So You Want To Write Mysteries . . .

By Mark W. Danielson

It’s been a while since I’ve addressed writing so here is a frank discussion on the subject.  Those of us who write murder mysteries have at some point all been asked the same question – where do we get our [warped] ideas?  The question seems reasonable enough, but the answer is far from simple.  Rather than speak for anyone else or say “I don’t know”, I must first state for the record that I had a wonderful childhood, my parents are still married after sixty four years, I have never done drugs or committed any acts of violence, nor do I have any plans to do either.  I have a graduate degree, have painted all my life, and had written non-fiction for many years before discovering fiction in the late eighties.  And so began my endless drafts of mystery and suspense novels that killed off people with traits I didn’t much care for.  Yup, that’s the beauty in novels – the ability to plug ’em and plant ’em at will.  Oh, what a stress reliever it is.

One of the more notable author/artistic traits is the power of observation.  We tend to hear and see things that others may not, and then transfer these details into a scene from a book.  Background noises, indistinct whispers, a clunking shoe, television, even a sneeze can all play important roles in a story.  Intentional or not, many storylines are stolen from one’s memory.

The power of perception is an essential sleuth requirement.  One must be able to understand multiple points of view in order to create believable characters.  This means we must get inside the criminal mind as much as those defenders of good.  Personally, I like to people watch, read, or watch news accounts that border on fiction with their sensationalism.  I happened to have been in LA when another car chase came on the TV.  LA car chases are so routine they are hardly worth my time, but this one was entertaining as Robin Hood tossed money from the car as he drove through neighborhoods with six police cars behind him.  Yes, sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.  I hear the culprit was the bank manager’s boyfriend.  Go figure.

There are plenty of whacked out people in this world, and while the percentage of nut cases may remain the same, their numbers climb proportionally with population growth.  Newspaper and magazines can stir volumes of sinister characters and complex plots.  Just don’t get too carried away.  Every plots must be plausible.

Any author will tell you that you can’t write if you don’t read.  You don’t read other authors to emulate them, though.  Instead, you do it to get a sense of their pacing and character development.  Reading within your genre also gives a sense of what is topical and publishable.  In a society of requiring instant gratification, news, and texting, it is unlikely that Hemingway or Michener could get published.  Today’s audience simply doesn’t have the patience for their writing style. 

Scripting requires perseverance.  Unless you are a celebrity or some quirk of fate happens your way, the odds of publishing anything in a timely manner is remote.  I know far too many excellent authors who will remain unknown because most readers buy with name recognition.  Because of this, book stores tend to limit their books to known authors and publishers.  Of course, this stacks the deck against new authors, but if your novel is good enough, it may still hit the chart one day.    

If you write to get rich, you’re probably better off investing in lottery tickets.  Computers, internet, paper, ink, queries, editors, proof readers, promoters, all cost money.  Unless you are an established author, publishers won’t be sending money your way because they simply don’t have it.  Expect to spend whatever advance you receive promoting your work.  Sadly, you won’t see another dime until your sales have worked off your advancement.  I don’t recommend giving up your day job until you have stashed away a couple million.      

For those who are married or live with significant others, know that creative writing is a solitary task.  It’s probably easy to tell when I’m writing because I am thinking more about the plot than what’s going on around me.  When I finally sit down to write, I find myself in a different zone.  Stephen King likes to write with rock music blaring.  For me, silence is golden as I download my subconscious thoughts into a Word document.  If the dog barks or phone rings, I flinch.  Because of this and my preference to stay married, I tend to write more while on the road so I’m not ignoring the person most important to me. 

Writing is my passion.  It is something I need to do.  I strongly encourage others to put their thoughts down as well, and if you happen to make a few bucks along the way, consider it gravy.

Reflecting the Times

By Mark W. Danielson

It’s interesting how a novel’s characters set the period. Although humans look like they did centuries ago, they don’t dress, act, or talk the same because their surroundings have changed with time. Writing about previous periods is difficult, and few authors will be as successful as Michael Crichton or James Michener. Rather than confront this problem, most authors write in the present. Comparing Shakespeare’s characters to Charles Dickens’, or James Michener’s to Michael Connelly’s demonstrates how characters have evolved. But even writing in the present includes generational experience issues. Think back on how much has changed over the past sixty years.

There was a time when people formally dressed for dinner, didn’t wear hats in restaurants, cussing was a sin, parents held their children accountable, and adults acted responsibly. But those Lake Wobegone Days Garrison Keillor wrote about are gone. By 1950s standards, today’s world has gone mad, so novels written in the present should reflect that. Unfortunately, generational bias may hinder us in getting it right. How so, you ask. Simply put, generational bias is a function of experience, age, and upbringing. I couldn’t possibly write about growing up in the ghetto any better than I could comprehend a teenager’s mindset. Fortunately, research, interviews, and observation can assist with this.

In the 1950s, the first televisions began replacing radios. At best, they had three or four channels on a rotating circular dial. Families gathered around their tiny sets, sometimes while eating TV dinners. Record players folded up like lunch boxes, and there was one family phone and car. Color TV followed, but it was years before we had one in our house. Compare this to my children’s generation where they grew up with their own cars at age sixteen, personal computers, unlimited television channels, pagers, cell phones, the Internet, and now Internet camera phones. You can get instantaneous news wherever you are, and texting has evolved into sexting. I saw a two year old in a restaurant watching TV on a four inch screen while his parents dined, and a four year old with his own cell phone. Many new family cars come equipped with GPS and DVD players. Yes, times have changed, and we’ve changed with them, but that doesn’t mean we understand the generational differences.

If you were born fifty plus years ago, you would never dream of a flight attendant grabbing a beer and bailing on the tarmac. Nor could you foresee a crazy woman getting out of her car and beating a McDonald’s employee because she couldn’t satisfy her breakfast craving for Chicken McNuggets, and yet these things happened. You may be disturbed by MTV or so-called reality shows like The Colony, which features a doomsday scenario, and yet young people may crave it. Generational differences have never been more divided than they are today.

Consider this when developing your characters, and use your parenting or grand parenting experience to see the world through younger eyes. Understanding that your reality is different from theirs can create characters and generational conflict as powerful as those in Clint Eastwood’s Grand Torino.