The Game's Afoot

Summertime - a great time to catch up on reading. Or writing. Not a great time for watching television.

Not that I watch a lot of that, of course. Who does? (wink wink) Still, there are new episodes of Murdoch Mystery to see and the new series of Sherlock on DVD to watch again. This week both have reminded me of the joy and challenge of a constructing a really good puzzle.

Unlike reality, a good mystery has to have all the pieces laid out for the reader - the true detective. While real cops have to muddle along with messy real crimes, a whodunit needs to present the clues - not in plain sight but not too obscured with extraneous information. Also unlike reality, not only does it have to make sense, it has to be engaging too. Not easy.

It wasn’t until I had to plot out the action plan for a climactic battle that I got a handle on how I could pull off a decent murder... mystery. In order to keep everyone straight, I had to make maps of the battle field, diagrams of the actions with “with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one” to quote Arlo Guthry’s Alice’s Restaurant.

The most useful part of the process, from a writing point of view, was the timeline. This told me who was fighting who, when, and why. I slotted the motivations and outcomes into a table, but the timeline kept everything straight.

It was the same principle as a detective’s evidence board. When I finally had a crime to commit (to paper), it was like a murder investigation in reverse. I started with all the facts, worked out some of the critical misdirections, then decided how the information would be revealed in the course of the story.

I was on the third draft of Under A Texas Star when I started using this method of organization. Though the murder investigation is the B plot of the story, I wanted it to stand up in court (the one where my readers are the jurors). I created a timeline, a table of suspects and list of clues that would lead to the murderer plus a few red herrings that would point to the other suspects. Marly and Jase’s detective work - separately and together - further the investigation, their character development and their relationship. I kept it all straight with my timeline...“with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one.”

It becomes a kind of game. The puzzle has to be challenging enough to be interesting, but not so complicated that you annoy your reader. Above all, the puzzle must further the story, not replace it.

When I plot out a mystery, the game’s afoot.




Of your favourite authors, who creates the best puzzle for you to solve?

Motivation

Where I live in Canada we are in the dog days of summer. This week the weather is hotter here than in Florida. We all like to relax in the summer, sit on the patio and drink a cool one, but as writer's we still have to produce our pages.

I have several methods to stay motivated. I write every day.  Yes, every day. My friend, Cindy Carroll, started a group where we have to write 100 words every day for 100 days. Sounds easy, does't it but in reality it's the hardest thing I've ever done. If you miss writing your 100 words for a day, then you have to start at day one all over again. It took me the better part of a year to get my 100 words for 100 days. I'm now trained to write every day.

The local chapter of Romance Writers of America have Word Count Wednesday. We post our word count for the week and our other accomplishements. Have we submitted to an agent or editor, have we gotten a rejection or a contract? I find it invirgorating to see what other writer's have accomplished in a week.

These groups have inspired me and keep me writing.
So tell me, what motivates you to write?

Re Heather's post and Rosemary's contract

Heather thanks for the pick-me-up. Finding our rhythm, finding the time to find our rhythm...if the only way forward is scribbling on napkins -- I've done that too! The only thing that really works as our friend and fellow Sisters in Crime member Rosemary McCracken used to say when I whined at her about when and how I would get my police mystery completed is, are you ready? : "bum in chair" so that and an assured talent is the answer because guess what!!. She's just got a book contract! I'm so excited and happy for her. I know you'll all join me in saying congratulations to Rosemary as the first Pat Tierney mystery comes soon to an E and print world bookstore near us soon.
20 July 2011 08:09

Rosemary's book contract

Oh yes, PS you can learn more from Rosemary at her blog - rosemarymccracken.wordpress.com or on her facebook page

Ramifications of a dream

The dream isn’t always that easy. Turning the desire to write into reality can be a harsh and unforgiving process, i.e. there will always be laundry and, sadly, dinner does not cook itself. Life in general is a time-devouring machine that does not, nor will it ever, provide great swaths of time, peace or tranquility for you to simply sit down and write that book you’ve dreamed of writing since childhood; because life happens one way or the other, and time, dictated by our endless obligations (even if done out of love), means our days are far too short.

Carpe diem, the popular aphorism goes, but carpe minutum might be a better adage: If that’s all you have, then scuttle off to that computer and put down the few words or ideas that rattle about your brain. Because it may be a few more days before those minutes present themselves again.

It’s hard to seize the dream; doubly hard if like many of us, you are attempting it for the first time. We don’t have that rhythm yet; we stumble, unsure of our methodology and research. We write, only to rewrite and start again.

When transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, a philosopher of nature, wanted to improve and work on his craft, and to try and live simply, he vanished to a small hut for two years where he reveled in the state of solitude. “Walden” is the product of that episode. “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams,” he stated. All fine and well for him. He was ALONE in that hut.

So we hang on and we write when we can, our notes to the ready, resorting to long hand when the computer is not available, scribbling ideas on napkins, plunking key ideas or plot developments into emails or messages that we send to ourselves from our cell phones. We’ll all get there some day. If you’re devoted, you’ll spend every spare second making it happen.

As George Bernard Shaw said, the “people who get on in this world ... get up and look for the circumstances ... And if they can’t, make them.”

So just do it, for heaven’s sake. It’s how dreams come true.

Re: Confessions of a Literary Slut

Just finished Rowena Through the Wall and still day dreaming about all those gorgeous, dangerous, sword-fighting men. Think 'A Knight's Tale from a female point of view with a dash of Narnia and plenty of sizzle. Rowena is a captivating heroine and I can't wait for her next adventure.

The end of an era

Well, it's not exactly the end yet, but I think that this:

http://www.nbcmiami.com/blogs/popcornbiz/Sookie-Stackhouse-Author-Charlaine-Harris-Gets-Graphic---Literally-125363048.html

is the first glimpse of the end. In it Charlaine Harris mentions that she is two books from the end of her Sookie Stackhouse series.

Vampire stories have been around for centuries, if not millennia. There were legends before Stoker wrote Dracula. In the beginning they all seemed to include variations on the theme that young women were perfect victims, they could be lured into danger because passion, compassion and even curiosity could be used to entrap them.

I'm not sure why it is that this form is the one in which many authors repudiated the "female as victim" theme, but they have done so with a vengeance. One of my favorites is _Those Who Hunt the Night_ by Hambly. The main female character shares the stage with her husband, but she is no shrinking violet. She has brains and backbone. (Wonderful book.)

Then we had the entire Buffy universe. When I first heard about the series I rolled my eyes and refused to watch it. A friend talked me into watching the hyena episode and I was hooked. This was at a point in my life when I was profoundly disappointed in the way young women had turned their backs on feminism. I heard college students say that they could not be feminists because they liked men. I like men, what does that have to do with wanting to be treated with respect, to be allowed to follow my dreams, to receive a living wage for my work? I was around in the 1970s, I knew that feminism was not a repudiation of being feminine; but somehow popular culture seemed to have adopted that viewpoint. Then there was Buffy. She wanted to be popular, she was shy around handsome guys, she lusted after the pretty prom dress... and she could kick a^#. She was a fresh archtype, a girl who was strong and who wanted friends and family, a woman who was competent and who wanted to be loved. I don't actually think that this was a new archtype. I think that this is exactly what we were fighting for when we wanted mothers who stayed home with their children to get Social Security AND wanted women who wanted to be firefighters to be allowed to get an interview and take the physical test. We never wanted to deny half of ourselves, but Buffy gave young women of this generation a model, so that they could see that those attributes could exist in one person.

Then there was Sookie Stackhouse. I'm looking forward to the next two books, but I'll be sorry that they are the last. Sookie is a telepath coping with a strange world. She has grown so much during the series. What I've loved most about her is that she cares for others, but also stands up for herself. She can be hurt; but she does not cave, she stands back up and refuses to be a victim. I love her strength.

Much has been made of the Stephen King quote:
"Harry Potter is about confronting fears, finding inner strength and doing what is right in the face of adversity. Twilight is about how important it is to have a boyfriend."
— Stephen King

I haven't read Twilight, so I can't comment on that. I hope that the vampire novel narrative is not going to cast women as victims of love once more... we've come a long way and I hope that we can stay far away from having to choose between our passion and our strength. I do like this quote by Reba MaEntire:
"To succeed in life you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funnybone>"

I hope that we'll see a generation of female protagonists who have all three.