Mystery Writing Tips

Avoiding Police Stereotypes in Novels

May 9, 2014May 7, 2014Mystery Writing Tips, Uncategorized

by J.J. Hensley, @JJHensleyauthor

As most of you, I’ve read hundreds of mysteries and thrillers. And as most of you, I’ve recognized that many of them can be formulaic and use characters that are really cookie cutter stereotypes. I think one of the most overused characters in the mystery/thriller/suspense genre is the police officer who is incompetent, apathetic, or outright corrupt.

Now in the interest of full disclosure, I spent a decade in local and Federal law enforcement, so I have no illusions at objectivity. However, the fact of the matter is that 99% of the law enforcement community is hard-working, intelligent, and caring. The problem is that many storylines benefit from having a detective who isn’t doing her job, or a patrol officer planting evidence, or an FBI agent taking a bribe. It adds drama and there is a bit of shock value when someone in a position of authority fails to do his job. But, perhaps our writing can improve and be more unpredictable if we avoid using these stereotypes.Continue reading

Making Character Deaths Meaningful

April 4, 2014April 3, 2014Mystery Writing Tips, Writing Tips

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I recently read an interesting novel—I won’t say which one, since I’d be spoiling the ending. The most important character in the book was killed in an ending I didn’t see coming. The death was a bit of a plot twist in itself because of what it said about a separate character in the story.

After finishing, I was curious to see what other readers had thought about the book. I braved Goodreads—a site I hate as a writer, but sometimes enjoy as a reader—and found several discussions about the novel. And…to my surprise, most readers slammed the ending.Continue reading

Mystery Writers–Who (or What) is Your “Femme Fatale”?

February 26, 2014February 24, 2014Mystery Writing Tips

by Joe Benevento

Anyone familiar with mystery knows the “femme fatale,” a character who can prove literally lethal to the man she seduces away from clear thinking. Bridget O’Shaughnessy in Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon is an example, presenting herself as a “damsel in distress” in need of Sam Spade’s help and protection, but ending up his ultimate distraction and potential demise (see the character played by Jane Greer in the 1947 noir film, Out of the Past for another classic rendition of the type.) In spite of our familiarity with the function of a femme fatale, not all readers or writers of fiction realize how far-reaching the concept is, how flexible, and how ultimately crucial it can be to any plot involving the kind of thinking needed to unravel a complex crime.Continue reading

The Ignorance Factor

February 21, 2014February 20, 2014Mystery Writing Tips, Uncategorized, Writing Tips

by Barry Knister, @barryknister

When I first decided to write a mystery series, the initial problem I faced didn’t have to do with writing. It had to do with the crime business.

I’m not talking about the myriad ways in which crime is the business of criminals; I mean the crime-fighting experts who zigzag their way through a landscape littered with clues, in search of answers. We all know who the usual suspects are: police and CSI technicians, private investigators, FBI and CIA agents, medical examiners, lawyers, computer whizzes, etc.

But what if the writer is none of these things, and has no connections with such people? Continue reading

Choosing Our Mystery’s Murderer

February 12, 2014February 12, 2014Mystery Writing Tips, Uncategorized

By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Mystery writers that I’ve met tend to fall into a couple of different groups—writers who have picked their killer before they start writing their story (or early in their draft) and those who decide by the end of the book who the killer will be.

I’m a fan of picking my murderer at the end of the book. The only problem is the fact that I’ve (fairly recently) started outlining. When I outline, I lay out the murderer…but I leave it open to change. For my Penguin books, however, the outline goes to my editor so that she has an opportunity to weigh in. I’ve changed the killer a couple of times for my editor and once I dramatically changed a character’s personality and manner in order to keep the character as the murderer.Continue reading