In the world of mystery fiction you need a heroine, a criminal and a victim. Sometimes these descriptions overlap and the heroine is also a victim trying to get revenge. Or the criminal had been a victim in his past and now has a warped sense of right and wrong. Sometimes the victim was a real jerk and got her comeuppance by one of her victims. Or, sometimes it’s quite simple: … [Read more...]
Location, Location, Location
Location, location, location In real estate the mantra “location, location, location” can often be heard. In many cases, a 900-square-foot home located a block away from the beach can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more than a 2,000-square-foot home located miles inland, far away from the salty sea breezes. Since it’s impossible to re-locate the beach, having … [Read more...]
Can You Pick Your Killer Out of a Lineup?
Writing mysteries can be fun and challenging, but it can also prove to be frustrating – unless you decide to have some fun with it. I’ll be honest – in most of my writing I have been a plotster, planning out every clue and detail and knowing full well who my killer is well before I’ve typed out the opening line. Recently one of the discussions in a writing group I belong to … [Read more...]
Ready, Set, Conference!
For the past five years I have told myself that I was going to attend the Romance Writers of America (RWA) conference. For the past five years I have lied to myself. There was always a reason that I could not attend, either financially, work was too busy, or vacation plans made it impossible. Last winter I promised myself that I would attend the RWA Conference in Nashville … [Read more...]
Why an Author Should Embrace Deadlines
This week, with my busy day job (in a career that I love) and my hobby-morphing-into-second-job writing, I have so many deadlines that thinking about them became overwhelming. Looking at my schedule from a distance I realized that those dates marked in blood-red bold print—deadlines—are a blessing rather than a bother. To ensure that my attitude remained positive I decided to … [Read more...]
Character Building Blocks
While going over a manuscript this past month my writing partner and I have had some serious discussions regarding characters and what drives them to do what they do. As writers, we all know that our characters can develop their own quirks and do things that we, the author, certainly did not intend for them to do. But that’s why we grow to love them, because at some point they … [Read more...]
Meet Me at Inspiration Point
Inspiration for writers is everywhere I learned that fact in a story development class in college. Our professor, a former development executive for a film studio, gave us an assignment: read through the latest news and choose one story to use as a springboard for a five-page synopsis. Only one? I found at least fifty. Dear Abby letters provided ideas for melodramas and … [Read more...]