KN Magazine: Articles

3/4/16 3/4/16

The Writer's Life: Your First Draft

Authors have long lamented that “there is nothing more intimidating than the blank page,” or other axioms to that effect. Whether you agree with that statement or not, one can’t deny that there’s a certain amount of anxiety—mingled with excitement, of course—involved when faced with the prospect of beginning a new work. One could argue that part of this trepidation stems from the fear of the uncertain (which, unfortunately, even writers are subject to). Maybe you don’t yet know the direction you want your story to take. Maybe you don’t yet even know your story.

In this installment of “The Writer’s Life,” Jaden Terrell shares some tips on how to map out your story. With these tricks in your arsenal, you’ll be able to approach that foreboding empty page with confidence.

Your First Draft

By Jaden Terrell

In the past several months, you’ve learned a lot about the characters in your story. You know what clues the perpetrator left, how he obscured his tracks, who the suspects are and what will cast suspicion on them, and where and how your protagonist will find these clues.

What else must happen in order for your character to get what she wants? What obstacles will she face? How will she be deceived or betrayed?

By now, you’ve probably envisioned a number of scenes. It’s finally time to start putting it all together.

Brainstorming and Index Cards

Based on what you’ve learned, take a few moments to brainstorm all the scenes you know you’ll need. You can make a list, write a summary, use a mind map or clustering exercise, or use whatever format best suits your needs.

I like to use index cards because the act of physically manipulating the cards helps solidify the story in my mind. If you prefer, you can use Post-It notes, a white board and dry-erase markers, an Excel spreadsheet, or Scrivener. If you choose one of these alternate methods, just mentally substitute your method every time I refer to index cards.

If you have several subplots, you may find it helpful to use white for the main plot and a different color for each subplot. When you’ve finished your planning, you’ll be able to see at a glance if your story is balanced and how the subplots are interwoven with the main plot. If one color is clumped at the beginning and then never appears again, you know you have a problem, and you can sort it out before you get too far along in your narrative.

Now, write a sentence or two about each scene you’ve envisioned, one per card. (Make sure to use the appropriate color, if you’re color coding your subplots.) You can go into more detail if there are things you want to be sure not to forget, but don’t worry about pretty writing, and don’t worry yet about putting them in order. It’s okay if there are gaps. You can always fill them in later.

Ordering, Bridges, and Turning Points

Once you have your cards written, put them in order. Don’t stress about this. You can always change things later. With each scene, ask what needs to happen to lead to the next one? What would logically follow? What if your character failed? What would make things worse? After your protagonist takes action, ask yourself if there’s any way your villain would know what your protagonist has done. If so, how would (s)he naturally react? After your villain takes an action, ask yourself what your protagonist would naturally and reasonably know about it and how (s)he would naturally react? Use these questions to build additional scenes, with important turning points at the ¼, ½, and ¾ marks.

Where do you start? As close as possible to the inciting incident (the thing that changes your character’s life and embroils him or her in the story) without confusing the reader. If you have to have a flashback immediately after your opening, chances are you’ve started your story too late.

Once you have your cards in order, you have a flexible outline. As you write, if the direction of your story changes, you can rearrange the cards or toss some out and make new ones. I like to keep them up to date, so I can lay them out and see the whole story at a glance.

Write Your Story

Pick a card, any card. I like to start at the beginning and write to the end (it keeps me from referencing events that haven’t happened yet), but it’s fine to write the scenes out of order if a later scene appeals to you more. Some writers like to write the last scene first so they know where they’re heading. That’s fine too. The important thing is to write.

You don’t have to wait until you know everything.

Whatever scene card you choose, start writing it. Don’t worry about making it perfect. Just get the story down.

When you’ve finished that scene, choose another card.

As you write, continue to ask yourself, “Does what I’m writing make sense, based on what’s come before and what’s going to happen? What would naturally and logically happen next? How would this character naturally and logically respond to this event? How could this be worse?”

To Revise or Not to Revise

There’s no hard-and-fast rule about whether or not to revise as you go. Because writing and editing require different thought processes, conventional wisdom says it’s best to get the whole book down on paper first, then go back and revise and polish. It’s very difficult to do both at the same time, but there are successful authors who manage it and turn out exceptional work year after year, all the while struggling to refine each shining sentence before moving on to the next one. If that’s the way you work, and if you’ve been able to use that method to actually complete a novel, by all means, carry on. You’ve found your process.

But if you suffer from the curse of perfectionism and you have trouble finishing anything because your editor brain refuses to let you move forward until each sentence is a glistening gem, I strongly suggest you follow the conventional advice. If your editor brain is such a tyrant you can’t move forward, you should probably show your editor brain a little tough love. Pack her bags, give her chocolate and strawberries and champagne, and send her away to a cottage on the beach with the promise that when she comes back, you and your writer brain will have a nice, messy draft for her to fix. She’ll tap on the door and look at you with sad puppy eyes, and when you refuse to let her in, she may resort to screeching that your work will be dreck and that, without her, you’re destined to be the laughingstock of the literary community. Put your fingers in your ears and tell her gently, “It’s not your turn yet, Pumpkin.”

When I started writing, I was paralyzed by the need to be perfect, and I had a drawer full of beautiful first chapters to show for it. I had to use the tough love approach before I could finish my first novel. Now my editor brain and my writer brain have made peace with each other, and my process is somewhere in between the two extremes. I like to do what Dean Wesley Smith calls “cycling.” I write a new chapter, then go back and revise previous chapters, then write another new one, then cycle back, and so on. I’m not allowed to revise until I’ve written at least 1000 new words. This keeps me moving forward but allows me to go back and fix problems as they arrive. So my “first drafts” are more polished than they used to be, because by the time I read the end, I’ve already been through it multiple times. The key is, though, that the writing and editing are still separate. Writer brain comes out to play; then the two brains work together to make sure everything works.

Choose the method that will get you to the end. And above all, have fun with it. Try different things. Backtrack if you have to. Give yourself permission to write badly, to tell instead of show, to let your writer brain play. There’s nothing you can do wrong that can’t be fixed.

Below are some things to think about as you plan and write. If you find yourself getting overwhelmed with it all, step back and go back to the basics. Ask yourself the simple questions: Does this make sense? What is the next, natural, logical thing that would happen? What would this character naturally, realistically do? How could this be worse?

Character

Are your characters consistent?
Does your protagonist have at least one heroic characteristic?
Is (s)he too perfect?
Have you used his/her fears and flaws to deepen the story and further the plot?
Does (s)he have enough internal conflict? Opposing desires? Conflicting emotions? (Desire, Motivation, Obstacle, Conflict)
Are the stakes high enough for the character? Is (s)he “all in”?
Have you given your protagonist room for growth? (What is something (s)he would never say, think, or do? Can you find a plausible way to make him think, say, do those things?
Does your character surprise us while remaining true to his/her character?
Have you shown us the emotional and/or spiritual effects of the turning points on the character?
Are all your characters’ motivations believable?
Are the supporting characters and antagonists well developed? Do they have lives, conflicts, and emotions of their own, independent of the protagonist? Do their strengths, weaknesses, and personality traits echo or complement the protagonist’s? Remember, “The villain is the hero of his own story.”

Plot

You’ll notice that several plot issues overlap with character.

Does everything make sense? Does the storyline hold together?
Does one thing lead logically to another, or are there gaps in the narrative? Does it pass the “what would logically happen next/what would the characters logically do” test?
Is there enough happening?
Is there enough conflict? (Conflict doesn’t necessarily mean fighting.)
Have you asked yourself, throughout the narrative, “How could this be worse?”
Do you have subplots and layers?
Are the overall stakes high enough?
Is there a moment of no turning back?
Do you have major turning points at the ¼, ½, and ¾ points of the story and other turning points throughout? Are there reversals throughout the story (places where the unexpected happens and changes the direction of the story).
Have you used these turning points as opportunities to heighten or understate emotion? Are you going for the obvious or can you bring more depth or subtlety to the scene? (Think Mel Gibson in LETHAL WEAPON, where he’s in the trailer putting the gun in his mouth. Originally, the director wanted him to scream, rant, rail at the universe. But Gibson asked to try something different. He made it smaller and quieter, and by doing so, gave it infinitely more power.)
Have you included moments of forgiveness, grace, redemption, and self-sacrifice?
Have you given your characters moral dilemmas and choices?
Does the resolution seem both unpredictable and inevitable?
Are all loose ends resolved?

It seems like a lot to hold in your head, but you can get there, one sentence, one page, one paragraph at a time. Remember Dorie, the incorrigible blue fish in the movie Finding Nemo. As long as you “just keep swimming,” you’ll finish that first draft and be able to type “The End.”

Jaden Terrell (Beth Terrell) is a Shamus Award finalist, a contributor to “Now Write! Mysteries” (a collection of writing exercises by Tarcher/Penguin), and the author of the Jared McKean private detective novels Racing The Devil, A Cup Full of Midnight, and River of Glass. Terrell is the special programs coordinator for the Killer Nashville conference and the winner of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA). A former special education teacher, Terrell is now a writing coach and developmental editor whose leisure activities include ballroom dancing and equine massage therapy. www.jadenterrell.com

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2/5/16 2/5/16

The Writer's Life: Setting

"Place is a definer and a confiner of what I'm doing. [...] it saves me. Why, you couldn't write a story that happened nowhere." — Eudora Welty

Writing any sort of creative work is taxing on the author. There’s so much to consider: character voice, plot, story arch, etc., that sometimes elements that are vital to the telling of your story are left neglected by the wayside. One of the most commonly overlooked and undervalued components of an author’s work is the treatment of setting.

In this month’s “How-To,” author Jaden Terrell explores what makes setting vital, what it can do, and ways to craft settings that are powerful and provide substance to the work as a whole.

The Importance of Setting: Macro vs. Micro
By Jaden Terrell

Imagine a Miss Marple mystery without the small-town ambience of St. Mary Meade, Gorky Park without the brutal Russian winter, Heart of Darkness without the stultifying heat. Imagine The Lord of the Flies without the island or Sex in the City without the city.

Doesn’t work, does it? Without their settings, each is a completely different book than the original.

Every story takes place somewhere. Events occur in a particular time and a particular place, each of which affects what happens and how the people involved interpret those events. This is true even of fantasy novels and modern fiction set in imaginary towns. Middle Earth and Gotham City may not be places you can visit outside your imagination, but they are “real” places nonetheless, in that each is vividly portrayed with specific details unique to that place.

Think that seems obvious? Not necessarily. Inexperienced writers often make the mistake of moving their characters through “fuzzy space,” amorphous settings that leave the dialogue and action unmoored in time and space. A conversation takes place in a bar, in a kitchen, on a hilltop, in a concentration camp, but the specifics of the setting are so vague that the characters might as well be saying their lines in front of a green screen. What’s missing are the specific, carefully chosen details that put your readers in a scene and keep them there.

Strategically placed, specific sensory details can help bring your settings to life and add an additional layer of authenticity to your story. At the beginning of each scene, you should give your readers enough information to ground them in the setting. Your readers should always know when and where they are. This will help prevent “talking head syndrome” and keep your characters from seeming to float in a formless void.

Look at how Robert Crais uses vivid details to establish setting and create tension in the opening of The Promise: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel:

The woman stood in the far corner of the dimly lit room, hiding in shadows like a fish in gray water. She was small, round, and dumpy. The fringed leather jacket probably made her seem rounder, but she’d never been a looker. She reminded Mr. Rollins of an overripe peach, and the peach was clearly afraid.

A steady rain fell from the overcast night. The dingy, one-bedroom bungalow west of Echo Park reeked of bleach and ammonia, but the windows were closed, the shades were down, and the doors were locked. A single yellow twenty-five-watt lamp provided the only light. The chemical smell gave Mr. Rollins a headache, but he could not open the windows. They were screwed shut.

The locked doors, the reek of bleach and ammonia, the screws holding the windows shut…these all help create a claustrophobic feeling in the reader. The peach is frightened, and we begin to feel she has reason to be.

And look at this brief but evocative opening from Gorky Park: All nights should be so dark, all winters so warm, all headlights so dazzling.

This line just before we witness detectives investigating bodies frozen in the snow. Doesn’t it set you up to think about the nights less dark, the winters less warm, and the headlights dimming in the swirling snow?

Setting works best when the details are experienced through the senses of a particular character (or narrator). We all see the world through our own filters. This subjective experience of reality is one reason eyewitness testimony is so unreliable. Ask eight different witnesses to a bank robbery what happened, and you’ll get eight different accounts. None of them are lying, but each one’s memory is colored by his or her memories, beliefs, emotions, visual acuity, and other factors too numerous to list. It’s the common bits that lead to the true picture. If all eight people, without prior collusion, say the bank robber had a limp and a velociraptor tattoo, there’s a very good chance he did.

But that which is a headache for a homicide detective is a boon for a writer. Imagine two teenaged girls at a carnival. One is cheerful, upbeat, optimistic. The other is cynical and angry. Watch how each interprets the same scene in a different way.

The midway was a kaleidoscope of color. Everywhere you looked were flashing lights and bold colors, and the air smelled of cotton candy and funnel cakes, all warm and sugary. A little girl bumped my hip as she skipped past. She peered around the giant stuffed T-Rex she was hugging, and we shared a grin as her mother led her away. It was like Christmas on steroids.

The midway was an assault on the senses—garish colors, flashing lights, screaming kids. It reminded me of a crime scene. The air was so sticky sweet I could hardly breathe. As I turned to make my escape, a kid carrying a giant plush dinosaur plowed into me, bounced off, and gave me a malicious grin. For a moment, I imagined pinching that grin right off her face. Then her mother yanked her away and she disappeared into the crowd.

Bet you had no trouble telling which was which.

Setting can be used to create atmosphere, reveal character, or drive the plot. In many cases, it can do all three. Let’s take a look at some examples.

Create Atmosphere

Reed Farrel Coleman has been called “the noir poet,” and the name fits him well. Listen to how, in his short story “The Terminal,” he describes Cony Island as seen through the eyes of a man whose decision to help a young woman brings him into conflict with local gangsters. This moment is a great example of a description that creates atmosphere and reveals character at the same time.

Doc turned his back to the ocean and beheld the amusement park’s moth-eaten splendor. From where he stood, in the first light of morning, it still looked a grand place. At that distance, it all seemed in working order. Even the Parachute Jump seemed ready to shine again. From Doc’s place in the sand, he thought, you might be able to fool yourself that the sun-faded, blue-finned Astroland rocket atop Gregory and Paul’s food stand might fire up its engines and blast off. You had to get much closer to see the truth of it, the rust and folly of the place.

The setting evokes a sense of nostalgia, but it also echoes Doc’s feelings about himself—a man whose best years are behind him, a man who may have made one too many mistakes.

And how about the opening to Glendon Swarthout’s tragicomic coming-of-age novel, Bless the Beasts and the Children?

In that place the wind prevailed. There was always sound. The throat of the canyon was hoarse with wind. It heaved through pines and passed and was collected by the cliffs. There was a phenomenon of pines in such a place. When wind died in a box canyon and in its wake the air was still and taut, the trees were not. The passing trembled in them, and a sough of loss. They grieved. They seemed to mourn a memory of wind.

Isn’t this bleak wilderness, with its sense of loneliness and loss, the perfect backdrop for a bittersweet tale about six troubled teenagers who, after witnessing the culling of a herd of buffalo in a “canned hunt,” strike out on their own to try and save the next day’s cull?

Reveal Character

How characters maneuver through or manipulate a setting can tell you a lot about them. The Darth Vader figurine on your banker’s desk makes a statement, as do the Tiger Beat posters on the bedroom walls of a 70s-era teen.

Nancy Sartor’s debut suspense novel, Bones Along the Hill, opens in Neva Oakley’s family mortuary, where she’s reconstructing the face of a murdered infant. The funeral home provides a unique backdrop in which we get to know and understand Neva, and as she recreates the face of the child, we see her talent, her compassion, and her determination.

In A Cup Full of Midnight, my detective, Jared McKean, follows a woman down a hallway and into an immaculate living room. The hall is lined with photos of her dead children, and on the living room wall is a hand-sewn heirloom bonnet and christening gown in a frame. The setting shows the ongoing grief and loss that motivate the character.

Drive Plot

Setting can also influence the direction of your novel. A story set in a Minnesota snowstorm forces the characters to deal with the risk of frostbite and exposure, the hazards of driving in deep snow and ice, and the threat of losing forensic evidence to the weather. Trying to track a killer? Better find him before the snow covers his tracks.

Imagine an altercation occurring in a commercial garage versus a pool hall versus a bridal shop. What weapons are near to hand? What kind of cover is available? A fight scene set in one of these three places would be very different from one set in either of the other two.

Rob Pobi uses a hurricane to raise the stakes and heighten suspense in his novel Bloodman. As the action of the story rises, so does the violence of the storm. The hurricane works on a thematic level, but it also drives the narrative, as characters react to the growing danger of the storm.

Macro & Micro Settings

There are two main types of settings in your novel—macro-settings and micro-settings. The macro setting is the region, city, state, etc. where the story as a whole takes place. The micro settings are the specific places where individual scenes take place.

A macro-setting might be the Outer Banks, New York City, Chicago, Nashville, or New Orleans. When writing about macro-settings, you need to consider things like climate, terrain, architecture, and culture.

Micro-settings might include an abandoned warehouse, the living room of a suspect, the victim’s basement, the protagonist’s favorite restaurant, or an interrogation room at the local police station. When writing about micro settings, you should take into account things like décor, building structure, objects at hand, and so on. If you’re describing a person’s kitchen, what are the telling details that will reveal both the character perceiving the room and the one who lives there?

Making Setting Work for You

What’s the macro-setting of your novel? When you think of this setting, what comes to mind in terms of climate and temperature, weather patterns, and landscape? If it’s an inhabited area, what is the architecture like? The traffic patterns? The time period? What’s the culture? Is there a festival or other special event going on? Can you think of a way for the macro-setting to influence the plot—a storm, a drought, a hurricane?

Now, think about your micro-settings. Remember your list of clues? The ones your character needs in order to solve the mystery or stop the bomb from exploding? Think about where (s)he might find those clues. Try to set your scenes in a variety of places. A pub can be a great setting for an interview with a potential witness, but a dozen pub interviews dilutes the effectiveness of the pub as a setting.

Does your sleuth interview someone in his or her living room? What details can you use to show the character of the person who lives there?

Try making a list of all the micro-settings in your novel. Free write a description of each. Don’t censor yourself; visualize the setting and write down everything you can think of. Be sure to include other senses as well. (If it’s a real setting, consider going there and writing down everything you see, hear, feel, taste, and smell.) Now take a highlighter and go back and read your descriptions. Highlight the most telling details, the ones that encapsulate the place and the person whose space it is.

Are you starting to see scenes in each of these settings? If so, jot down your ideas. We’re going to use them in next month’s lesson.

1/8/16 1/8/16

The Writer's Life: Supporting Characters: Allies

Monk has Sharona Flemming. Hercule Poirot partnered with Capt. Arthur Hasting. Sherlock Holmes needs Dr. Watson. These well-known detectives were nothing without their sidekicks. They helped the detectives to be better at everything from detecting to being human. Author Beth Terrell takes on the importance of allies in this month’s writing how-to column.

Supporting Cast: Allies
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

We’ve spent a lot of time talking about your main character, and we’ve touched on the victim and the villain. Now let’s look at your protagonist’s allies.

No matter how much of a loner your character is, or how reluctantly he plays with others, a crime investigation doesn’t take place in a vacuum. Whether he’s a professional investigator or an amateur sleuth, sooner or later, he’ll need to get information he has no way of learning for himself from someone else. Maybe he needs to identify a fingerprint or trace a license plate? Where can he get that information?

Then, there’s his personal life—perhaps he has a love interest, sidekick, or confidante. Or maybe she has a family that will play a role in one or more subplots.

There are several things to take into account when creating allies for your main character. First, ask yourself what needs to be accomplished that your character can’t do. If she’s a sharpshooting martial artist who relies primarily on brawn and charm to get what she wants, and the villain is stalking his victims in cyberspace, then, one of her allies will need to be someone who can help her navigate the digital universe.

Allies can fill the gaps in your character’s skill set and knowledge. Look at the clues that need to be found and interpreted; then think of who might best be able to provide that information. Does your PI need a source at the police department? At the DMV? Does she need access to a computer hacker? An informant in a street gang?

An ally should also be someone whose skills and personality traits complement the protagonist’s. Is your character serious to a fault? Maybe one of his friends or allies can be a light-hearted jokester who brings some much-needed humor to the story. Is the main character impulsive and devil-may-care, someone who rarely takes anything seriously? Maybe he needs someone more serious alongside him to remind him to be wise.

While many allies help the protagonist out of affection or a sense of responsibility, others (such as an informant who cooperates only because the protagonist has something on him) are more reluctant. Each can play a valuable role. Might that reluctant ally end up betraying your protagonist at a critical moment? That doubt can increase tension and keep your reader wondering what might happen. Another way to ratchet up tension is for the villain to threaten someone the protagonist cares about. The love interest, perhaps? The best friend? A family member? A partner whose skills are integral to solving the crime?

Allies can reveal your protagonist’s character traits. For example, my protagonist is a private detective named Jared McKean. Jared is competent and impulsive, a martial artist and horse whisperer. His interactions with Frank Campanella, his surrogate father and former partner in the homicide department, show his tough-guy side. But he also has a son with Down syndrome and an ex-wife he’s still in love with. Jared’s interactions with his son and ex-wife reveal his compassionate side and the lengths he’ll go to in order to preserve a loving relationship with both.

You can also use an ally to reveal a skill or some specialized knowledge your character has. In the second Jared McKean book, A Cup Full of Midnight, Jared recalls sitting at the kitchen table with his ex-wife, Maria (who is an artist), and a big box of Crayola crayons. She holds up a crayon and asks him what color it is.

“Blue?” he asks.
“No, cobalt.” She holds up another. “And this one?”
“Cobalt?”
“Cornflower.”
He thinks, I never knew there were so many colors in the world.

This scene does two things. First, it shows you how Jared feels about Maria—that she’s expanded his vision and opened his eyes to a brighter, more vivid world. Second, because of this scene, when he has to describe a suspect or a witness’s living room, it’s believable that he’s able to use more nuanced descriptions of color.

What qualities do you want to reveal about your character? What kinds of allies will most effectively showcase or explain those qualities? Do you want to show that your protagonist is uncomfortable with praise? Give her an ally who loves to give compliments. Do you want to show his fear of heights? Give him an ally who insists on meeting on the roof of the city’s tallest apartment building.

Once you’ve established what roles are needed, you can begin to fill them. To avoid a cast of thousands, ask yourself if one character could plausibly play multiple roles. Could the sidekick and confidante be the same person? Could she have one or more of the skills your protagonist will need to reach his goals?

Below is a chart that might help you figure out who your protagonist’s allies are. Some of these characters will be more developed than others. That’s fine. Use the questions you’ve learned so far to flesh out each character as much as you need to.

Download or Print a FREE Supporting Cast Worksheet – Created by Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Supporting characters are an important tool in your Novelist Took Kit. Their foibles and passions can underscore your theme, reveal your main character’s strengths and weaknesses, and add depth to your novel. A rich, well-crafted supporting cast can help turn a pretty good book into a great one.

10/30/15 10/30/15

The Writer's Life: Suspects, Secrets, and Sleight of Hand

There is an art to writing a great mystery or thriller. Certain elements must be in place with strategies to throw off even the smartest of readers. This would be basis of Jaden “Beth” Terrell’s latest installment on the foundations of writing a novel. If you’ve been working with Beth so far, the plot and characters are starting to take shape. Continue with us and by the end of the lessons, you’ll have a novel that no editor or agent can possibly resist.

Suspects, Secrets, and Sleight of Hand: The Art of Misdirection
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

It would be a pretty dull crime novel—not to mention a short one—if all we had were a sleuth, a victim, and a villain. Without other suspects, there is no mystique. No misdirection. We read about red herrings and sleight of hand, but what exactly are they? Where do they come from, and how do we use them?

Red Herrings

In a mystery or thriller, a red herring is a clue used to misdirect the reader and divert his or her attention away from the real solution. The origin of the phrase is a source of some debate, but according to common lore, it came from the practice of dragging herrings, smoked for up to ten days until they turned reddish brown and acutely pungent, across the trail of a fox or hare to misdirect the hounds. Presumably, this was a test of or challenge to their ability to follow a scent.

Beginning writers often misuse red herrings, throwing in random clues or events that, while they may indeed obscure the killer, give their novels a disjointed feel. The most effective red herrings, though, aren’t random. Instead, they grow from characters and their motivations. Done well, the writer’s attempts at misdirection are invisible until the end.

But how do you pull this off?

Suspects

When it comes to suspects, there are a few differences between mysteries and thrillers. In a thriller, it’s possible for the protagonist to know who the villain is and spend the whole book trying to catch him. Not so in a mystery. If your only suspect is the villain, there is no mystery. This means you need several people who could plausibly have committed the crime. I like to choose anywhere from three to six, including the villain. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume we’re writing a mystery.

Motive

All of the suspects should have a motive, even if it’s not immediately apparent. From their perspectives, the victim wronged or threatened them in some way. Let’s say our victim is a bulldog news reporter with a secret history of blackmailing the wealthier subjects of her investigations. Suspect 1 might have been ruined financially and personally by a story the reporter wrote. Suspect 2 has learned that her husband and the reporter are having an affair. Suspect 3 is being blackmailed. Suspect 4’s son committed suicide after the reporter exposed him as the perpetrator of a cyberprank. Suspect 5 stands to inherit a fortune if the reporter is out of the picture. All five suspects have a reason to hate the victim, but those motives may not be clear in the beginning.

Opportunity and Alibis

All, or almost all, of your suspects should have had the opportunity to commit the crime. One or two should have ironclad alibis that will ultimately unravel. One or two should have weak or no alibis. You might choose to have one character who couldn’t possibly have committed the crime but who can’t or won’t reveal her alibi. Maybe she’s trying to protect a loved one, or maybe her alibi is that she was committing a bank robbery on the other side of town. Two people, such as a married couple, might alibi each other, each thinking the other is guilty. The villain might have either a cast-iron alibi or should appear, for some reason, not to need one (e.g., she or he is someone so beyond suspicion that it never occurs to anyone to check for an alibi). Mix it up, making sure everything logically progresses from what’s come before.

Secrets

Several of the innocent suspects should have their own secrets—reasons for not being completely forthcoming with the protagonist. Maybe one is hiding an affair, another is gay and not out of the closet, another grew up bouncing from foster care to juvenile detention facilities and has nothing but mistrust for anyone in authority. Another might be trying to protect either the real villain or someone she or he thinks might be. Another might feel like the crime was justified and that the person who committed it should be commended rather than punished. And so on.

These reasons should be as varied and plausible as possible, each suspect as developed as necessary. There are no throwaway characters. For each suspect, go back to the character questions we discussed in previous lessons and answer the ones that seem relevant—the ones that will define that person’s character and bring him or her to life for you and your reader.

Use the following chart to help you remember who your suspects are and what each one’s driving motivations are. For each character, fill in the following information:

Relationship to victim: Is this person a friend, relative, co-worker, spouse, family member, etc. of the victim?

Motive: Why might this character plausibly commit the crime?

Alibi or Opportunity: Could this character have committed the crime? Does she or he have an alibi, and if so, is it genuine or fabricated?

Secret: What reason might this character have to lie to, evade, or otherwise refuse to cooperate with the protagonist?

Connections: Does this character have connections to the villain, detective, or other suspects?

Defining Traits: What are this person’s defining characteristics? What would the detective notice first about him/her? What motivates him/her? What are his/her driving desires? In this box, you might also add any false clues that might lead the detective toward this person.

Suspects:

Download or Print a FREE Suspect Worksheet - Created by Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Sleight of Hand

Misdirection will often come from the deceptions, evasions, and machinations of the suspects. Keeping in mind that they’ll act in their own self-interest, think about how they might realistically make your protagonist’s life more difficult. Will they lie? Try to cast blame on another character (either maliciously or out of a sincere belief that this person is guilty)? Will they be overly helpful but clueless? Think about whether or not any of these people might have left physical clues that will mislead your main character, or whether they might have obscured genuine clues, either intentionally or by mistake.

There are other ways to use misdirection, but we’ll talk about those once we start writing scenes. For now, just have fun getting to know your suspects. Use the character development techniques we learned earlier. You may not need to go into as much depth as you did for the protagonist. Just do what you need to feel comfortable with these characters, trusting that more will emerge as you write.

7/13/15 7/13/15

The Writer's Life: Anatomy of a Crime

It was an out of body experience. All the pain and guilt and shame moved his hands towards the hatchet and all that he was not surfaced in one mighty thwack. What happens next? Who’s the victim? Maybe, it’s what’s the victim? Who’s having the out-of-body-experience? Why?

Author and mentor Beth Terrell has written in previous columns about building a character with feelings, drives, and motivations, and now she takes us to the next level. What do our characters do? Beth breaks it down succinctly in this month’s column when she focuses on the reason behind the story.

Anatomy of a Crime
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

For the past few months, we’ve been focusing on your main character. Now it’s time to look at the crime. In a traditional mystery or procedural, the crime is generally a murder. In a caper story, it’s the heist. There may be more than one crime in the course of the story; often, as the investigation continues and the antagonist begins to feel cornered, there are subsequent murders. In a thriller, there may be an initial crime that gets the protagonist involved and an endgame he’s ultimately working to stop.

For each of these crimes, knowing what happened and what your main character needs to learn in order to prevail can help you determine which scenes are integral to your story. For the sake of simplicity, let’s assume the initial crime is a murder. Then, we’ll briefly discuss variations for thrillers and other subgenres.

The Victim

Sometimes the victim of the crime is dead before the book begins. Sometimes he dies a few chapters in, after the reader has had a chance to meet him and form an opinion as to whether he was an innocent, a likable rogue, or someone who got what was coming to him. Either way, the identity of the victim and the reasons for his death are important, because they provide the motivation of the killer. Ask yourself these two questions:

Who was the victim? A bank teller skimming money from the till? An honest accountant who’s just realized that his agency’s best client is using him to launder money? A peeping tom who saw something he shouldn’t have?

Why did the killer target him? For revenge? For an inheritance? To cover up a crime? I read once that there are only five motivations for murder: power, greed, love/lust, revenge, and madness. Everything else falls under those headings. You might add fear—physical fear or fear of discovery—but the first borders on self-defense, and the second is redundant, since the thing the killer doesn’t want discovered probably falls under one of the given categories. But whether you distill the killer’s motivation down to one of those five categories or ascribe it to some other motivation altogether, you need to know why the victim died.

The Perpetrator

An intricately planned crime carried out by a hired assassin is very different from a crime of passion committed by a mild-mannered herbalist. Each of these killers is a suitable antagonist for a crime novel, but the former is more likely to be a hard-driving thriller, while the latter is likely to be a cozy or traditional novel. We’ll go into greater detail about your book’s antagonist next month, but for now, just ask yourself these questions:

Who is the killer? Is he physically strong? Agile? Clever? Does he stand out in a crowd or blend into the background? What special skills or resources does he have? Does he have wealth or a title to protect him?

How does he justify the crime? Does he see it as a necessary evil? Something he’s doing for the greater good? A way of getting something he feels is owed to him?

How close is he to the victim? Did they work together? Were they best friends? Were they having an affair?

Some authors like their villains to be terrifying. Others like them to be basically good people pushed to their breaking points—people who stand to lose something they simply can’t bear to lose. Whichever you choose, remember that the killer’s physical and mental capabilities combine with his personality to determine the kind of crime he’s likely to commit.

The Details

Based on what you know about the victim, the perpetrator, and the reasons for the murder, you should have a better understanding of how the victim was killed. Was it premeditated or impulsive? What weapon was used? Were there any witnesses? If so, does the killer know about them? If not, how did the killer make sure there would be none? How did the killer get the victim alone? Did the victim fight back? What time of day was it? Where did it happen? How long did it take? Was there any conversation? Did the victim scream? Were there gunshots? Why didn’t anyone hear?

Envision the scene as clearly as you can. You might even want to write a description of it, even if you don’t intend to use it in the book. Engage all the senses. It can be helpful to envision the scene twice, once from the point of view of the killer and once from the point of view of the victim.

I find it especially helpful to make a timeline of the crime. An excel spreadsheet or Word table works well, since you may want to print it out and keep it for future reference. Mine looks something like this:


Time	Action
10 PM	Violent storm brings down a tree that creates a bridge over the broken glass.
10:15 PM	Tuyet helps Dung escape the shed. Gives her the photo with Jared’s number and address.
10:40 PM	Dung crosses the glass, climbs up the fallen tree, and goes over the fence.
Midnight	Guards notice the fallen tree, one goes to check on the women. Boss Man sends men out to find Dung (who has been walking toward the city on her wounded feet).
3:30 AM	W finds Dung, distracts,, etc..
4:00 AM	Killer is in place.
4:15-4:25	W drops off Dung. Hispanic girl coming home sees his car, sees K come out of the shadows and put his hands around Dung’s throat. Girl is frightened and accidentally knocks over neighbor’s garbage can. K looks toward Girl, snaps Dung’s neck. Girl, still in shadow runs. K puts Dung in dumpster and leaves on foot. He’s parked his car several blocks away and doesn’t think Girl could have recognized him in the dark.
4:40 AM	W arrives home, makes excuses to wife.
5 AM	K arrives back at compound
6 AM	Boss Man calls client, arranges false alibis for W and K.

The Cover-up

In real life, if a murder is going to be solved, it usually happens quickly. The police walk in, and the wife is standing over her husband’s body holding a bloody knife, or the gangbanger is caught outside the victim’s house carrying a recently fired gun with bullets that match those found in the victim. The most obvious suspect is often the guilty party.

In fiction, the obvious solution would make for a pretty dull book. And even though I’ve heard many a police officer say most criminals are dumb, the antagonist in your book must be smart—a worthy opponent.

What would this particular character do to cover his tracks? Maybe he hides the body or stages the crime scene. Maybe he tries to frame another character. He wipes his fingerprints off the gun. He establishes an alibi. His skills, knowledge, and resources will determine the steps he takes to throw investigators off the trail.

The Trail

You know what happened, how it happened, and why it happened, and when. You know how the victim and the killer are connected. The next thing to ask yourself is: What clues will the protagonist need in order to solve the crime or keep the villain from succeeding?

If your protagonist is a law enforcement official, she might rely heavily on forensic evidence. She’ll have access to official databases and laboratory testing. Her badge will open doors—and close others.

If your sleuth is a florist, many of the investigative techniques open to a police officer or FBI agent are closed to her. Even if you give her an ally in law enforcement, the bulk of the information available to her will come through interviews or good old-fashioned snooping. You need to place the kind of clues an amateur sleuth could find.

In addition to interviews and snooping, a private investigator might have informants, allies on the police force or DMV, and electronic surveillance equipment. (You can find some ideas at www.pimall.com. Look under the “Spy Shop” tab.)

Make a list of clues and how your sleuth might find each one.


Clue	Where Found/Leaned
Distinctive tattoo	Witness describes, forensic artist draws, former snitch recognizes tattoo style
K’s history of violence	Interview with suspect’s sister
Partial license plate	Witness describes, ally at DMV gives list of possible matches

You’ll use this list to generate scenes. From the table above, I can see that unearthing these three clues requires at least five scenes: an interview with the witness who describes the tattoo and the partial plate, a scene with the forensic artist, an encounter with a former snitch, an interview with the suspect’s sister, and some interplay with the ally at the DMV.

Some of these scenes will lead to other scenes, so even though I’m not outlining or writing yet, the story is beginning to take shape.

Other Subgenres

But what if you’re not writing a puzzle-type mystery? What if you’re writing a ticking clock thriller or a caper? The process isn’t that much different.

In a caper or heist story, like the film Oceans 11, the protagonist is the one committing the crime, but it’s no less important to know the details of the plan. It may take place near the end of the book rather than the beginning, but it’s a driving force in the plot. If the plan requires an acrobat to dance through a grid of laser beams, your protagonist will need to find an acrobat. You’ll need to know how they plan to escape, how they intend to keep from getting caught, and what their motivations are.

In a thriller, your main character may be trying to stop terrorists from deploying a nuclear device, but he still needs to follow clues to find them, and the terrorists still have a timeline without which their plan won’t work. Whether they hope to escape or plan to die for their cause, they’ll try to misdirect the authorities and avoid capture.

Whatever your story, knowing the anatomy of the crime that drives it can help you make the rest of the narrative more authentic and cohesive, as events grow naturally from the foundation you’ve created.

5/1/15 5/1/15

The Writer's Life: Desires, Drives, Obstacles, and Conflicts

To learn, one needs to be ready to receive…and have a mentor like Beth Terrell. Her passion for helping beginning writers shines in this column about developing three-dimensional characters, or those who feel like real people.

Last month, Beth, who writes novels under the name Jaden Terrell, discussed what kinds of questions you need to ask yourself to create your main character. This month it’s about what makes them tick.

Why do your characters do the things they do?

Desires, Drives, Obstacles, and Conflicts
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Last month, you learned a lot about your main character, from physical appearance to habits and preferences. You thought about strengths and weaknesses. You may have explored some of his or her defining moments. Now let’s go deeper. Let’s find out what really makes your character tick, and then talk about how to use what you’ve learned to give your story more power and depth.

A character’s conscious desires and unconscious drives work together to determine his or her actions in the face of obstacles and conflicts. These four elements—desires, drives, obstacles, and conflicts—can help shape your plot and determine the course of your story.

To make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s talk about what those terms mean. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll alternate masculine and feminine pronouns.

Desires

Desires are those things we’re consciously aware that we want. Kurt Vonnegut said, “Every character should want something, even if it’s just a glass of water.” Why? Because tension is created when something stands between the character and the thing she wants, and it’s tension that keeps readers turning pages.

Based on what you’ve learned about your protagonist, what are her conscious desires? What does she want? Are her short term or immediate desires in line with her long-term goals? What does she value most?

Drives

Some neuroscientists believe that 95-99% of human behavior is determined by unconscious processes. The mind is like an iceberg, with the tip made up of conscious thoughts and awareness and the rest—by far the largest part—beneath the surface.

We don’t see it, but it’s the foundation that holds everything else up. Some say the unconscious mind is like a computer or a tape recorder, playing back the same old messages over and over. Others say it’s roiling, chaotic. Primordial soup. Whichever image you prefer, this much we know is true: it remembers everything we’ve ever experienced and everything we ever felt about those experiences.

When new situations arise, it sifts through those old experiences, finds something similar to this new situation, and uses that past experience to tell us what to think and feel about what’s happening now. We make decisions based on thoughts and emotions lurking down there in the primordial ooze. Then we justify them based on rational thoughts and logic.

Imagine Little Teddy, five years old. He marches off to kindergarten, where he learns the alphabet and how those 26 letters are magically transformed into words. One afternoon, sitting at the kitchen table, he writes a story about a squirrel and a spaceship. His brother looks over his shoulder and laughs. “That’s the stupidest thing I ever read. Squirrels can’t drive spaceships. Plus, you can’t even spell.” Teddy crumples his story and throws it in the trash. Why did he ever think Squirrels in Space was a good idea?

Grade 3, and his teacher posts everyone’s essay on the wall outside the classroom. Teddy is so proud he can hardly breathe—until he hears the snickers. “Look at this one. He spelled ‘ammunition’ wrong. And look at that handwriting. Are you sure he’s not still in kindergarten?”

And so it goes. Teddy grows up to be Ted. He hates his English classes, says they’re boring and stupid. Instead, he gets a degree in business, lands a terrific job he’s good at, becomes a rising star in his company. Then his supervisor offers him a promotion. It’s a great opportunity. Lots more money, better benefits, but he’ll have to write copy for clients. His unconscious mind knows this a bad idea. He doesn’t consciously think about the Squirrels in Space incident, but deep inside, his unconscious mind knows writing hurts. It’s already decided that this is a dangerous situation that Ted must be protected from at all costs.

Ted goes home to think it over. Maybe he makes a list of pros and cons. He thinks of all the rational reasons why the cons carry more weight than the pros. On Monday, he goes into the office and says, “Sam, I appreciate the opportunity, but…”

His decision to turn down the promotion is based, not on his carefully constructed list of pros and cons, but on an inner drive to avoid the kind of pain he felt the day his brother laughed at Squirrels in Space.

Drives are our unconscious motivations, the thoughts and emotions that churn around in that primordial soup we talked about earlier. They’re the reasons we want what we want and fear what we fear. They might drive us to enter a marathon and push on until we drop, even when common sense says it’s time to stop. The conscious desire is to win a medal, get in shape, make Dad proud.

The unconscious drive is the fear of not being good enough (because Dad, who was a track star in high school, always let you know when you fell short, but never once expressed his approval); a hunger for attention (because when you were small, everyone you knew praised you for your athletic prowess, and that felt good); or the need for validation (because your older sister was a star athlete who got all the accolades while you were the clumsy one who sat in the bleachers and pretended to cheer).

What are your character’s unconscious drives and motivations? What influences are working on him that he isn’t even aware of?

Obstacles and Conflicts

Obstacles and conflicts are the things that come between your character and what she wants. For the purposes of this lesson, obstacles are external forces (like poverty, natural disasters, physical disabilities or limitations, or an antagonist with opposing drives and desires), while conflicts are internal or interpersonal.

With internal conflict, your character feels opposing emotions (like the desire to win a show jumping competition with a $10,000 prize versus a fear of riding developed after a bad fall from her horse) or is torn between two equally attractive but mutually exclusive options (think of Stephanie Plum’s ongoing flirtations with Joe Morelli and Ranger).

Let’s go back to that show jumping competition. If your character—let’s call her Molly—wants to win the competition, has the means to enter, and has no doubts about either entering the competition or about her ability to win, then you have no conflict. Tension is low because nothing is keeping her from getting what she wants.

But let’s say she needs the $10,000 to help pay her way to the college of her dreams, and let’s say her best friend, Pia, is also entering the competition. Pia is riding a horse she loves, but the owner (their trainer) is about to sell him, and her foster parents either can’t afford or aren’t willing to buy him for her. Pia is a lonely girl whose only friends are Molly and this horse. Losing him will break her heart. That $10,000 would be enough to buy him. If Molly were to withdraw, Pia would be a shoo-in. Does Molly choose college for herself or happiness for her friend?

Now you have conflict.

Interpersonal conflict occurs when two characters have opposing desires. Some writers think that, to have conflict, the characters have to bicker throughout the story, but that’s not the case.

Imagine a mother and son. The son wants to go to college, but he knows his widowed mother can’t afford to pay for it and needs him at home to work in the family business. She has health problems, medical bills. If he leaves, she’ll lose the business and probably her home. He tells her he’s decided to forget about college.

Mom wants him to go away to school. She thinks it’s his best chance for a good future doing work he loves. She’ll sell the business, she says. Sell the house. Get a smaller place or even go live in a retirement home. No, he says, she loves this house. He wants her to be able to keep it.

There is conflict, because their desires are in opposition. Each wants the other to be happy and is willing to sacrifice much to achieve that end. Neither wants the other to make that sacrifice. Can you see how a conversation between these two, in which she tries to convince him to leave despite his determination to stay, could be infused with tension, even though these people aren’t angry, or even annoyed with each other? Even though they’re coming from a place of love and mutual respect, their conflicting desires create tension.

Some situations serve as both obstacles and conflicts. Antagonism or rivalry between two characters could be an obstacle (if it results in one keeping the other from a desired outcome), an internal conflict (if it causes emotional turmoil), and an interpersonal conflict (if one confronts the other).

Whether internal or interpersonal, conflicts are emotionally charged. As a result, they can create powerful moments in your novel.

Putting it all Together

In your character’s pursuit of her desires, what obstacles stand in the way? What internal conflicts does he have?

Is he comfortable with his current life? Happy? If so, what might happen to threaten that comfort or happiness? If not, what has kept him from acting to change the situation, and what might happen to make him finally take action?

What does your character actually need, and does this need conflict with his conscious desires? What does he value most and why? Is it a belief? A loved one? An object, homestead, piece of property? What might threaten this person or thing, and what will he risk to protect it? What is something your character would never do? Based on what you know about his motivations and desires, what would make him do that thing? Is there a way to work this into the book?

The mistake I made when I first tried to answer these last two questions (which I got from a Donald Maass workshop) was to go with the easy, obvious thing: my character would never rape a woman, murder a child, torture an infant. So when I asked myself what might make him do those things, the answer was always so extreme it would simply not believably happen.

If you’re having the same problem, back away from these most extreme circumstances. If your character is afraid of heights, maybe the thing she would never do would be to cross a suspension bridge over a canyon. What would make her do that? If your answer is, “She would never torture anyone,” can you think of a circumstance where she might? What if the villain has buried her spouse alive, the clock is ticking, and the captured villain refuses to reveal the spouse’s location? Maybe she would, in fact, resist the temptation to torture the information out of the villain, but the conflict between her moral decision not to torture and her desire to save a loved one could make for a powerful scene.

As you develop scenes and plot points, ask yourself how one or more of these elements might add tension and propel the action. Whatever your plotline, the interplay between desires, drives, obstacles, and conflicts can add depth and dimension to your story.

Jaden Terrell (Beth Terrell) is a Shamus Award finalist, a contributor to “Now Write! Mysteries” (a collection of writing exercises by Tarcher/Penguin), and the author of the Jared McKean private detective novels “Racing The Devil”, “A Cup Full of Midnight”, and “River of Glass”. Terrell is the special programs coordinator for the Killer Nashville conference and the winner of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA). A former special education teacher, Terrell is now a writing coach and developmental editor whose leisure activities include ballroom dancing and equine massage therapy. www.jadenterrell.com

3/9/15 3/9/15

The Writer's Life: Your Protagonist

Beth Terrell wears many hats, and wears them, oh, so well. Besides being a darn good ballroom dancer, she is a successfully published author and serves as Killer Nashville’s Special Projects Coordinator. She also has a passion for helping beginning writers.

In her monthly column, Beth shares her journey while referencing the paths of different writers who have come into our Killer Nashville family. It is a journey worth learning from and it will save years – maybe decades – if you follow along.

Last month, Beth, who writes novels under the name Jaden Terrell, got you to dip your big toe into the world of writing with her piece about growing ideas to become stories. This month it’s all about the main character and the questions you must ask yourself when you create that special someone.

Your Protagonist
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Can you imagine Miss Marple slugging it out with a hopped-up pimp in a shadowy alley that smells of urine and rotting garbage? Can you imagine Mike Hammer sipping tea in a parson's parlor, quietly ruminating about the psychological foibles of a small-town microcosm of society?

Well, maybe you can—writers live on imagination—but the image doesn't hold up over the long haul. Poor Miss Marple would end up with a cut throat or a broken hip, and Mike Hammer would punch out the parson, and the balance of the universe would be restored. The characters must be true to the story—and vice versa.

The most important character in your novel is your protagonist. Why? Because, while the antagonist’s actions may drive the story, it’s the protagonist your readers are going to be invested in, the one they have to care enough about to follow for the duration of a book, or (in the case of a series) several books. In a crime novel, your protagonist is generally the one who solves the mystery or foils the villain’s diabolical plans. If you already know what kind of book you're writing, you already know a few things about the main character.

If you know you’re writing a cozy mystery set in a small New England town, you can already rule out a few characteristics. Since this subgenre typically features an amateur sleuth, you know your character isn’t a police officer or other law enforcement official. She’s not foul-mouthed or brutal. She’s curious enough and courageous enough (even if she doesn’t know it) to try to solve a crime that most people would leave to the police.

Remember to keep the tone of the book in mind. In a cozy, the protagonist will have flaws and a history, but her baggage can’t be too heavy. She might bite her nails, but she’s probably not addicted to heroin. She might have a strained relationship with her mother, but she probably wasn’t locked in a closet for days and then beaten with coat hangers.

On the other hand, if you’re writing a gritty psychological thriller, you need a character with the skills to defeat a cunning and dangerous killer. Her background and emotional life may be darker and more complex.

You’ll notice that each choice you make narrows your future choices. If your character is a tightrope walker, he's unlikely to also be clumsy—or if he is, you’ll need to explain why he chose such an unlikely profession and how he manages to both keep his job and avoid being splattered all over ring three. By eliminating choices or making (and explaining) unlikely ones, you begin to get a clearer picture of your character. Later, this will help you with plotting.

Ready? Let’s get started.

THE BASICS

First, is the character male or female? What does he or she look like? Some writers choose to leave the character’s appearance vague so the reader can create the character in his or her own image, but even if you choose not to put these details on the page, you should know them yourself. Why? Because how we look affects how people respond to us. It affects how we perceive ourselves and what we expect from other people.

A prime example of this is Jack Reacher. Jack’s sheer physical size is the first thing people notice about him. It gives him an advantage in some situations, a disadvantage in others. It influences his tactical decision-making. A short, small-boned man, even one with the same level of skill and training, would approach the same situations in a very different way.

Imagine two women in a café. Emma is tall and slender. She is, and always has been, beautiful in all the ways our society defines beauty. She’s wearing an expensive dress and expensive jewelry, and her makeup is flawless. Sybil is plain-featured with acne-pitted skin, lank shapeless hair, Coke-bottle glasses, and wears a worn sweatsuit stretched tightly over rolls of fat. How do the servers and the other customers respond to each woman? How does each one carry herself? What body language does each woman use as she interacts with a man she finds attractive or a surly salesperson at a high-end boutique?

Now imagine a third woman. Let’s call her Claire. By all objective standards, she’s beautiful. She could be a super model. But she was a plain, awkward teenager whose parents belittled her and whose classmates teased her about her appearance. The world sees her as an Emma, but inside, she still sees herself as a Sybil. Can you see how that self-image will affect all of her interactions and relationships?

Ask yourself these questions: Is your character attractive or plain? Is he physically strong? Fast? Fit? Is he generally healthy? How does he dress? Is he well groomed, and to what degree? Growing up, was he the kid picked last on the playground, or was he the captain of the team? Is his self-image in line with the way others see him? How does this affect his relationships with others?

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That may be true, but your character’s name will create an image in your readers’ minds. You’ll be living with it for a long time, so choose well.

Sometimes a name will just come to you. Sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn’t, skim a few baby name books or browse through the phone book. If you use the phone book, remember to mix and match. If you name your hard-drinking, chauvinistic detective Hubert Saltzwanger, and there is a real Hubert Saltzwanger in your town, you're just asking for problems. Better go with Hubert Fizbing or Alex (or Andrea) Saltzwanger.

Listen to how the name sounds. Does it fit the character and the tone of the book? Hubert Saltzwanger, for instance, is a name better suited to the hero of a humorous novel than a serious one. If you choose it for the hero of a serious political thriller, is your reason for choosing it important enough to offset the jarring or incongruous image it creates in readers’ minds?

PROFESSION

Many of your character’s skills are dictated by (or reflected in) his or her profession. In a thriller or harder-edged mystery, you might choose a professional investigator (perhaps a police officer, federal agent, private detective, or corporate spy) or someone who works in a technological field.

In a cozy or traditional mystery, you’re more likely to need an amateur sleuth. Cozy novels have been written about herbalists, cheese makers, chefs, and quilters, among other things. Lisa Wysocky’s award-winning novels feature a horse trainer. Nancy Cohen writes a successful series about a hair stylist.

Does your protagonist even have a profession? Maybe she's homeless and unemployed. Maybe she's an independently wealthy dilettante. If she's an amateur sleuth, how does she keep getting involved with these murder investigations? And what is it about her that makes her want to?

How did your character choose her profession? How does she feel about her job? What does she love about it? What would she change about it if she could? What’s her relationship with her supervisors? Is she a rule-follower or a maverick? Is she respected in her field? Is she a loner, or does she prefer to work with a team?

If she’s working in a male-dominated profession, what challenges does she face? How does she handle them? How about if he’s a man working in a field that is typically considered feminine?

HOBBIES, INTERESTS, AND SPECIAL ABILITIES

What are his hobbies and interests? Might any of these be useful in solving a mystery? For example, if he's an expert in beadwork, might he notice if a supposedly wealthy suspect is wearing a necklace made of cheap imitation glass beads, rather than the expensive crystal beads one would expect? If he's a hunter, might he be able to read tracks?

Does she carry a gun? Does she study martial arts? Is she an expert with a bow? Does she despise firearms and refuse to carry one? How will she defend herself? One of my characters, Kit Cohen, has never used a weapon and never wants to. When a fight erupts and her date is being strangled, she breaks up the fight by dumping a pitcher of ice water down the aggressor's collar.

SOCIAL CONNECTIONS AND RELATIONSHIPS

How about family? Is he married? Divorced? Widowed? If he's divorced, what kind of relationship does he have with his ex-wife? Why did they divorce? If he's married, what is his relationship with his wife like? Is it comfortable, tempestuous, or strained? If it's a troubled marriage, how did it get that way? How does he deal with it? How does she? Are there children? And what is his relationship with them? Is he a serial monogamist, a playboy, or is he celibate? Or gay? If he's single, is he in a serious relationship, or is he looking for one, or does he play the field and like it that way?

Are his parents living? What’s his relationship with them? How about siblings? How many? How well do they get along? What patterns carry over from their childhoods?

Does he have a best friend? Who does he confide in? Does he have a rival? An enemy? What if the rival is also a close family member or friend—someone the character loves?

Does he have pets? If not, why not? If he does have pets, what are they, and why did he choose them?

BACKGROUND AND ENVIRONMENT

Where does she live? What city and state? Does she have her own house? Rent an apartment? Sleep on her mother’s couch? Is she a neatnik, a slob, or something in between? Are her living quarters lush or spare? What kind of security precautions does she take?

Does the story take place near her home? If not, where does it take place and how does she come to be there?

Where did she grow up? Did she stay near home, or home, or did she get as far as away as she could? Why?

LOOKING FOR PATTERNS

Are you beginning to see any patterns? What are this character’s strengths? What are his flaws or weaknesses? Does he have a support network? If so, who are they? If not, why not? How does he interact with other people? Is he charming and personable, or is he a curmudgeon? Is this a façade or a true reflection of his personality?

Do you feel like you're getting to know this person? Keep asking yourself questions until you understand your character. You can make up your own questions or pick and choose from other sources. Most bookstores carry "All about me" books, books full of questions about a person's history, likes, dislikes, etc. These are excellent sources for character development. You don't have to answer every question, just choose those that resonate with you—those that spark ideas about your character.

You can answer the questions in either first or third person. For example, if the question is, "What was your worst birthday experience?" you might write, "On Ronald's fourteenth birthday, the head cheerleader, on whom he had a huge crush, sent him a perfumed note asking him to meet her behind the bleachers, and when he got there, the entire cheerleading squad was there laughing at him."

Or you might say, "In the ninth grade, I had this huge crush on the head cheerleader. Her name was Allison. Allison Linley. On my fourteenth birthday, as we were leaving homeroom, she slipped a note into my sweaty palm. The note smelled like flowers. 'Meet me behind the bleachers after fourth period,' it said. I couldn't believe it. I practically floated down to the football field that afternoon. Never mind that I'd be late for Mrs. Pinchley's Algebra class and would probably have to write 'I will not skip class' nine thousand times. I was in love. When I got there, she was standing beside the concession stand. The rest of the cheerleading squad was gathered around her, and they were all laughing and pointing at me. 'Oh, Ronald,' Allison said. 'You're such a dork.' I've never asked a woman out that I didn't think about that day and break out in a cold sweat."

You’ll discover other things about the character as your story progresses, so leave yourself room for surprises. A long-lost cousin? A secret sibling? Time will tell.

And remember, if you come up with an idea you love that doesn’t fit what you’ve already chosen, you can backtrack and bring your previous answers into line with your new vision of your character. Some things are bound to change as your story grows, but the better you know your character before you begin, the easier you may find it to step into his skin and see the story through his eyes.

Jaden Terrell (Beth Terrell) is a Shamus Award finalist, a contributor to Now Write! Mysteries (a collection of writing exercises by Tarcher/Penguin), and the author of the Jared McKean private detective novels Racing The Devil, A Cup Full of Midnight, and River of Glass. Terrell is the special programs coordinator for the Killer Nashville conference and the winner of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA). A former special education teacher, Terrell is now a writing coach and developmental editor whose leisure activities include ballroom dancing and equine massage therapy. www.jadenterrell.com.

1/30/15 1/30/15

The Writer's Life: Coming Up with the Idea for Your Novel

As Killer Nashville Special Projects Coordinator, Beth Terrell has worked with many writers. She has calculated from their successes; she has avoided pitfalls by observing their failures. And through this association and her own tenacity, Beth Terrell (writing as Jaden Terrell) has also become a Killer Nashville success story, a story that is well deserved, and a story for which we at Killer Nashville are ecstatic. We could not be prouder.

Now, Beth is passing what she has learned to you.

In this monthly column, Beth will share her journey while also referencing the paths of different writers who have come into our Killer Nashville family. It is a journey worth learning from and it will save years – maybe decades – if you will only follow her along. From writing to promoting, a writer’s job never ends.

Where is the best place to start this series? At the beginning: with The Idea.

The Writer's Life Coming Up with the Idea for Your Novel
By Beth Terrell

SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL?

So, you want to write a novel? Specifically, you want to write a mystery, thriller, or other type if crime fiction. Maybe you've always dreamed of being a writer. Maybe you've pursued other dreams and are just now coming to the realization that writing a book is something you'd really like to do.

Good for you!

Most people secretly dream of writing a book; yet, most never even finish a first draft.

This series of upcoming articles is designed to take you from the seed of an idea through your first draft, the revision process, publishing, and marketing your novel. I’m not going to tell you the “right” way to write a book. There is no one right way, only the way that works for you. But I can show you one way to write a novel, and then help you tailor it to your individual needs.

Somerset Maugham said, "There are three rules for writing a great novel. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are." So you won’t find any ironclad rules here, only processes that can help you clarify your ideas and organize them into a coherent, and eventually, a polished story.

Much of the process involves asking yourself questions.

WHAT DO YOU KNOW RIGHT NOW?

The first one is, what do you already know about your book? Maybe you already have a main character. Maybe you know you want to write a cozy, a thriller, or police procedural. Maybe you already have a plot sketched out, or maybe you just have an image, like the one of a little girl in muddy underpants that gave birth to William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury.

However much or little you know about your book, you’ll answer subsequent questions within the context of what you’ve already decided. If you make a choice that doesn’t mesh with your previous decisions, you’ll either need to change one or more of your earlier choices, or figure out a way to make the incompatibility work in your favor.

Let’s say you want to write a gritty, high-tech thriller with lots of violence and explosions. A frail, near-sighted beekeeper with sciatica whose hobby is stamp-collecting and who is so technologically challenged he doesn’t even own a computer or a cell phone would be an unlikely protagonist.

But what if you’re married to both these ideas?

First, you’ll need to give your beekeeper a reason to get involved in your thriller plot (maybe he saw something he shouldn’t), a motivation to continue (now his life or the life of a loved one is in danger), and a believable means of overcoming his physical limitations (perhaps with the help of a secondary character who does possess the necessary skills). He should find a way to use his knowledge of bees, stamps, or sciatica to overcome or outwit the villains. He’ll need to have strengths he never knew he possessed. And the reader will need to see a hint of those strengths early in the story.

You can write a great book by going against expectations, but you have to do some work to make it believable.

What questions you ask yourself and the order in which you ask them depends on what you already know about your story, but since we have to start somewhere, let’s start at the very beginning: what kind of book do you want to write?

WRITE WHAT YOU READ

There’s a good chance the book you should write is like the ones you like to read. If you love romantic suspense, that might be a good genre for you to start with. If you despise romantic novels, but think you could just dash one off and make a bushel of money because they sell like hotcakes, maybe you should consider another genre. It's almost impossible to write well in a genre for which you feel contempt; readers who love the genre will sense your disdain and resent it. (Bigfoot porn seems to be an exception to this rule. You might be able to haul in a boatload with money with some dashed-off Bigfoot porn.)

There are no bad genres. The best of any genre is just as literary as the best literary novel. Think The Big Sleep, In Cold Blood, and To Kill a Mockingbird. These are considered great literature, but what are they, if not crime novels?

Pick a genre or subgenre you like and feel comfortable writing in, and don’t worry about whether it’s “literary” or not. It should be the kind you like to read, but also one you can write knowledgeably about—or one that you can (and want to) research well enough to write knowledgeably about.

Sometimes the amount or kind of research you're willing and able to do influences your decision about what book to write. Maybe you like books set in ancient Egypt, but you know nothing about ancient Egypt and don't particularly want to do the intensive study it would take to find out. Then by all means, keep reading mysteries set in ancient Egypt, but choose something different to write about.

But what if you're not even sure if you're writing a detective novel, a police procedural, or a novel with an amateur sleuth? What if you're not sure what kind of book you're most drawn to? Or what if you're an eclectic reader and love all sorts of books?

Let's try an exercise.

GET OUT A PAPER AND PEN

Write down the titles of your ten favorite crime novels. Ask yourself what you like about each one and what they have in common. Do you see any patterns?

Let's say you have on your list: Janet Evanovitch, Parnell Hall, Donna Andrews, and Agatha Christie. You might be more comfortable writing a cozy mystery, possibly humorous with little graphic sex or violence, because those are the kinds of books you like to read.

But imagine you have on your list: John Sandford, John Connolly, Thomas Harris, and James Lee Burke. There's a good chance you’re going to want to write a darker, grittier story.

What if you have an equal mix of both? Then you might feel comfortable writing several different kinds of books, and other concerns, such as characters and theme (which we’ll address later in this series), will help you decide what kind of book you should write now.

My list included writers from both of the above lists, but more from the second. I noticed that my favorite books had a serious tone and complex characters I wanted to re-visit: Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware, William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor, Robert Crais’ Joe Pike and Elvis Cole. I may not remember the plot of A is for Alibi, but I do remember that Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone was orphaned at a young age and was raised by her aunt, that she likes small, enclosed spaces, and that she was once married to a gorgeous but irresponsible musician. I read Grafton's books because I like Kinsey. I read Janet Evanovitch's books, even though they’re lighter than I usually read, because I like Stephanie Plum. (Joe Morelli and Ranger have nothing to do with it. No, really... )

What this tells me is that I like books with multi-dimensional characters with deep connections and relationships. Based on my reading habits, this is what I would expect to enjoy writing, and if you look at my Jared McKean series, it turned out to be true. Jared has complex relationships with his brother, his ex-wife, his ex-wife's new husband, and his roommate (a gay man with AIDS). These relationships drive the story and provide a unifying thread through all the books in the series.

SERIES OR STAND-ALONE?

Another question to consider is whether your novel is part of a series or a stand-alone. If you plan to kill off your protagonist, you're probably not writing a series, unless your genre is paranormal.

A stand-alone novel has a story arc, in which the protagonist changes or grows in some way over the course of the story. You’re writing about the single most life-changing event in your character’s life. When it’s over, life goes on in an ordinary way, though his or her circumstances or perceptions may have changed considerably.

A series character might (and should) also undergo changes, but within a single book, these changes may be relatively small. Instead, although each book stands alone, there’s a greater story arc that covers the entire series. Think of Lawrence Block's Matthew Scudder. While Scudder reacts to the events of each book, the major changes of his life take place over the course of the series. He acknowledges his alcoholism, joins AA, and learns to control his urge to drink. He dates a series of women, falls in love with a former prostitute, marries her, and begins to reconcile (after a fashion) with the adult sons of his first marriage. If all that happened in a single book, where would he have left to go?

SERIES OR STANDALONE?

If you envision a series, your main character needs to be a multi-faceted character with enough complications and entanglements to sustain a reader's interest for the long haul. If your series contains twenty-six novels (A is for Alibi to Z is for...Ziggurat?), your character had better be up to the task.

In a series, it's especially important that your protagonist is someone you like well enough to invest a hefty chunk of time with. If you don't enjoy your character’s company, how can you expect anyone else to? And what if you should be fortunate enough to write a bestseller? With a million readers clamoring for more, will you like this character enough to live with him or her for a decade or longer?

Again, look to your reading habits. Do you like to follow a favorite character through a series of books? Or do you prefer a stand-alone novel, where you meet a character for the first and last time in a single, self-contained story?

YOU CAN ALWAYS CHANGE YOUR MIND

Think about it.

Make your list.

It doesn't have to be ten writers. It could be two. It could be twenty.

As long as it helps you understand something about what draws you to a story--and what keeps you coming back for more--it's fine.

And remember, nothing is carved in stone. You can always change your mind later, if a better idea comes to you.

That’s the beauty of writing.

See you next month.

Jaden Terrell (Beth Terrell) is a Shamus Award finalist, a contributor to Now Write! Mysteries (a collection of writing exercises by Tarcher/Penguin), and the author of the Jared McKean private detective novels Racing The Devil, A Cup Full of Midnight, and River of Glass. Terrell is the special programs coordinator for the Killer Nashville conference and the winner of the 2009 Magnolia Award for service to the Southeastern Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (SEMWA). A former special education teacher, Terrell is now a writing coach and developmental editor whose leisure activities include ballroom dancing and equine massage therapy. www.jadenterrell.com.

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KN Magazine: Articles

The Writer's Life: Your First Draft

Your First Draft

The Writer's Life: Setting

The Importance of Setting: Macro vs. Micro
By Jaden Terrell

The Writer's Life: Supporting Characters: Allies

Supporting Cast: Allies
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

The Writer's Life: Suspects, Secrets, and Sleight of Hand

Suspects, Secrets, and Sleight of Hand: The Art of Misdirection
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

The Writer's Life: Anatomy of a Crime

Anatomy of a Crime
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

The Writer's Life: Desires, Drives, Obstacles, and Conflicts

Desires, Drives, Obstacles, and Conflicts
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

The Writer's Life: Your Protagonist

Your Protagonist
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

The Writer's Life: Coming Up with the Idea for Your Novel

The Writer's Life Coming Up with the Idea for Your Novel
By Beth Terrell

Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine

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KN Magazine: Articles

Your First Draft

The Importance of Setting: Macro vs. MicroBy Jaden Terrell

Supporting Cast: AlliesBy Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Suspects, Secrets, and Sleight of Hand: The Art of MisdirectionBy Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Anatomy of a CrimeBy Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Desires, Drives, Obstacles, and ConflictsBy Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Your ProtagonistBy Jaden (Beth) Terrell

The Writer's Life Coming Up with the Idea for Your NovelBy Beth Terrell

Submit Your Writing to KN Magazine

Conference

Awards / Scholarships

2025 Sponsors

The Importance of Setting: Macro vs. Micro
By Jaden Terrell

Supporting Cast: Allies
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Suspects, Secrets, and Sleight of Hand: The Art of Misdirection
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Anatomy of a Crime
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Desires, Drives, Obstacles, and Conflicts
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

Your Protagonist
By Jaden (Beth) Terrell

The Writer's Life Coming Up with the Idea for Your Novel
By Beth Terrell