Writing Mysteries

Lesson 3: The Writing Process

Building Suspense

The next outline is to write the main points of your story. For short stories, you want to outline the main events: characters, setting, plot, protagonist, victim, villain, etc. and what happens to the characters or write summaries of specific scenes you want to include.

For writing a novel, you can use chapter outlines. This can be done by writing down specific events that happen in each chapter. This can also be known as a chapter analysis. This kind of outline helps when you start writing your novel.

Suggested Reading Assignment

(1) You Can Write A Mystery by Gillian Roberts Chapter Eight

Suggested Writing Assignment

(1) Write down the main points of your story.

First Act Of Your Story

Gillian Roberts suggesting that writers "think in terms of stage and screen. Your drama, too, will have three acts. Your first act is roughly the first third of the book. Here you set up and present the crime, establishing the conflict. You also introduce your cast of characters, their relationships and your setting." (53)

You could write down the first act at the top of a page, then start listing the characters, their relationships, and your setting. Go into as much detail as you wish. However, write down as much as you need to so you can remember what you wanted in the first third of the book.

The Second Act Of Your Story

"The second act, usually the bulk of the book, is devoted to complications and crises; the great middle muddle-the sleuthing in a mystery, further threats and escalating dangers in suspense." (54)

In the second part of the book, you need to develop the complications and the crises that will occur. Also, you want to keep readers in suspense by planting more clues, red herrings, and more threats or dangers to the protagonist or other characters.

The Third Act Of Your Story

"The third act eliminates more theories, thereby tying up subplots while building to 'The Big Scene'-that do-or-die point of no return, the crisis when the sleuth finally figures it out and confronts the villain or the suspense protagonist finally meets his demon face-to-face." (54)

The final part contains the main point of your story. The villain will confront the protagonist. The suspense still needs to build to keep readers turning those pages to the very end of the book.

You will first write down a chapter and what you want to reveal in that chapter. Then give it a title. From that point, you will proceed to the rest of the chapters. When you are finished with this outline, you are ready to start writing your book.

Lawrence Block has also found chapter by chapter outlines beneficial. He says that he has "frequently found it useful to make this a chapter outline, with a paragraph given to describe the action that will take place in each chapter." (88) When you use a chapter outline, all you need to write are the main points that you want to include in that chapter. This will help you when you start to write your novel.

Building Suspense

When you are writing your short story, you want to build suspense from the beginning. Readers will not want to put your short story or novel down if beginning grabs their attention.

Let's look at this:

When I mentioned my story beginning earlier, I had Penny enter her apartment building and saw her door slightly ajar. Then she enters the apartment and sees it ranshacked. After that, she sees a body lying in the bathtub. She rushes out to Abby's apartment. When they return, the body is gone. They start to wonder what is happening. They gather a few of Penny's belongings and call the police. Penny is going to stay with Abby.

This grabs the readers' attention. They want to know what is happening with Penny and who the body is in the bathtub. What does he have to do with Penny? Does she know him? Is he a stranger? Who is this person?

If you had a beginning that didn't grab readers' attention, they wouldn't want to continue reading the book. You want readers to continue reading until the very last page.

What is Pacing?

Pacing is one technique that writers use to build suspense in their novels. That means they build up the suspense, and then there is a let down. Then, suddenly the readers are caught up in the action again. If everything was the same all the way through, readers wouldn't want to continue with the short story or book. You need to pace the action throughout.

Phyllis A. Whitney has written an article titled "Pacing and Suspense." It is featured in Writing Mysteries edited by Sue Grafton. The plot can have "a strong buildup to a dramatic scene, after which we must allow for a let-down, a rest, before we start building up all over again. That is what pacing is." (138) The pacing has to be at different levels throughout the book. If it was all the same, it would be boring.

The plot has to be set up like life. Not every circumstance you go through is the same. Things change throughout your life. Sometimes, you'll experience small trials, then something good may happen. Other times, you may constantly experience trials and become so frustrated that you don't know what will happen next. You wonder if you will ever overcome these obstacles that stand in your way for happiness. If your life was all the same, you would be bored. Life experiences are constantly changing. It's the same way with plots. Characters need to experience changes throughout the story. Nothing should remain the same.

How To Build Suspense?

In that same article, the author is showing writers that they need to give a "character a purpose--something she must strive for in every scene--is not always a major problem, but at least something that will lead into the main goal of the character. Sometimes there may really be a situation in which my heroine can take no action on her own. Then I bring on another character who has a strong drive, and perhaps a very different goal, so that she is forced into taking action. Suspense results." (141) When two characters are involved in conflict against each other, then the suspense begins to increase.

The Unexpected

In another passage she explains that if writers want to build suspense, they can "do the unexpected. If a reader can guess what is going to happen, we lose him. So we push ourselves to discard easy approaches and try to surprise with the astonishing, but logical." (143)

When something happens that you don't expect to happen, then you are surprised. As you are reading, you formulate the actions of the characters in your mind. You think you may know what the characters may or may not do, but if something unexpected happens, then you are thrown off guard. This builds up suspense. You begin to wonder what will happen next. Throughout life, the unexpected happens. You never know what will come your way. You could be experiencing some very difficult circumstances, and then all of a sudden something good might happen.

Time Element

Later on, she gives another example of how writers can build suspense. They can use the time element by creating a situation where someone has to race against time. For example, if a child has been kidnapped, and the parents have been notified, they could be given a certain amount of time to locate their child or do what the kidnappers ask. If they don't meet the time limit, they could lose their child. This action builds suspense. Readers are anxiously waiting to know if the parents will locate their child in time.

I have seen this element used in television shows. One show in particular that I remember was about a young girl who was kidnapped and placed in an underground tube with a limited amount of air and light. She couldn't move. She just had to lie their and wait for her parents. Her parents had a few hours to locate her or she would die.

That whole incident built up suspense. You wanted to know if her parents would locate her in time. While I watched the show, I could sense the tension in me and sympathize with the girl.

Characters and Their Secrets

Secrets can cause suspense. If a character has a secret, then readers are held in suspense. This can be a "useful device to think about in the planning stage is to give every character a secret. As a writer you need to know about the hidden goals, the past guilts of every character. Such secrets can be used to make your story people behave in mysterious and suspense-building ways." (144). If characters are given secrets, then suspense starts to build in your plot. People who are acting mysteriously will also build suspense. I've seen this technique used a lot in television shows as well as books I have read.

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