by Eldred Bird

I love a good mystery. I think I was the only kid in my school that had a subscription to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine—in fact, I’m pretty sure about that. Raymond Chandler, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Agatha Christie were my role models. They’re one of the major reasons I started writing, and why most of my stories lean that way no matter what genre I aim for.

I also like to share my love of the genre with others. On more than one occasion, I’ve teased Jenny Hansen, our fearless leader here at WITS, that I’m going to make a mystery writer out of her yet. This post is one more step toward that goal. Fasten your seatbelt and pay attention, Jenny, this one’s for you!

What is a Mystery?

Many times, people lump mystery and thriller together. While there may be some occasional overlap, they are two distinct genres. Thrillers are generally fast paced, action focused tales where the villain or an impending disaster is exposed near the beginning of the story. The hero works against the clock to overcome obstacles and avert catastrophe by thwarting the villain’s plan or saving the world from certain destruction.

We might consider mystery to be thriller’s more intellectual brother. It generally starts with a crime (usually a murder), but the perpetrator isn’t revealed until near the end. The pacing is slower, allowing for deeper character development and descriptions, and picks up steam as the plot moves forward, but mystery is all about the details. It’s about following each clue and chaining them together to expose and defeat the true villain.

If there’s a golden rule of mystery writing, it’s no spoilers. Don’t giveaway the true perpetrator in the beginning. Let the reader discover the clues and come to their own conclusions.

The Elements of Mystery

What goes into a mystery can vary greatly based on the sub-genre, but there are certain elements that mystery readers usually look for. Here are the most common elements:

The Crime

Most mysteries start with a crime (usually murder), but not all of them. Sometimes the first order of business is to determine if a crime has even been committed. There may be a missing person or object that needs to be tracked down. Bottom line is there needs to be a question that begs to be answered.

The Sleuth

Once you have something to solve you need someone to solve it. Your detective could be a professional, an amateur, or even a family member. Make it a zombie if you like!

The Villain

Every protagonist needs an antagonist. The closer they are to being equals, the better the story will be. A solid, relatable villain makes for a more interesting cat-and-mouse game with your MC.

The Setting

The setting often sets the mood for a good mystery. A well thought out setting will function like another character in the story. It can also be both a help and a hindrance to solving the crime.

The Clues

Every mystery needs a chain of clues for the hero (and the reader) to follow. Each one should build on the previous discoveries until it all adds up when the final piece falls into place. Make sure to include a few dead ends and a misdirection (like a red herring) or two. You don’t want to make it too easy!

The Complication

Not every mystery includes this element, but the best ones do. Setbacks and unforeseen complications bring the emotional level to new heights. It’s especially effective if the complication plays on one of the hero’s flaws.

The Solution

This is where all the pieces fall into place and the true villain is revealed, leading to their eventual capture. A word of caution here—the solution needs to make since. Don’t pull a rabbit out of the hat at the last second. Make sure the reader can trace your solution back to clues planted in the narrative. Good mysteries give the reader the same information as the detective, allowing them to experience the ah-ha moment with the hero.

The Wrap Up

We call this the denouement, from the French word for “untying.” Most mysteries will have this scene where the detective unravels the threads and explains how they arrived at their conclusions. I like to think of it as a nice way of filling in the readers who didn’t figure things out on their own.

Types of Mysteries

Like any other genre, there are countless sub-genres for mystery. Here are some of the most common ones, but don’t feel limited by this list.

Cozy Mystery

This is sometimes called the “bloodless crime.” The reader doesn’t witness the messy parts of the narrative. The best examples come from the “Queen of Cozy,” Agatha Christie. Sherlock Holmes also falls into this category.

Professional Detective

This is the territory of the paid private investigator and the police detective who follows his own path, rather than the rules, to get to the bottom of things. It can be anything from noir detectives like Sam Spade and Philip Marlow, to the more modern Adrain Monk and Kay Scarpetta.  

Amateur Sleuth

When the police fail to solve the crime or mislabel it as an accident, it’s time for the amateurs to step in and save the day. Often the hero is a family member or close friend with a personal need for answers. Sometimes it’s the nosy mystery writer looking to apply their book research to a real-world crime (Murder, She Wrote).

Suspense/Thriller

Okay, I know I said mysteries and thrillers are two different animals, but they do cross paths in this sub-genre. In a mystery/thriller, the protagonist isn’t just pursuing the villain, but is also being pursued themselves. It becomes a high stakes game of cat-and-mouse that comes to a head in the final conflict. The major difference here is that in a straight-up thriller, we know who the villain is. In a mystery/thriller the villain lurks in the shadows or hides in plain sight until the end.

Police Procedural

The police procedural is just what it sounds like. The reader is invited along to watch over the detective’s shoulder as they perform their investigation, question witnesses, and build their case. Law and Order is a perfect example of a by-the-book procedural.

Locked Room

In a locked room mystery the focus isn’t just on who committed a crime, but how it was committed. It’s up to the sleuth to figure out how an “impossible crime” was pulled off. For a perfect example you need look no further than what is considered to be the original, The Murders in the Rue Morgue by E.A. Poe.

Final Thoughts

Mysteries come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common. They invite the reader to not only come along on the ride but become an active participant in the solution. My best advice before you try to write mysteries is to read mysteries. A lot of mysteries! Get into the hero’s head, follow the clues, solve the crimes, then go forth and create your own.

What types of mysteries do you like? Do you have a favorite sleuth? Have you ever written a mystery? Let me know in the comments!

About Eldred

Eldred Bird writes contemporary fiction, short stories, and personal essays. He has spent a great deal of time exploring the deserts, forests, and deep canyons inside his home state of Arizona. His James McCarthy adventures, Killing Karma, Catching Karma, and Cold Karma, reflect this love of the Grand Canyon State even as his character solves mysteries amidst danger. Eldred explores the boundaries of short fiction in his stories, The Waking Room, Treble in Paradise: A Tale of Sax and Violins, and The Smell of Fear.

When he’s not writing, Eldred spends time cycling, hiking, and juggling (yes, juggling…bowling balls and 21-inch knives).

His passion for photography allows him to record his travels. Find him on Twitter or Facebook, or at his website.

Top Image by Andreas Gramer (geb. Linden) from Pixabay

by Lisa Norman

When I’m teaching, students ask me what the magic key to success is. My clients ask me, too. Just last week, I met a young writer who asked me this same question. He wanted to know the magic formula for success. In his email, I saw the same emotions I’d seen many times over. “I’m afraid. I want to do it right. I don’t want to waste time. Just tell me what to do!”

There are a lot of people selling the magic key: The one thing that you can do to guarantee success.

The key is: There is no key.

Even more amazing: there is no lock.

Perhaps you will argue with my thoughts, but let me share what I’ve learned from years of working with authors from different backgrounds who have obtained different levels of success.

Why do some people succeed, and others don’t?

It isn’t skill.

I’ve been in the industry for a long time. Long enough to know that some very talented people haven’t broken through while others have.

It isn’t luck.

Sure, some people get lucky, but lots of folks have succeeded by making their own luck.

It isn’t patience.

Although patience certainly helps when things get tough, I’ve seen impatient people succeed and patient people fail.

It isn’t hard work.

I’ve seen lots of people work hard and succeed. I’ve also seen people work hard and fail. And then there are those who don’t work hard and somehow just fall into success!

It isn’t how much money you invest.

Money makes things easier sometimes, but there are doors that money can’t open. I’ve seen people succeed with little to no money invested, and I’ve also seen people fail despite throwing money around.

I’ve also seen the opposite of each of these points. I’ve seen people succeed with skill, luck, patience, hard work, and money. Each of them tackled their career using their own unique life experiences.

So what is the key?

Define Success

First, define success for yourself. Don’t use anyone else’s definition.

• Want to be on the NYT bestseller list? Why?
• Want a traditional contact? Why?
• Want a certain sales level? Why?

What will achieving that goal give you? I know NYT authors who don’t feel successful! I know award-winning authors who feel unsatisfied.

Go deeper. Ask yourself what you really want. What’s your underlying goal?

Once you have that definition, now you know what success looks like for you. Achieving that underlying goal may look very different than your first answer. But achieving that underlying goal will be more fulfilling.

Stay Flexible

Be open to new trends and new experiments. Try new things.

Find Joy

Having fun while working can keep you going when everything seems to go wrong.

Make a Plan

How can you make that happen?

I teach marketing and indie publishing, social media and websites. I give writers tools. But no tool will guarantee you will reach your goal.

There is no one path to success. There is just your path. And that path starts with a single step.

A friend years ago likened our path through life to steppingstones in a misty swamp. Sometimes we can only see the next step.

What’s your next step?

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of Deleyna's Dynamic Designs, a web development company focused on helping writers, and Heart Ally Books, an indie publishing firm. She teaches for Lawson Writer's Academy.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? See her teaching schedule below.

Classes:

• July (co-teaching): Difficult Discussions: Ways to Approach Diversity on the Page
• August: Crazy Easy Digital Organization Skills for Authors
• September: Maximize your Crazy Easy Author’s Website

Top Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

by Julie Glover

In 2021, my husband and I sold our house and ordered a new house to be built. When our apartment lease ended, the house was nowhere near ready. With rent about to jump substantially, we concluded that it wouldn't be that much pricier to pay for housing in Europe. With him retired and me working from home, this was a plausible-if-adventurous idea.

Where did we go?

In late May, we moved to Cahors, France, a 20,000-resident town north of Toulouse, where we will be through late July. I worried, however, that with our desire to soak in the culture and sites around us, my writing productivity would go down. The opposite happened! I can't believe how much I'm getting done.

Why am I writing more?

Like many of you, I've read numerous articles, attended workshops, and engaged in discussions with fellow writers about how to improve productivity. Plenty of the lessons shared by others have helped me increase my word count and focus, and I still heed a number of them. But without any extra effort, I realized a few weeks in that I was getting a lot more done here in France.

Is it France itself? Or could I achieve similar results after we return to the United States? Hopefully, my takeaways will help you increase your productivity too!

I have more focused time.

One important aspect is the distance of both space and time from those who could (and did) interrupt my work back home. Here, I'm not going out to lunch or social activities with friends because they're across an ocean. I'm only available for phone calls during a short window when daytime and daytime here intersect, which leaves the rest of the day for myself. (And my husband, of course.)

While I previously believed I was following the good advice to protect one's writing time, it became clear that I wasn't. I didn't set my phone aside, I didn't grab chunks of time in my schedule where the default answer for those wanting to do things was simply no, and I did spend too much time on social media.

Takeaway #1

What if you acted as if you were in a foreign country during your writing time and just couldn't be reached?

How much more could you get done? Consider using a helpful tool like the Google Chrome extension Stay Focused or a kSafe or other time-locking container. Even the Do Not Disturb function on your cell phone might do the trick.

Caveat:

Stepping away can be unrealistic for those who are responsible for another human being (child, elderly parent, special needs adult), but perhaps someone else could be the contact person for a short period and let you go "off-grid" from time to time.

I got realistic with goals.

Writing fiction is my side job. My day job also involves writing, as well as speaking, podcasting, marketing, and more. Between wearing those two hats, and several others due to life and family, my to-do list often looked like a detective's crime board, with disparate tasks linked by a thin thread and wishful thinking.

Knowing that I'd be overseas, I pared down my projects list.

It helps that I have no printer and certain other office tools here, so some tasks simply weren't going to happen until I got back—easily crossed off. But having a shorter list of projects meant I could give each more attention.

Takeaway #2

How realistic are we regarding what we can accomplish? Which projects do you need to work on now, and which ones could wait? It may not be ideal, but by limiting how much you take on, you can give each work in progress its due.

I'm healthier.

I hate exercising, "working out," and anything else that smacks of getting healthy through outcome-based activity. So despite believing for years that I needed to get into better shape, I largely didn't.

But here we are in a fascinating, walkable town with no vehicle, and we've been all over. Our apartment is on the third floor, and when we first arrived, I was breathing hard by the time I reached our front door. Not now. I can jog right up those steps, no problem. And renewed physical health has given me more energy to work and greater concentration when I do.

Takeaway #3

Of course, it's not just exercise but health overall that helps us maintain vigor and focus. For practical tips, check out Kris Maze's Dear Writer, What Causes Burnout? and Lynette Burrows's 35 Tips to a Healthier Writer You in 2022.

Let's get as healthy as we can so we can get more things done!

I have less stuff.

I came to France with a regular-sized suitcase, a flight-attendant-sized suitcase, and a tote bag. That's it—the totality of my belongings for three months. Nearly halfway into our experience, I concluded that I packed too much.

I have less stuff to track, clean, and care for. I have fewer choices on what to wear. I have less clutter and chaos in my work area. All of that means fewer distractions and more headspace to work on my writing.

Of course, I'm not going to go home and toss everything I own that doesn't fit into three travel bags. But I plan to purge more stuff when I return, knowing that I don't need as much as I thought I did.

Takeaway #4

Do you need less than you think? What could you get rid of that would free up physical space and headspace? Rather than tidying expert Marie Kondo's advice to get rid of anything that doesn't "spark joy," maybe ask what sparks your productivity?

I feel inspired.

My critique partner and sometimes co-author, Christina Delay, has written especially well about how travel, play, and fresh settings can evoke creativity (see Change Your Path by Stepping Away, Build Creative Muscles - Through PLAY!, and Why Write and Travel? It's Good for Your Heart.).

I've lived it as well. Being in a place with different scenery, culture, and experiences is inspiring.

Surrounded by natural beauty and the art of buildings, sculptures, paintings, and more, I can't help but want to add my own creativity to the mix. Soaking up the history of this place also inspires me to tell stories that touch on universal experiences through specific tales.

Takeaway #5

France isn't the only place with gorgeous views and cultural inspiration. Even the suburban apartment I lived in before we moved here had a walking trail that led to a pond of Muscovy ducks and turtles sunning on a log that infused me with a sense of wonder.

Beauty is everywhere if you look for it and let yourself be inspired by it.

You don't have to be in France or somewhere special to you to get inspired and get more writing done. Though if could write here every day...

No, really. The takeaways from my time here can work anywhere.

To recap:

1. Focus during writing time.
2. Set realistic goals.
3. Get healthier.
4. Cut back on stuff.
5. Seek and find inspiration.

Do you have a location or habit that improves your writing productivity? Where is the place or what is the habit? Please share it with us down in the comments!

Calling all writers with a yen to travel!

Here's one fantastic opportunity:

Cruising Writers brings writers together with bestselling authors and a world-renowned writing craft instructor on writing retreats around the world. Cruise with us to Grand Cayman in April 2023 with Becca Syme of the Better-Faster Academy and Kirsten Kiki Oliphant of the Create If Writing podcast and take your writing career to the next level!

About Julie

Julie Glover is an award-winning author of mysteries and young adult fiction. She also writes supernatural suspense under the pen name Jules Lynn.

When not drinking wine in France, she is working on book five in that series, which begins with Mark of the Gods.

She'll be at the Cruising Writers retreat next April and would love to see you there!