Mystery/Thriller Course at Anne Arundel Community College
WRITING MYSTERY AND THRILLER FICTION,
by Instructors Rosemary & Larry Mild ©2009
Session One
INTRODUCTION TO THE MYSTERY & THRILLER
ADVICE FOR WANNABE WRITERS
1. Above all, get something, anything, down on paper. Your story is the primary concern. Save the rules for writing it until later.
2. Don't be intimidated, 1st drafts are never perfect anyway.
3. Fear of the blank page is something to be skirted. Don't give up, go on to the next scene, and come back later.
4. Write regularly at least an hour per sitting, if possible. Schedule a time and place to write, a spot where you won't be distracted or disturbed.
5. Write about what you are comfortable with.
6. Think about writing even when you're not at the keyboard.
7. Establish the strongest sense of the plot in your head:
    a. How many ways and reasons are there to kill a victim?
    b. What kind of story moves, turns, and twists can I create?
8. Try visualizing the scenes in your head.
9. Develop clear mental images of your central characters.
10. Become more aware of people and places:
    a. Carry a notebook or recorder with you and accumulate notes.
    b. Tune into both the unusual and the commonplace.
THE PROCESS OF WRITING
1. Cognition:
    a. Recognize that you've found a story worthy of telling.
    b. Realize that you're personally motivated to write it.
    c. Accept that you've got the literary skills to carry out the project.
2. Preparation:
    a. Assemble vignettes of characters, motivations, and settings.
    b. Vignette--a view of a central story element, character, theme or setting.
      1) Generally lacking a plot.
      2) May set tone, understanding, mood, or sense of place.
      3) Used as a writing aid.
    c. Gather the necessary research and organize your plotting tools.
 3. Skeletal Development (1st Draft)--Write a bare-bones draft of your story.
 4. Expansive Development (2nd Draft):
    a. Flesh out the characters and scenes in your story.
    b. Tune up the plot and beef up the action.
    c. Check out the inconsistencies in your story.
 5. Criticism:
    a. Learn to seek outside help--join a critique group.
    b. Analyze and accept constructive criticism.
    c. Deal with contradictory criticism.
 6. Rewrite (3rd & 4th Draft)--Judicious Pruning (Up to 15%):
    b. Eliminate any repetitions.
    c. Edit for better word (e.g., stronger nouns and verbs), phrase, and sentence choices.
 7. Submission--Now comes the hard part:
    a. Creating effective queries.
    b. Writing a grabbing synopsis.
    c. Dealing with rejection.
    d. Selling your completed work.
LEVELS OF UNDERSTANDING
 1. The Story Intended--The simple story is totally explicit and has no hidden messages or meanings.
 2. The Story Alluded to--Reminds you of another story with its own message or meaning:
    a. Parody--Imitates someone else's style in a humorous way.
    b. Spoof--Ridicules or pokes fun at a public person, well-established idea, custom, or previous literary work.
 3. The Story Interpreted--Contains another level of messages or meanings:
    a. Homily--Teaches, preaches, moralizes, or inspires.
    b. Personal Eye View--readers often identify with characters in the
        story and substitute their own beliefs and meanings.
 4. The Story Mystified--Has complexities that require deciphering or receptiveness to understand and/or believe in the messages or meanings:
    a. The inexplainable, unreasonable, or supernatural turns the mystery and thriller into science fiction, fantasy, or horror.
    b. Mysticism can be a great vehicle for background or motive.
STORY IDEAS AND SOURCES
 1. Media news items, particularly police and crime beat items:
    a. Scan or read on regular basis.
    b. Test item's potential for a story.
 2. Life Exploits--yours and others':
    a. Become a good listener. Eavesdrop if necessary.
    b. Pay particular attention to what people say under stress, whether they mean it or not.
 3. Your Genre--Read, analyze, and learn what makes a good story.

MYSTERIES EMPHASIZE PUZZLE SOLUTIONS
 1. Pit sleuth against a clever villain determined to get away with a crime.
 2. Move at a steady progressive pace.
 3. Allow the reader to learn more on each successive page.
 4 Work toward an "Ah-hah!" climax, solution, and resolution.

THRILLERS EMPHASIZE THE SURMOUNTING OF OBSTACLES
 1. Pit ordinary heroes against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or the stability of the free world.
 2. Furnish high-level excitement and apprehension with peaks and lulls.
 3. Move with breakneck pacing to an adrenaline-packed climax.

MYSTERY/THRILLER READERSHIP
 1. The typical mystery fan is a fiftyish female from the Midwest looking for:
    a. Escape from humdrum everyday living.
    b. Challenging puzzles to solve.
    c. A vicarious, exciting experience.
 2. The typical thriller fan is a fortyish mainstream male looking for:
    a. Escape from safe, stable, humdrum workday life.
    b. A risk-taking challenge.
    c. Enjoys an adventurous, exciting, and emotional experience vicariously.
HOW BOOKS ARE SELECTED
 1. The potential reader examines a book and makes a decision to buy (or not buy) based on:
    a. The author's name, b. The book's title, c. Cover design, and d. Rear jacket blurb.
    e. The hook to your story--the quality and impact of prose on the first few pages.
 2. The Literary Agent and Publisher's Acquisitions Editor may never get past the first page, if they ever get that far. Remember, they don't have a book jacket, so their decision is based on:
    a. First, Your query letter, including your story's tag line, story idea, and (maybe) a brief synopsis. Then, if invited to submit more:
    b. Your cover letter.
    c. The full synopsis of your story.
    d. The hook to your story.
    e. The quality and organization of your prose.
MYSTERY'S LITERARY HOOK
 1. The mystery hook contains the most unexpected, offbeat, upsetting, extraordinary, unusual, worrisome, fearsome, or painful outlook or experience you can inflict on your protagonists or their environs.

 2. The hook does NOT contain introductions, preambles, buildups, general descriptions, backstories, ho-hum weather, scene setting, or trivia unless they're threatening or suspense provoking.
 3. Baiting the story hook:
    a. Use a compelling narrative voice and lace it with attitude.
    b. Start in the middle of the action.
 4. Know your readers: tickle their fancy, prod their curiosity, hook them into the action.
 5. Finding the story hook:
    a. The first paragraph of the first page--perhaps the first line.
    b. It's the most compelling place to begin your story.
    c. It's not a trivial decision.
 6. The hook is written before the rest of the story and is continually polished until you've completed the story.
 7. It sets the pace and tone of the story.
 8. Hook Examples:

    James Patterson:
      Roses Are Red "Brianne Parker didn't look like a bank robber or murderer--her pleasantly plump baby face fooled everyone."
      Kiss the Girls "For three weeks the young killer actually lived inside the wall of the fifteen-room beach house."
    Steven King:
      Insomnia "No one--least of all Dr. Litchfield came right out and told Ralph Roberts that his wife is going to die. But there came a time...."
      Desperation "Oh! Oh, Jesus! Gross!"
      Black House "Right here and now as an old friend used to say--we are in the fluid present, where clear-sightedness never guarantees perfect vision."
    Janet Evanovich:
      One for the Money "There are some men who enter a girl's life and screw it up forever. Joe Morelli did this to me--not for ever, but periodically."
      Four to Score "Living in Trenton in July is like living inside a big pizza oven."
      Visions Of Sugar Plums "My name is Stephanie Plum and I got a strange man in my kitchen."
    Mickey Spillane:
      Black Alley "The phone rang. It was a thing that had been sitting there, black and quiet like a holstered gun, unlisted, unknown to anybody, used only for local outgoing calls, and when it triggered it had the soft muted sound of a silenced automatic. The first ring was a warning. The second would be death calling."
    Anne Perry:
      Ashworth Hall "Pitt stared down at the body of the man lying on the stones of the alley. It was a gray October dusk. A few yards away on Oxford Street the carriages and hansoms were whirling by, wheels hissing on the wet road, horses' hooves clattering. The lamps were already lit, pale moons in the gathering darkness."
    Stephen Coonts:
      Hong Kong "One tiny, red, liquid drop of blood was visible in the center of the small, neat hole in China Bob Chan's forehead an inch or so above his right eye. Chan's eyes were wide open. Tommy Carmellini thought his features registered a look of surprise. Carmellini pulled off his right latex glove, bent down, and touched the cheek of the corpse, which was still warm. Death must have been instantaneous, and not many minutes ago, Carmellini thought as he pulled the glove back onto his hand. The diminutive corpse of China Bob Chan lay sprawled behind his mahogany desk in the library of his mansion on the south side of Hong Kong Island....."
    Dorethy L. Sayers:
      Strong Person "There were crimson roses on the bench; they looked like splashes of blood. The judge was an old man; so old that he seemed to have outlived time and change and death. His parrot-face and parrot voice were dry, like his old, heavily-veined hands. His scarlet robe clashed harshly with the crimson of the roses. He had sat for three days in the stuffy court, but he showed no sign of fatigue. He did not look at the prisoner as he gathered his notes into a neat sheaf and turned to address the jury, but the prisoner looked at him. Her eyes, like dark smudges under the heavy square brows, seemed equally without fear and without hope. They waited. 'Members of the jury--'...."
    Agatha Christie:
      The A.B.C. Murders "It was June of 1935 that I came from my ranch in South American for a stay of about six months. It had been a difficult time for us out there. Like everyone else we had suffered from world depression. I had various affairs to see to in England that I felt could only be successful if a personal touch was introduced. My wife remained to manage the ranch. I need hardly say that one of my first action on reaching England was to look up my old friend, Hercule Poirot...."
NARRATOR POINT OF VIEW (POV)
 1. First Person--The narrator is a main character in the story:
    a. "I" sees and knows what the main character does--no more.
    b. Reader attains an intimacy with the main character.
    c. "I" POV very popular for detective and thriller stories.
 2. Second Person--The narrator is a witness walking "You," the reader, through the story:
    a. Usually told in the present tense for immediacy.
    b. Usually told by a lesser character close to the main character, who is privy to all the action and has intimate knowledge of the main character and his or her feelings.
    c. Usually inappropriate for serious mysteries and thrillers.
3. Third Person--The completely narrative mode:
    a. Sentence subjects are: he, she, they, and all nouns.
    b. Sentence subjects are never "I" or "You" except in dialogue.
    c. Viewpoint characters may express their own thoughts, emotions, reactions, and knowledge through interior monologue (earmarked by italic fonts).
 4. Mixed Third Person--Shifting among viewpoint characters:
    a. The shift must accomplish some literary purpose.
    b. Should be clear to reader that a POV shift has been made. Must be marked by a chapter change, a paragraph break, or a paragraph change.
      1) Their comments are exclusive to their eyes, ears, and feelings only.
      2) Their interior comments are earmarked in italic font.
    c. The start of the shift must identify each new viewpoint character.
    d. Rarely attempted until late 20th century. Now in common use.
NARRATIVE VOICE OR MODE--The 3rd person perspective from which the story is told:
 1. Totally omniscient narrator--sees and knows all, may even reveal inner feelings of characters. Historically, the more common voice.
 2. Limited omniscient narrator--tells the story as though perceived by a viewpoint character, an over-the-shoulder look.
 3. Objective perspective narrator--relates story without detailing any character's thoughts or emotions. Difficult to achieve suspense without anxiety, fear, and desire, etc.

NARRATOR TONE OR ATTITUDE
 1. Literary--as told while impressing the reader with literary style and figurative language.
 2. Authoritarian--as told to or preached to by an expert on topic.
 3 Documentary--as told by someone who appears to have been there.
 4. Homey--as told by someone who wishes to sound more friendly, intimate, or disarming--perhaps as the narrator recalls it happening.
 5. Humorous--as told by someone whose goal is to entertain you.
 6. Sarcasm--as told by someone who has an underlying point to make (usually with irony, disgust, or anger).

MYSTERY WRITER'S CODE OF ETHICS
 1. Keep all your promises to the reader:
    a. Provide a satisfying solution to all puzzles and crimes introduced.
    b. Provide explanations for all clues and red herrings.
    c. Never introduce a last-minute perpetrator into a whodunit.
 2. Remember your powers as a narrator--the omniscient narrator:
    a. Can see and know all. Protagonists must rely on their own senses.
    b. Should not lie or preach to the reader. Characters may lie or preach to each other.
 3. Stay within the bounds of your professed subgenre:
    a. Procedurals must be authentic for chosen locale.
    b. By tradition, blood and gore must be minimized for cozies.
    c. Information on introduced weapons, poisons, and anatomy must be accurate.
 4. Minimize the use of coincidence:
    a. Provide logical reasons for protagonists to take next story steps.
    b. Using too much chance destroys reader confidence.
MYSTERY FORMS (Roughly Defined by Word and Page Count)
 1. Vignette-- 250-1000 words, 1-3 pages:
    a. A brief view of a character, theme, or setting.
    b. Lacking plot, it may set tone or mood.
 2. Short-Short Story, Flash Fiction, and Amazon Shorts-- 250-3000 words, 2-10 pages.
 3. Short Story-- 2000-7,500 words, 10-45 pages.
 4. Novella-- 17,500-40,000 words, 85-150 pages.
 5. Novel-- 40,000-360,000 words, 85-1100 pages.
 6. Mystery Novel-- typically 70,000-90,000 words, 200-250 pages.
 7. Suspense/Thriller Novel-- Typically 90,000-140,000 words, 250-500 pages.
 8. Epic Novel-- Typically 100,000-400,000 words, 450-1100 pages.

MUSTS FOR MURDER SUSPECTS (Dole them out and spread them around the suspects.)
 1. Motives--Considers a suspect's reason for perpetrating a crime:
    a. Hate, love, money, power, protection, fear, revenge, etc.
    b. Psychopathic (non-apparent or random reasoning).
 2. Means--Considers a suspect's:
    a. Size, strength, knowledge, and skills.
    b. Familiarity with and access to the tools of murder.
 3. Opportunity--Considers whether the suspect:
    a. Had physical and time-frame access to victim.
    b. Alibis and/or lies that can or cannot be debunked.
 4. Misdirection--Considers whether the perpetrator has altered the crime scene or planted a false clue:
    a. Disappearing evidence--Ice knife (stabbing) or noose with ice pedestal (hanging).
    b. Temperature tampering--Body decay sped-up or slowed-down.
    c. Time tampering--Smashed or reset timepieces.
    d. Evidence tampering--Placing another's fingerprints on weapon; intentionally dropping another suspect's tie clasp, cufflink, or brooch at the crime scene.
THE MYSTERY AND ITS SUBGENRES
 1. Traditional or Cozy Mystery--Murder (or any violence) without gratuitous blood or gore.
    a. Whodunit--suspect elimination and entrapment via suspect interviews and clue analysis.
    b. Howdunit--locked door, disappearing weapon/poison, and misdirection.
    c. Whydunit--psychological, motivational.
 2. Police Procedural--Orderly examination of crime, crime scene, witnesses, clues, methods, and evidence; then confrontation and arrest.
 3. Crime Scene/Lab Procedural--Scientific examination of the crime scene and evidence collection; then analysis, revelation, association, and confrontation.
 4. Hard-boiled Detective--Client and problem definition; then point-to-point information collection with brutish obstacles, revelations, and resolutions.
 5. Serial Killer Conundrum--Puzzle definition, analysis, and prediction; then trapping and resolution.
 6. Crossover or Overlap Mysteries:
    a. Historic--Immersed in a historical setting or plot.
    b. Romance--Tied to a predominantly romantic theme.
    c. Horror--Filled with horrific action.

THE THRILLER AND ITS SUBGENRES
 1. Conspiracy--Hero contends with powerful organization of dangerous adversaries.
 2. Eco-terror--Hero averts or fixes a biological/environmental calamity.
 3. Forensic--Hero is a forensic expert who risks life and limb to resolve crime.
 4. Horror--Hero deals with terror and fear of the unknown.
 5. Legal--Hero is a lawyer or prosecutor whose case is on the line and his life and limb are in jeopardy outside the courtroom.
 6. Military--Hero is a uniformed member of the armed forces operating covertly behind enemy lines.
 7. Psychological--Hero is mentally and emotionally pitted against destabilizing opponents and situations.
 8. Political--Hero is enmmeshed in a plot to either harm or expose a high-level government official.
 9. Spy--Hero is a high-risk government agent operating against foreign agents or terrorists.
10. Techno--Hero is involved in a plot driven by state-of-the-art technology.

SUGGESTED MYSTERY SHORT STORY READING LIST
 1. 100 Dastardly Little Detective Stories. 1993 Barnes & Noble Anthology Edited by Weinberg, Dziemianowicz, & Greenberg. ISBN: 1-56619-107-6. Includes: Barrie, O. Henry, Dickens, London, Harte, and even Abe Lincoln.
 2. 100 Crooked Little Crime Stories. 1994 Barnes & Noble Anthology Edited by Weinberg, Dziemianowicz, & Greenberg. ISBN: 1-56619-356-X. Includes: Dumas, Poe, Kilmer, & O. Henry.
 3. No Comebacks Frederick Forsyth. 1982 Bantam Books ISBN: 0-553-27673-5. Collection of the author's stories.
 4. Malice Domestic 1-4. Anthologies of Original Traditional Mystery Stories. 1995 Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) ISBN: 0-671-89631-8.
 5. Historical Whodunits. Crimes Solved By Brother Cadfael, Brother Athelstan, Decius Metellus, Sister Frevisse, Sam Johnson & Many More. 1993-97 Barnes & Noble Anthology ISBN: 0-76070-476-7.
 6. Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine
 7. Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

OPTIONAL EXERCISE ONE
 1. Getting Started With Your Story:
    a. Choose a mystery idea that you could turn into a short story or the first chapter of a novel.
    b. Describe the essence of your mystery in a four-to-eight sentence paragraph. This story idea or essence may serve as a book jacket description.
      1) Furnish the central crime, conflict, or puzzle.
      2) Identify the perpetrator, sleuth, and setting.
      3) Provide a strong motive--what's to be overcome or gained.
      4) Present the ultimate resolution to your conflict.
    c. Now recapture your unique story essence in a single sentence, the story or tag line.
      1) It may become a part of your agent/publisher query.
      2) Good examples are TV Guide one-liner movie summaries.

OPTIONAL EXERCISE TWO
 2. Present your four versions of the following "stolen purse&#quot; exercise:
    a. An elderly lady carrying a shoulder bag is standing on a street corner.
    b. A shopkeeper is standing in a nearby doorway.
    c. A policeman is on the opposite corner.
    d. A youngster on a bike cuts purse strap from woman and rides off with purse.
    e. Shopkeeper knows and likes thief.
    f. Tell this incident from the 1st person point-of-view of each of the following three characters:
      1) The old lady
      2) The shopkeeper
      3) The policeman
    g. Suggested length: one paragraph each of double-spaced 12 pt type.