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