Members from around the world and from around Cedar Mill met together for Cindy Brown’s mystery writing workshop in March, and Sheila did her best to take good minutes for those who couldn’t make it. Apologies to those who had problems with the email link – in general, if a link doesn’t work, you need to cut the whole link – or, as one member put it, the whole set of gobbledygook letters and numbers – and paste it into your browser. Judy has kindly offered to field requests for help if anyone has problems with the link at future meetings, thus freeing Sheila to continue to take minutes, so please remember: If you can’t cut and paste the whole link, email Judy for assistance!

Since Ria had gone down with the dreaded spring lurgy (hope you’re feeling better soon, Ria), Judy announced the results of March’s Winds of Change contest.

First – David Fryer for “The Snow Diagnosis”
Second – Von Pelot for “Tornado”
Third – Catherin Violante for poem “Spring”

Other entries were:

Judy Beaston	A Path Carved
Steve Cooper	Breath
Robin Layne	Hilltop Revelations
Haylee Ergeneken	Julian
Sheila Deeth	Kitkit’s Windy Day
Michael Fryer	My Brother and Snowmobiles
Jessie Collins	School Brings Changes
Iain Yuill	There May Be Trouble Ahead
Joe Mendez	Today
David Porter	Tonight’s Forecast is for Winter
Peter Letts	Transformational Winds
Zita Podany	Unchanged (my title)
Karin Krafft	Wanderlust No More

Jean asked Judy to include the name of who set the contest prompt (a reward for winning contests) on the voting page. And Sheila reminded us that the upcoming contests are listed on the site. Click on Upcoming Contests, which appears underneath the Contests heading.

Our next contest is The Sea and Me, followed by Mystery in May and Strangers in June. Contest deadlines are alwaysthe end of the first Sunday in the month, two weeks before the meeting on the third Sunday of the month. Maximum wordcount 1,200 words. Any genre. Entries go to contest @ portlandwritersmill . org 

Cindy’s workshop include a very successful session in breakout rooms. Huge thanks to Laura for making them work so very smoothly!

I’ll include notes from Cindy’s talk below. Meanwhile, don’t forget to enter next month’s contest – The Sea and Me: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/contests/april-2021-contest-pageand don’t forget to mark your calendars for next month’s meeting: April 18^th, when we’ll look at MaryJane’s poetry book: https://www.portlandwritersmill.org/schedule/

Mystery Writing Workshop with Cindy Brown May 21^st2021

Cindy Brown is the author of some wonderfully titles mysteries, Macdeath, The Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted, Ivy Get Your Gun, The Phantom of Oz, Killalot, … She’s been writing professionally for 20 years, starting with playwriting (hence her interest in the relationship between plot and dramatic structure), then screenwriting, and then… She fell in love with mysteries as a child – loved Nancy Drew, was introduced to John D MacDonald, and finally started reading Sue Grafton and decided she wanted to write like her, especially as her books are set on the West Coast! So… here’s how she led us in understanding more about genre, character and plot.

Genre, Subgenre

The first question to ask, when you start to write a book, is what type of book do you want it to be? The mystery genre includes many subgenres, and readers have certain expectations – you need to give the reader what they expect if you want them to buy your next book, and since mysteries tend to be sold in series, you probably do want them to buy the next book.

Mysteries generally split into two groups:

·       Violent mysteries – lots of intestines etc.

·       Cozy mysteries – someone might choke on a pizza; the cat might find a dead body.

And then there are the subgenres, but nothing’s set in stone; lots of authors slide gently between subgenres, as we’ll see below. We’re going to look at three main subgenres – Cozy, Police Procedural, and Private Investigator (PI), though there are many other ones. Each genre has its own set of expectations:

• Cozy mysteries (traditional mysteries)
  • No sex or violence on the page, and no swearing (publishers might make you take the swear words out, even if they’re in fun)
  • The victim knows the killer
  • The setting is a small town (a place where someone wants to live or to escape to – if they want to come back to the place, they’ll come back to the next book). And, because it’s a small town, you need small town people…
    • The protagonist runs a B&B, a bakery, local yard sales etc.
    • The protagonist has a group of friends that readers will want to meet again and again
  • The protagonist is an amateur sleuth – not with the police, nor a professional PI
  • There will be a series of mysteries
  • Quaint covers are popular
  • Examples:
    • Agatha Christie is the queen of this genre;
    • also Ellie Alexander (from Ashland),
    • Sherrie Harris,
    • Mollie Hunt…
    • Louise Penney is traditional despite some swearing – readers want to go back to see her characters – but perhaps she slides into police procedural
    • Lots of British mysteries (Ann Cleves writes Vera, Shetland, and more, and again, slides into police procedural
    • Kensington books is a cozy mystery publisher)
• Police Procedurals have their own rules
  • The protagonist might be on their own, maybe retired, maybe left the force… but more commonly
  • The protagonist works with a police team
    • There will be team interactions, a white board, group discussion
    • Readers will learn how they solve crimes as a team, even though there’s one main protagonist
    • Reader expects accuracy: try https://groups.io/g/Crimescenewriter2 for help with that.
  • Examples:
    • Ed McBain
    • Bosch (maybe slides between policeman and ex-cop)
    • Ann Cleves’ Vera fits here
• Private Investigator (PI) The author has more room to work here:
  • The protagonist is a professional
    • ex-cop,
    • ex-military…
  • The reader expects lots of sleuthing
  • Something must set protagonist apart so they have special knowledge
  • The protagonist might have a sidekick or friend…

Other subgenres might include

• Historical mysteries
  • Creating a professional, historical sleuth, maybe a Victorian detective, needs lots of research: e.g.
    • Lorie R King
    • Rhys Bowen
  • The author has more leeway to create situations
    • No cell phones means it’s easier for someone to hide
    • No DNA evidence…

·       Spy mysteries need high stakes

o   Example: Alan Furst

·       Paranomal

• Maybe cozy or romantic, something strange going on….

Then there are:

o   Thrillers – high stakes, high action (Jack Reacher), adrenaline fueled, fast paced, lots going on, big plots

o   Suspense – intimate, individual, the protagonist is in danger

And psychological mystery – possibly suspense – such as Rebecca, Gone Girl, Girl on a train… Close relationships, family… often categorized in mystery

Premise

Where do we get ideas from? Cindy gave us examples of where her ideas came from:

MacDeath

• The cursed play. She wanted the king (who dies in the play) to die for real, and everyone wonder about the curse.

Sound of Murder

• This came from her father’s offhand comment about a surprising number of recent suicides at an Arizona retirement area. What if they weren’t…

Oliver Twisted

• Orphans, class structure
• She went to screenwriting workshop where she was told to “write about what annoys you”
  • Annoyed that people are still selling children
  • Annoyed about people who say if you believe something enough it will be true

Ivy get your Gun

• This came from a newspaper article, where a reenactor shot his opponent with real bullet – what if someone did it on purpose?
• Plus she felt annoyed about way Annie Oakley is represented in Annie get your Gun: felt she’d been done a disservice

Phantom of OZ

·       She wanted to write a gothic novel, so she needed a ghost

o   She was annoyed by media’s obsession with weight, so she added a  character struggling with bulimia

o   She saw a billboard scam which annoyed her (Want to be a model, call this number)

So, plots come from what someone says, from the newspaper, from ideas, from constructs, from wanting to right a wrong (and write it right?) and… as Joe suggested, even from postcards (visual ideas).

First Choose your Protagonist

Professional protagonists include

o   police detectives,

o   private investigators

o   coroners (Patrical Cornwell)

o   doctors (medical mystery)

o   lawyers (legal mystery)… Maybe running on the edge between amateur and professional sleuth

What makes a professional interesting?

• Really good at something?
• Got an interesting hobby?

Amateur sleuths might need more work. What makes them interesting? Why do they get drawn in to the investigation?

• There has to be a reason, not just coincidence
  • murder at their place of business,
  • something happens to their friend or neighbor
• Amateur sleuths can be bumbling – they need to learn what to do (and readers learn with them)
• The author has more leeway – not bound by professional rules, but…
• In a series, why do they keep being drawn into the crime?
  • E.g., In Cabot Cove (Murder she Wrote) – Can the protagonist just keep stumbling on dead bodies in a small town?
  • And why isn’t everyone dead in Midsomer County?
• There can be tension between an amateur and a pro, plus romance perhaps. Pro’s have to be there. They have the resources, provide backup…
• The sleuth has to have something going for them that makes them interesting.
  • Father Brown, spiritual outlook
  • Cleo Coyle, coffee shop owner, learn about community, hobby, business, recipes…
  • Mysteries set in the art world, etc
  • Mollie Hunt, cat shelter volunteer, hints and facts about cats
  • Chet and Bernie, dog’s points of view!
  • What about a sleuth with autism?
• The sleuth needs to grow over the series as well. In Cindy’s series…
  • Ivy is drawn in to her first mystery because she doesn’t believe her friend drank himself to death.
  • In the second book she’s drawn in because she’s learning to be a PI
  • Cindy lets her become a private investigator, so she has a reason to keep solving mysteries – avoids the unwilling suspension of disbelief that can arise with amateur sleuths.

Now Choose your Victim

Decide if they’re innocent or guilty? Do they know the killer?

And your Suspects

You’ll need around five suspects, including the killer/villain. This is what separates mystery from thriller and suspense. Five is enough to keep people guessing, and for each, you need to know:

o   How are they related to the crime?

o   Include a longshot

o   Include someone who shouldn’t even be related, but somehow they are…

o   Maybe include someone who disappears or dies during the investigation

You’ll want to know your characters at start, at the outlining stage, whether you’re a plotter or a pantzer, though you might add or subtract someone along the way (e.g. if your editor says you have too many suspects, or an extra character insists on becoming important as you write).

Things you’ll want to know about your characters include:

o   Links between suspects – e.g. A is the boyfriend of B

o   Reasons to be suspected – this is part character and part connection with others

o   Include all people who could be suspects – e.g in a theater setting, include the backstage guy

o   Make them interesting

o   In Cindy’s novel, one might be a reality TV person looking for the next new star

o   Then there’s the stage mom

o   One might have issues with another suspect or the victim

o   Try to give readers a reason to like or dislike your suspects.

Making sure all your suspects have a reason to kill the victim is why you can’t do the whole thing by the seat of your pants, though you can write the story that way. Both plotters and Panzers have a good idea about character before they start, but it’s especially important for mystery, because mysteries are series and people come back to see the characters again.

At this point we broke into small groups to brainstorm suspects in a race-hatred murder case. If you weren’t there, why not try it yourself now? We were all surprised at the range of ideas our brainstorming produced. For example:

o   A murder mystery could cause the author to research little-known religions and share that knowledge with readers

o   Mythology can lead to interesting reasons why someone might be a suspect: e.g. in a world of djinn and humans, djinn are born of fire and humans of water, so who would you suspect in an arson attack?

o   Social issues can be tackled in fiction – what if one of our suspects is hiding the fact that he’s gay?

Character Creation

For each character, you should complete a character analysis that includes: (This comes from a playwriting perspective)

• Motivation – This is the internal driver/emotion that pushes character forward. For example:
  • She’s worried for her friend
  • If this is the protagonist, you’ll need a second motivation for protag – e.g. further her career
• Goal – This is the concrete thing the character aims for, e.g.
  • get help for friend
  • get a job with touring company
• Conflict
  • Friend doesn’t want help
  • If she goes on tour, she’ll have to leave her brother and boyfriend for months
• Secret
  • Must be hiding something – hide that he’s gay, hide that he’s got a wife and kids somewhere, hide wealth. Your character must look suspicious or not always tell truth – and this includes the protagonist – they need secrets too!
• Epiphany
  • Main character has to grow – plan mini-arcs and a big arc for a series. – Cindy’s protagonist is growing as actor, as a PI and as a person.
  • Side characters might realize they love each other
  • A character might just learn they are worthwhile
  • A killer might learn murder is wrong

At this point we brainstormed some more. Our suspect (in a murder) is known to want to shut down an immigrant community center.

Motivation – fear of foreigners changing the community – what are they really afraid of – property values – loss of power – how they were raised to believe foreigners are inferior – motivation is deep even if the surface view is shallow

Goal – to shut down community center – maybe they want to build a high-rise on the spot – more complications help make it a longer book – but how does not wanting the community center mean they kill someone? Maybe there’s a personal reason. Maybe they were just there at the wrong time, or said something bad that made them look suspicious… all things that the protagonist will find out – fuel for lots of red herrings

Conflict – innocence is a conflict on its own. Internal and external conflicts should both be included – other people at center might be targeting this person as most likely suspect.

Secret – Being the killer is a secret. Maybe hiding the way they were raised, old KKK membership, trying to hide racist views, having an affair, money laundering – the secret doesn’t have to be connected to crime

Epiphany – decides the community center is okay, finds the foreign culture/religion intriguing, gets invited to a ceremony and likes it…

Next:

• Write a page in each character’s voice – You need to figure out who the character is; need to get their voice right (helps you know them and helps you write their dialog). Write something they feel passionate about – doesn’t have to be the murder.

You might try:

• Meyers Briggs Assessment – online, plug in answers for your character
• What are their likes/dislikes?
• Physical attributes (and how they feel about them – not just red hair but red hair that sticks out in the rain; do they love it or hate it)
• What do you like about your characters – you’re going to spend a lot of time with them! All characters believe they’re doing the right thing, even when they’re not. Find one thing that you like, even if it’s just not killing spiders.
• You can look at online character questionnaires: https://thejohnfox.com/2016/06/character-questionnaire/

Plot

Mystery is about justice – most things are wrapped up at the end, leaving the reader feeling good (even if the killer not brought to justice); some good change is made which pleases the reader.

Plot comes out of your premise and your characters, and it’s fine to be a pantzer at this point, but you’re more likely to get stuck and spend tons of time on rewrites. Better is to at least have some idea of the signposts in your plot.

Dramatic Structure

Act I:  Start with the world of the story, leading to the inciting incident. Establish the neighborhood, how people feel about the new person’s arrival, then… you’ve got to introduce your murder within the first 30 pages! It must happen in first 30 pages because of kindle previewer! You want to hook the reader with inciting incident in their free preview!

Then comes the turning point (leading to Act II) – The story turns on a dime – e.g. the victim has a war criminal past, or one of people involved is his illegitimate son – this changes the way reader and protagonist look at situation.

Act II:  Obstacles and reversals lead to the Midpoint – another, smaller turning on a time incident – maybe another crime, a disappearance… which leads to the dark night of the soul.

Obstacles and reversals occur when the protagist, for example, blames the wrong person who now gets beaten up, making the protagonist blame himself.

Act III: Crisis/All is lost, but then comes the Climax and the Denouement.

Mini-Movie Method (Chris Soth)

1. Ordinary world.

2. Reluctant hero. Wants to make the problem go away.

3. Hero tries to solve the problem using typical methods. Fails.

4. Hero makes a new plan and puts it into action, but uses old ways. Fails again.

5. The errors of the hero’s old ways are revealed. Recognizes the need for change.

6. Hero takes action, committing to change once and for all. But, alas, that backfires. 

7. A revelation allows him to see victory, but it is snatched away in yet another reversal. It ain’t over yet!

8.  The hero puts down the last attempt and triumphs. Then perhaps an epilogue.

If you’re a signpost type of writer, all this will make simple sense. Otherwise it might be hard to do all that plotting. You might try the Snowflake method:

o   Take an hour writing a one sentence summary of your novel – it makes great selling tool

o   Expand this to a paragraph

o   Plan for three disasters plus an ending – each takes ¼ of novel

o   Now invent your characters

o   Include one paragraph for each character’s storyline

It’s like a one sentence summary expanded, and expanded, and expanded… a more narrative way of approaching the novel. Snowflake Method – Randy Ingermanson https://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/

Finally

1. Revise revise revise – none of us write great novels first time – maybe 3 drafts before sending to editor, then agent, then publisher, always changing things. Plotholes, too many characters, don’t need this bit… might be revising the plot as well as the writing, or fixing dialog…
2. Email any questions to Cindy at info@cindybrownwriter.com
3. Visit her website at cindybrownwriter.com and sign up for her newsletter https://www.cindybrownwriter.com/so/7aNED9bLS#/main which comes out every two months, slightly silly, sounds fun.
4. Don’t miss Cindy’s big giveaway of copies of Ivy get your Gun for women’s history month.