Mystery Workshop with Cindy Brown
Writing Character-Based Mysteries
Cindy Brown
cindybrownwriter.com
info@cindybrownwriter.com
Books: Macdeath, The Sound of Murder, Oliver Twisted, Ivy Get Your Gun, The Phantom of Oz, Killalot, Murder Most Theatrical (Anthology – August 2020)
Cindy has been writing for 30 years, writing plays, screenplays, novels, 6 mysteries, 2 nonfiction books… winning awards…
Her talk began with the question of whether she’s a plotter or a pantser. Pantsers just sit down and write, while plotters set up a dramatic structure (like story-line sign-posts) first. So she plots, then her characters make their demands and she pantses.
Cindy’s first book took 5-7 years to write. Among her various rewrites was a need to make it first person, since agents said that works best for light (cozy) mysteries (not all her books are cozies!) Then came the next book, with only 9 months allowed according to contract because people read cozies quickly and want more. She says we should never agree to less than 1 year for the next book!
In answer to questions from the group, Cindy added:
- Traditional publishers will often assign you a developmental editor, but
- you probably need around 5 drafts before you go near a publisher, then expect several more revisions.
- A developmental editor will look at
- length
- organization
- whether a character can be cut
- the big picture
- Then you’ll want a red line editor who looks for unclear patches, weak motivation etc
- and then a copyeditor who proofreads.
- If self-publishing, best to use a developmental editor followed by a copyeditor.
- Reading groups and beta readers help – maybe six people, not necessarily all at once.
- One beta-reader should be familiar with the subject matter.
- It’s hard to share a book chapter by chapter with beta-readers as they’ll forget things. Better to share the problem areas, then the whole book when it’s finished.
You might want to sign up for Cindy’s “slightly silly newsletter” https://www.cindybrownwriter.com/the-slightly-silly-newsletter
And now, here are the notes from Cindy’s talk.
Premise
Where to get ideas? Cindy shared where her recent ideas have come from:
- Just a vague idea (MacDeath: Macbeth is a cursed play; what if someone dies?)
- News media (Ivy Get your Gun: A report of an accidental shooting in a re-enactment of the OK Corral)
- A scene (Killalot: passing an AZ renaissance fair, imagine a jouster riding off)
- What really annoys you (Phantom of Oz: how the acting industry focusses on body image)
She asked us for some ideas, using these suggestions, and we picked the last one:
- Zoom meeting, someone keels over
- Abusive parent
- Portland under siege (people taken away in unmarked cars)
Protagonist
The protagonist might be:
- Professional – What type (e.g. police detective, private investigator, etc.)?
- Or Amateur – What makes them interesting? Why do they get drawn into the investigation? They usually provide a lighter novel, and they need to have a special quirk or hobby to draw readers in, plus a reason why they might know at least some of what they’re doing.
Cindy asked for a suggestion and we chose:
- An MI6 agent brought in as an impartial investigator
We need to think about why he’s been brought in – was one of the victims British?
Victim
Is the victim innocent or guilty? Do they know the killer?
We came up with a few victim suggestions, and Cindy pointed out we can have always more than one victim:
- A protestor who was actually involved in something else
- A British tourist was abducted, accidentally caught up in it…
- Abduct the mayor of Portland
- And of a British town…
If we have more than one victim, we might need to decide which one is the innocent bystander.
Five suspects (including killer/villain)
Cindy recommends five suspects. She asks us to consider:
- How are they connected to the crime?
- Why are they here?
- Why are they suspicious?
Then
For all characters
At this point, Cindy suggests you complete a character analysis for each character that includes (at least):
- Motivation (could be something political, a desire to change the world, or best friends with the victim)
- Goal (be specific: get someone elected, get revenge, personal gain)
- Conflict (could be external or internal:
- entrenched,
- someone you love opposes what you’re doing,
- you need to drive and don’t have a car
- Secret (what makes this person suspicious; what makes them lie: in love with someone, criminal past)
- Epiphany (the point where they move beyond their history, move forward)
Working through the character’s motivation helps us work out where they fit into the story, and even what story it is that they’re fitting in to.
We did this for:
Protagonist
- Secret: they’re a retired terrorist/kidnapper, working under an assumed name, would be extradited if identity discovered
- Motivation: they’ve seen the horrors, doesn’t want this to continue
- Goal: use expertise to stop this happening to others
- Conflict:
- family members are in organization that kidnapped demonstrators.
- One of those kidnapped “deserves” to be removed.
- The investigator was here for another reason, wasn’t there to witness the kidnapping, has to piece information together from witnesses and media
- Epiphany: can tell someone who they really are and become part of human world.
Or
- Motivation: improving others’ lives
- Goal: get a protesting friend out of danger
- Conflict: has a really bad temper
- Secret: insecure needs others’ approval
- Epiphany: might lose friend if can’t control temper
Victim
Suspects
They’re an exercise for us to do at home (though we’re delighted that Cindy said she’d be willing to come back for a longer session another time).
Then:
Write a page in each character’s voice. This could be:
- Describing an event in the story,
- Describing how they feel about their conflict,
- Showing how they hide their secret…
and then maybe:
- Try a Meyers Briggs Assessment (https://www.truity.com/test/type-finder-personality-test-new might help explain this: e.g. extravert, intuitive, … acts impulsively then feels bad
- Horoscopes can give a way to deepen a character.
- Enneagrams (https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/type-descriptions) are good (particularly at suggesting how you act under stress). Internal conflict can come from here
- Add some Likes/dislikes (ice cream …)
- Physical attributes (and how they feel about them)
- What you like about them (even villains)
Plot
Save the cat! writes a novel (https://www.jessicabrody.com/books/non-fiction/save-cat-writes-novel/about/) is a really good resource.
There are different ways to plot your novel. The following are just three, suggested by Cindy, with notes from our discussion:
Dramatic Structure Method
Act I:
- Define the World of the story
- Portland, 2020, protests and Fed snatches
- Inciting incident
- kidnap of someone British
- Turning point (leads to Act II) which changes everything
- MI6 is hunting for a Russian,
- and another kidnapping victim is FBI
Act II: (Act II all too easily becomes a saggy middle, so avoid being episodic.)
- Obstacles and reversals
- No license plate on car
- Protagonist gets arrested
- Midpoint
- another dead body or another crime
- More obstacles and reversals
Act III:
- Crisis/All is lost
- civic militia gets involved,
- anarchy,
- family member is heavily involved
- Climax – how protagonist solves it. (Might not know this till you get there. Cindy says she’s a plotter, in that she starts with a plot, and a pantser in that the characters might take the story in their own direction.)
- Denouement – wrap-up, should be short (1 to 2 chapters), and should tie off all red herrings.
- This is where the ex-terrorist (in one of our scenarios) tells people who he is and leaves the organization.
Mini-Movie Method (Chris Soth)
offers more signposts in creating the plot
- Ordinary world. Ends with the inciting incident.
- Reluctant hero. Wants to make the problem go away.
- Hero tries to solve the problem using typical methods. Fails.
- Hero makes a new plan and puts it into action, but uses old ways. Fails again.
- The errors of the hero’s old ways are revealed. Recognizes the need for change.
- Hero takes action, committing to change once and for all. But, alas, that backfires.
- A revelation allows him to see victory, but it is snatched away in yet another reversal. It ain’t over yet!
- The hero puts down the last attempt and triumphs. Then perhaps an epilogue.
Snowflake Method – Randy Ingermanson
more narrative…
Think of this as a One sentence summary expanded, and expanded, and expanded… So here’s our one-sentence summary:
An MI6 operative, secretly a retired terrorist, tries to find a kidnapped protestor in Portland.
Then, in the words of Anne Lamott, write a shitty first draft.
And lastly: Revise, revise, revise!