for everyone. If you’re interested in stretching your genre boundaries, think about adding some of these novels to your summer reading list.

Here are a few elements of a good mystery and some books that embody them.

A protagonist you can care about: Water Like a Stone. Detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James seem like real people, not the police stereotypes we all get tired of reading about. Jill McGown’s Detective Chief Inspector Lloyd & Judy Hill Mysteries also has a winning detective team that the reader will enjoy spending time with.

An interesting setting: I love M.C. Beaton’s Hamish Macbeth series which is set in the Scottish highlands. Beautiful dialect and fun characters really make the series a stand-out.

Suspense: Try John Hart’s King of Lies. Elizabeth George’s Thomas Lynley series is also full of tense moments as the police attempt to solve the mystery.

A puzzle: Try P.D. James’ Adam Dalgleish series or Ruth Rendell’s psychological suspense tales.

Something unique: For something a little different, you can’t beat Nancy Atherton’s Aunt Dimity series. Any time a ghost figures prominently in a book, it’s bound to be different.