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Literary snobbery has been a topic on a couple of blogs lately. So today, I’m blogging at A Good Blog is Hard to Find about how writers can handle encounters with book snobs. I hope you’ll pop over and visit me there.

Also, I’ve got all kinds of excitement coming down the pike this week here on Mystery Writing is Murder. Thursday, the wonderful Margot Kinberg will be guest blogging for me on Prewriting and Research. Margot gives us a glimpse at how research can make our novels stronger.

Friday, the talented Cleo Coyle will be guest blogging a special Valentine’s Day-related post: Genre Blending and Your Character’s Love Life. What defines a mystery? A romance? What should you consider when blending genres?

I was in—as usual—the grocery store on Saturday afternoon. As soon as I walked in the door, I was greeted with a big smile by a couple of men at a table. I did a mental groan—they wanted me to do something. Sure enough, it was time to update that plastic discount card the grocery store assigns us.

I was at the deli counter getting some ham and trying to put the little loyalty card on my keychain. One of the deli workers said, “So you got your card updated?”

And I said. “Mm-hmm. Last time I came in I just pretended I didn’t see them.” Then I’m sure I looked really cross because I don’t say things like that, I think things like that. Some evil sprite possessed me and made me say something rude.

The counter guy just laughed. “Yeah, you were probably ignoring me. Because I’ve been working that table until tonight.”

Which made me even more cross at myself.

It also made me think that frequently we’re our own worst enemies.

Writing cozy mysteries, I really like to do things on a small scale. Because of the nature of the books, I’m not doing any Hollywoodesque car crashes, explosions, or chase scenes.

I don’t have cataclysmic events in my books—no natural disasters, terrorism, or ghastly epidemics. Although I really enjoy reading books like these, they just don’t fit my genre.

A horrific day in my books? Someone’s slip of the tongue results in their murder. They knew too much.

Think of all the uses faux pas can have. Because we’ve all said things that came out wrong or that people took the wrong way.

A slip of the tongue could result in someone really getting furious with an in-law or other family member. Maybe it represented the last straw for the person—the one that made them decide to end a relationship.

Faux pas can end friendships. Maybe a friend blabbed about the protagonist’s secret. Maybe the slip is viewed as a betrayal by another character.

A slip of the tongue could result in someone getting fired. Maybe someone leaked something that their office wanted to keep strictly confidential.

Military men and women who accidentally disclose too much information involving location during a war, you’re actually endangering lives.

Think of all the politicians who end up saying, “I misspoke.” So many have said thoughtless things, or uttered racially insensitive statements when “misspeaking.”

There are so many different ways to plot around someone sticking their foot in their mouth. And the reader? They won’t think the results are unbelievable at all. Because we all make our little faux pas.

I’ve gotten to that point in my manuscript where it’s time to include some secrets.

I love secrets in books. They work really well for mysteries—in fact, it’s fun for all of the suspects to have a secret they’re trying to protect.

Then the reader and sleuth are aware the suspect is throwing up some roadblocks. They’re just not sure why it’s happening. Are they covering up the murder they committed? Or are they just trying to conceal a personal secret from the investigators?

Secrets are great for a variety of genres and, to me, are really fun to create and include.

Who has a secret?

Protagonist—Has a secret that affects him…usually negatively. Ordinarily, this is a secret that’s an integral part of his past that’s hampering his future. Positive secrets? I haven’t seen so many of those. Maybe a few storylines involving characters who are secretly wealthy (won the lottery, whatever) and keep it under cover so friends won’t treat them differently.

Someone close to the protagonist has a secret that affects their relationship with the main character. This can propel the protagonist through the plot.

The antagonist has a game-changing secret. Darth Vadarish.

There’s an external secret—a historical mystery, a secret from the past (like the book The Photograph, etc.) that the protagonist is trying to uncover.

What are secrets good for?

Internal conflict. The protagonist at war with himself over a secret in his past that’s holding him back.

Interesting subplot. This could be a minor secret that’s something fun, revealed at the end of the book.

Cool plot twist. You mean he’s not dead?

Roadblocks (conflict) for the main character. Other characters present obstacles for the protagonist as he’s trying to reach his goals.

Does your character have a secret? Does he know someone who does?

I’m one of those writers who doggedly writes each day, no matter what.

Frequently? I’m not inspired.

I think that’s the dirty little secret of a lot of writers. We may get ideas. We may implement those ideas. But we may not be flying through books on waves of inspiration.

I do write every day. But I really have to write every day so I won’t fall behind on my deadlines. Plus, if I skip even one day, going back later is even tougher. It’s like a muscle that needs to be exercised daily or else it just doesn’t work as well.

Even on days where I know I’m writing stuff that’s definitely not going to make it into the final cut, I mush on.

But there is one area I do better in when I’m not feeling creative.

Making lists:

I don’t like outlines, but I really like making lists. I’ve got a program, Microsoft’s One Note that came with my Office 2007. I like the software because I can make a “notebook” named after my book title, then create a bunch of “pages” to go in that notebook. So it looks sort of like this:

Actually, it looks exactly like that because I did a capture picture of the screen. Although I do really like the software, you can do the same thing in a regular notebook with dividers.

On days where I seem to be creatively-challenged, I’ve found that I’m particularly good at making lists or at writing short bits that can be woven in later.

So I might make a list of the characters and what they look like.

I might jot down ideas for upcoming scenes.

I might make a list of things I need to research—this could be as simple as going to a name-generator site and picking out some good last names, or it could be more complicated—learning more information about police procedure in particular crimes.

I’ll make lists of favorite Southern foods for the Memphis series—along with ideas for where to include them.

Things to fix—that’s a fun one. I don’t stop and fix things that are wrong as I go—I’ll either highlight the problem with Word’s “highlighter,” or I’ll jot down a note in this section as to what needs correcting.

Short Sniping Snippets? That’s very specific to Memphis BBQ book 2 that I’m currently writing, so I guess I shouldn’t elaborate too much on that. :)

I can even do brain dumps to come up with possible subplots, clues, red herrings, short segments to develop particular characters, etc…those things seem to somehow come easier when I’m feeling more left-brained than usual.

If I make a lot of these planning lists? The writing goes a lot smoother the next day. It can even re-energize my creativity.

What do you do when you’re not inspired?

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Pop over to the Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen for a guest post by my fellow Midnight Inker, Lisa Bork (For Better, For Murder.)

One reason I don’t look back over the previous day’s writing is because I know what I’ll usually see:

Blah, blah, blah.

When I get an idea or have characters in a conversation, I can just milk the scene to death. Oh, I have my plan for the chapter (my mini outline.) I have a sense of how long my chapters are, although I don’t put in chapter breaks for the first draft.

But I will just keep on going. I know I’ll be editing out a ton for the second draft, anyway. And who knows what bits I’ll like best? So I’ll overwrite.

When I was a kid, essays had to be a certain number of words. I remember bloating my writing with all kinds of junk just to hit my word count.

I’m thinking that today’s kids really know the art of brevity. Texting encourages it, and so does Twitter. Oh, and Facebook status updates can only be so long, too.

When my son came home sick from school a couple of weeks ago, I got a text from him: Help me.

What’s wrong?!? I texted back, with some alarm.

Sick.

And he did have the flu (again!), so it was genuine. But he knew how to rope me in and get me over to the school office pronto.

There was no rambling plea to be picked up, no over-the-top descriptions of fever, chills, or muscle weakness…nothing. The starkness of the message was enough to get me in my minivan and over to the school.

I think some scenes do well with a minimalistic approach:

Action scenes are great places to put short, choppy sentences and very little description.

Scenes where you’re including a shock or surprise to a scene.

Scenes that play a very functional, set-up purpose. (And you might want to analyze whether you need a whole set-up scene to begin with.)

Descriptive scenes (which I’m not all that crazy about to begin with.) It’s a little boring when an author waxes poetic in their basic descriptions of weather, a spring day, a pretty lady, etc. Short and sweet and clear, I’m thinking.

Do you write sparsely the first time around or do you edit out the bloat later?