Intro: I’ve been teaching a writers’ workshop at our local Camosun College on how to write a mystery novel. My students are eating it up, telling me that they’re learning lots of practical and usable tips and techniques, so I thought I’d offer bits and pieces of the workshop in my new Friday Mystery Writing blog posts.
The information is gleaned from my little non-fiction e-book primer called Youdunit Whodunit! How to Write Mysteries and offers my tips, techniques and information suitable for crafting of all types of genre writing. So, even if you write romance, sci-fi, fantasy or horror, please keep reading and learn with us crime writers.
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT (Part 8a)
The last group of posts have concentrated on the story structure of a mystery novel. Been there; done that. Now we’re onto developing characters or as I like to think of it: Ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.
Just take a couple of seconds and think about which characters you consider outstanding. Who instantly comes to mind? For me, there’s Tulkinghorn in Bleak House, Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity, Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Olive Martin in The Sculptress, just to name a few.
Why are they so outstanding? They’re all unique, memorable, fascinating and believable. The gold standard of character development; something we all aim for.
Ready for my close up!
SO WHO’S TELLING YOUR STORY, ANYWAY?
A critical decision: who is your storyteller? It is from his or her point of view (POV) that your murderous tale will unfold. This is especially important in a mystery as you have to follow the fair-play rule and make sure that all the necessary information is available to the reader.
Traditionally, there are two common Points of View: First Person and Third Person.
First Person:
Simply, this is the story told from one person’s point of view and uses the pronoun “I”, as in “He jabbed a pistol into my throat,” I said.
It results in a strong voice and is an excellent choice for first time writers as it’s the easiest POV to create. The narrator may be a full participant, perhaps an amateur detective (like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone) or just an observer along for the ride (think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Watson).
First Person POV provides a great sense of immediacy as the reader feels every emotion, hears all sounds, and is carried along with the main character.
Traditionally, First Person POV is very popular for private eye stories as the reader enjoys gunning along those mean streets with the tough, works-alone Protagonist.
Now, ponder the above and your outstanding character picks until we delve deeper…next time.
If you found this post of interest, you may wish to see the previous How to Write a Mystery posts starting here.
…Of course, there’ll be MORE how-to write a mystery tips and techniques continued in the next Friday post as we continue exploring character development in Ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille, Part 8b).
Find out further information or how to purchase my mystery-writing primer e-book, jam-packed with ways to immediately improve your writing, click Youdunit Whodunit (only $2.99US!).
Tags: crime fiction, detective fiction, genre fiction, mystery novel, mystery writing, writing how to, writing skills