LORI’S TIPS FOR WRITING MYSTERIES
Everyone has a mystery in them—whether it’s a dark secret from their family’s past or the innovative ways they’ve imagined for killing off an annoying boss. Here’s how start putting pen to page (or fingers to keyboard):
1.Find something interesting in your life or the experiences of someone you know.
Don’t think that you have to be a cop or a criminal to write a good mystery series. No matter how dull or exciting your job is, there is something going on in your life that could seed a series. Your emotional experiences (or even those of a friend) can be written about in a mesmerizing way. In SEQUENCE, my character Alex is dealing with the death of her father. My father died as I was revising the book, which changed how I wrote about her experience.
On the other hand, don’t assume everything that you do will fascinate others. People tend to specialize and that may be too narrow for a character. My agent loved all the cool genetics tools that Alex Blake used in my first book, SEQUENCE. But when I wrote the second in the series, my agent found those techniques a snooze – because she had already read about them! So, even though a real person might employ the same skills day after day, your character’s actions need to be more diverse.
2.Make sure your character uses his or her unique talents to solve the crime.
Several years ago, I wrote a draft of a crime thriller with a doctor as the main character. I gave it to an editor friend who was a mystery addict. He loved my character, but advised me of a giant deficiency in the plot. The mystery was solved in a way that did not draw on the character’s knowledge or skills. And it’s not only a character’s brains or brawn that could solve the crime. Think of Legally Blond where fashion knowledge saves the day!
3.Run the manuscript past by someone not in your field.
If you are writing about someone with specific talents or training – a scientist, doctor, hacker, insurance claims adjustor – make sure someone from another field weighs in on the manuscript. You’ll be amazed at how much you take for granted in your field that is impenetrable or downright boring to an outsider.
4.Pay attention to the physical.
Most of my nonfiction books dealt with genetics policy issues which were abstract and cerebral. When I wrote the first draft of SEQUENCE, I realized that I had no sense of the physical. Where were people standing? How did that character suddenly get into the room? How could someone be shot and be back in the conversation a few seconds later? Creating the physical sense of how characters move and interact is a challenge that faces anyone who is bringing knowledge from a day job into the mystery realm. You may have great material from your job as a prosecutor or a newspaper reporter, but you probably will not have actually experienced the physical aspects of being beaten up or shooting someone. Even cops rarely face the battles and batterings that thriller characters go through on a daily basis. “On CSI, investigators are shooting at people all the time,” says Cindy Pontoriero, Chicago’s first female homicide cop. “In reality, we rarely discharge our guns. If you do, there’s just too much paperwork.”
5.Think series.
I wrote SEQUENCE as a stand-alone, but St. Martin’s Minotaur bought it as a series. That means that I’ll have to live with the character and setting for a long time. Perhaps I’d have chosen a cast with fewer military people if I’d realized that they were going to be my new family. But, luckily, Alex is an outsider and can put them in perspective. When she is in a meeting with her new boss, a military colonel, she tunes him out, thinking about how, as a teenager, she was part of the Barbie Liberation Brigade, which switched the voice boxes on the Barbie and G.I. Joe. She recalls that the Barbie would then yell, “Vengeance is mine.” And she imagines her jar head boss, like the revamped G.I. Joe, whispering, “Math is hard” and “Let’s plan our dream wedding.”
Adapted from Lori Andrews, “The Journey To The Silent Assassin:
How My Day Job Jumpstarted My Thriller Series,” CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE.
Everyone has a mystery in them—whether it’s a dark secret from their family’s past or the innovative ways they’ve imagined for killing off an annoying boss. Here’s how start putting pen to page (or fingers to keyboard):
1.Find something interesting in your life or the experiences of someone you know.
Don’t think that you have to be a cop or a criminal to write a good mystery series. No matter how dull or exciting your job is, there is something going on in your life that could seed a series. Your emotional experiences (or even those of a friend) can be written about in a mesmerizing way. In SEQUENCE, my character Alex is dealing with the death of her father. My father died as I was revising the book, which changed how I wrote about her experience.
On the other hand, don’t assume everything that you do will fascinate others. People tend to specialize and that may be too narrow for a character. My agent loved all the cool genetics tools that Alex Blake used in my first book, SEQUENCE. But when I wrote the second in the series, my agent found those techniques a snooze – because she had already read about them! So, even though a real person might employ the same skills day after day, your character’s actions need to be more diverse.
2.Make sure your character uses his or her unique talents to solve the crime.
Several years ago, I wrote a draft of a crime thriller with a doctor as the main character. I gave it to an editor friend who was a mystery addict. He loved my character, but advised me of a giant deficiency in the plot. The mystery was solved in a way that did not draw on the character’s knowledge or skills. And it’s not only a character’s brains or brawn that could solve the crime. Think of Legally Blond where fashion knowledge saves the day!
3.Run the manuscript past by someone not in your field.
If you are writing about someone with specific talents or training – a scientist, doctor, hacker, insurance claims adjustor – make sure someone from another field weighs in on the manuscript. You’ll be amazed at how much you take for granted in your field that is impenetrable or downright boring to an outsider.
4.Pay attention to the physical.
Most of my nonfiction books dealt with genetics policy issues which were abstract and cerebral. When I wrote the first draft of SEQUENCE, I realized that I had no sense of the physical. Where were people standing? How did that character suddenly get into the room? How could someone be shot and be back in the conversation a few seconds later? Creating the physical sense of how characters move and interact is a challenge that faces anyone who is bringing knowledge from a day job into the mystery realm. You may have great material from your job as a prosecutor or a newspaper reporter, but you probably will not have actually experienced the physical aspects of being beaten up or shooting someone. Even cops rarely face the battles and batterings that thriller characters go through on a daily basis. “On CSI, investigators are shooting at people all the time,” says Cindy Pontoriero, Chicago’s first female homicide cop. “In reality, we rarely discharge our guns. If you do, there’s just too much paperwork.”
5.Think series.
I wrote SEQUENCE as a stand-alone, but St. Martin’s Minotaur bought it as a series. That means that I’ll have to live with the character and setting for a long time. Perhaps I’d have chosen a cast with fewer military people if I’d realized that they were going to be my new family. But, luckily, Alex is an outsider and can put them in perspective. When she is in a meeting with her new boss, a military colonel, she tunes him out, thinking about how, as a teenager, she was part of the Barbie Liberation Brigade, which switched the voice boxes on the Barbie and G.I. Joe. She recalls that the Barbie would then yell, “Vengeance is mine.” And she imagines her jar head boss, like the revamped G.I. Joe, whispering, “Math is hard” and “Let’s plan our dream wedding.”
Adapted from Lori Andrews, “The Journey To The Silent Assassin:
How My Day Job Jumpstarted My Thriller Series,” CRIMESPREE MAGAZINE.