Tag Archives: mystery

Cultivating Clues – A Fun Hobby

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You’ve heard the expression, “he doesn’t have a clue.”  I feel that way often–especially when it comes to writing the next mystery along.  I love reading mysteries and watching them on television, but I never really sat down to ask “what is a clue all about?”

Recently, I started a new ideas notebook and one of the sections is all about lists. List the things that bother you in life. List the places you’ve lived (and could possibly write about). List all the best restaurants you’ve eaten at.  The list of lists goes on, limited only by your interest and imagination. So I sat down the other day and jotted down “types of clues” on one of my list pages.

photo of evidence-iStock_000038589296Small

Get a clue–mysteries are built on them!

I sat for a while with no more than two or three ideas.  I’m trying to stick to the kind of things an amateur sleuth like Daisy Arthur would stumble upon and recognize.  Then it hit me.  Something this important requires research and study.  Immediately, I felt that bubble of excitement that comes from a great new adventure.  So I re-listened to a CD from the Colorado Gold Writing Conference–Become a Clue Master: How to Plant Clues, by Kris Neri. Kris does on-line writing classes as an extension of UCLA, and if you get a chance to work with her, I’d recommend it.  I really liked this class and get a lot out of it, each time I listen to the CD again.

THE CLUE MINDSET

Let’s start with a clue mindset.  A few of the authors I looked up (after listening to Kris) mentioned that clues are like magic shows–they lead, manipulate, and misdirect the reader in order to create suspense and final satisfaction when you work out or read the climactic “who done it” scene.  Guess what subject I’ll be studying next.

For me, though, clues are a great way of playing hide-n-seek. You remember, don’t you?  As a kid did you hide in a spot so well that you almost fell asleep waiting for siblings and friends to find you?  Didn’t you give clues? Didn’t you say “beep” every once in a while?

And how about the “you’re getting warmer, no, you’re getting colder” game? Isn’t that all about leading and directing people with your clues? And admit it. Wasn’t it at least tempting to think of sending someone in the wrong direction by saying “warmer” when they were really getting “colder” all along?

SOME SPECIFIC MODELS

Okay. Spoiler alert. If you like reading mysteries and don’t want clues to jump out at you, you may want to stop now.  Here are a few specific models that help make writing more fun:

  • The list clue–Detective walks into a room and starts jotting down the contents of a closet: pair of black dress shoes, a work boot, four tennis shoes, three belts, six pairs of pants (on hangers) and a sweatshirt dropped on the floor.  Much later in the story that detective might piece together that a work boot footprint outside the victim’s window might match the one from that closet way back. He retrieves the boot only to find that it’s from the wrong foot, and the right boot is missing. Dun-duhn.
  • Parallel Logic–Some expert the detective talks to, gives an in-depth explanation of how something works. You, the reader, can’t get through that page fast enough. Talk about your blah, blah, blah moment. You might even find yourself saying, “I could write better than that!” Then, a few chapters later, a situation comes up where you have the same structure in logic being used, and the detective needs to remember what boring old expert said (was it the red wire or the green that you clip in order to shut off the timer on the bomb you’re tied to?) Tension plus moment.
  • Access clues–This one is so straight forward, I’m embarrassed to say I haven’t used it before. Pick an object, a setting, or information and ask yourself “who had access to this at the time of the murder, abduction, theft, etc.?” A person can’t be guilty if they have no access to what’s important in your scene.
  • Last One; I’ve got a secret–In writing a mystery almost everyone should have something they’d rather keep to themselves.  And if that something happens to make them look guilty even when they’re not, so much the better. What’s your secret?

Do you like puzzles and clues as much as me?  What’s your favorite kind of clue? If you’re writing a mystery I hope you have a writing session devoted to clue-making. It’s so much fun.

IMPORTANT P.S. I will be doing an extra post on Monday, August 18th as part of an author’s blog hop.  Please look me up then.

Pot Shots. . . And So We Begin

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I have gone out and invested in a new spiral to keep notes for my next Daisy mystery–Pot Shots.  As you may know, I try to title my books with a symbol of the first victim and how they were killed.  Not sure if you knew that I tend to come up with a general topic to think about and the title of the book, even before I create my first new characters.

Right now, Colorado is enjoying the limelight that comes with being one of the first states in the union to legalize recreational pot.  It makes for a natural overarching topic to explore. And the legalization brings up all sorts of interesting challenges for citizens and law enforcement alike. I’m watching from the sidelines.

Pot Shots Notes

“The Game’s Afoot!”

Getting teased about the kind of research I need to do for this next story is a lot of fun too.  I mean after all, without proper research, how can I truly describe a Rocky Mountain High?  Could I write about someone who literally goes up in smoke? And playing with a cash-based business (banks are closely tied with federal government and can’t risk losing the FDIC connection) is just too much opportunity for trouble.

I don’t want to give away where exactly I’m going with the story, but for those who have read Faith on the Rocks, I’ll just let you know that I’m going to give Chip McPherson a mom who comes from California and has the most seductive brownie recipe you could imagine. Or is this too trite a thought? Hmm.

As for writing a novel, each author has his or her own style and process.  I’m trying to share mine with you in hopes that if you’re just starting your own novel-writing adventure, you might be able to take away some ideas for your work process.

Currently, I’m in the brainstorming phase.  This is the hardest, but most fun part of writing.  I have no plot yet, not even an opening scene.  I know very little about the topic of legalized marijuana, but am well aware of my personal biases on the topic.  So, here’s the plan …

  • February and March – research.  Jot down trivia about marijuana and the debate occurring across the country right now.  Visit a dispensary. Talk to people who I know use this drug. Get a feel for the topic and the type of characters I’ll want to experience the story.
  • March and April – put together a list of characters and a few murderous scenarios.  Unlike some other authors I’ve met, I need to know who killed whom and why before I even start a story.  Others like to write their tale, then go back and plant clues.  I like to plant clues along the way. It’s kind of like a game of hide-and-seek to me. Both writing styles work.
  • By May I want to have an outline complete.  Thanks to Scrivener, a large writing project toolkit, this should be easier than my 3×5 card system I’ve used in the past.  We’ll see.
  • June and for the next weeks and months beyond I’ll write the story out. It would be great to have a quicker first draft than in my other two efforts. It took from 2007 to 2012 to get Faith written, rewritten, and published.  I worked from 2012 through the end of 2013 to write Sliced Vegetarian, and I don’t know yet if it will be accepted for publication. My goal for Pot Shots is to be done by the end of 2014.  Did you know that Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was researched in seven weeks and published the following year in a newspaper series?  If you have suggestions on how to be more productive in writing, I’d love to hear from you.
  • That’s it.  Simple–like chess.

If you have strong feelings about the marijuana debate, please do contact me.  Right now, my mind is a blank slate waiting for thoughts and feelings to form my opinion–and next story.