Writers Diary – Page 4 – Read First Chapter.com

Writers Diary – Planning your Mystery Template

In my humble opinion, writing mysteries requires a bit more planning than a novel about other subjects. You have to manage character arcs, crime arcs, clue dropping, red herrings, passage of time, as well as add pressure and suspense into the mix. This is a lot for a new writer.

I found this overwhelming as I began writing back in 2018. The two biggest tips I can pass on at this point are (1) write in Scrivener as you get a bird's eye view of your project all all times and (2) you need a template or an outline of some kind to work from.

WHAT I WISH I HAD WHEN I WAS NEW:

The main reason I've started this Writer's Diary is because I had searched and searched for writer's diaries online and never found anyone who was sharing their whole novel experience. That's why I am doing this. This is another one of the things I wish I had when I was new. I still consider myself new, by the way.

MY OUTLINES WERE TOO FLEXIBLE:

In my first few novels, I would start off with a loosely-planned outline in order to give the characters space to organically develop. I had noticed within the first novel that the characters did develop their own voice and personalities. I thought this open template would give me the leeway to let the novel sort of write itself. It didn't.

In hindsight, I was too open-ended about how the story would end. The characters would take on their own voice at some point in the story but because I had this loose outline, somewhere in Part 2 or Part 3, the story would start to veer off course. As I got to Part 3, I would notice I was too far away from the ending of the story that I had planned originally. But I wouldn't have any great ideas for a better ending either. I would even forget what the original concept for an ending was. Or I would look back and realize the story had veered too far away from a logical ending of the story or solving of the crime/mystery and I would need to go back and start rewriting.

I NEED A WRITING DESTINATION:

What I found by about the sixth novel was that I can leave the beginning and middle of the outline very loose, but I need to know where I am ending the story. I need to know how the crime will be solved, who the bad guy is, and how the clues will be dropped in order to manage the suspects, the red herrings and the suspense.

So I still keep my outline loose in the beginning sections but I make sure I know where I am heading, what corner I need to lead the bad guy into in order to wrap up the story. This gives me more security while I'm writing. It also helps me stay on course.

REMAIN OPEN-MINDED BUT CHANGE THE OUTLINE:

There have been times when a better story did strike me during the writing process. I can go with the new direction, but I must alter my outline so that the new ending is the new destination. I rewrite my outline of how it will end so I will have the self-confidence that I still know where I'm going.

This is a much more workable way to remain flexible but still have the boundaries and guard rails I need to write tight scenes and know where I am in the story.

START BY PICKING A PROTAGONIST OR A CRIME:

I start by picking a crime. My inspiration can be from a novel I'm reading, or a news article, an episode of Forensic Files, or sometimes they can be a combination of all of these. I am beginning to think more like an author and am starting to envision crimes happening in strange places or interesting environments.

PICK YOUR PROTAGONIST/HERO:

The most popular choices for heros/mystery solvers are police officers/detectives, private investigators, and amateur sleuths. I chose a private investigator as my first protagonist as PIs are easier to write about because police procedure is very complicated these days and that would have been too much to take on as a new writer.

I pick a Protagonist/Hero based on a personality type I think I can write convincingly about. If you are planning a series, you will want to give your Hero at least a few people that are anchors in his life. This will also give you leeway if you need to come up with a second novel as the stories can come through people in his/her life as well as from working.

I will reveal my Template - Planning Your Mystery in our next writers diary installment and how I start organizing my mystery elements.

Writers Diary – Pantser vs. Plotter

CHOOSE A PATHWAY:

I was lucky when I started as I knew, without a doubt, that I was a plotter. I don't write a letter without a short list of points I want to cover. But this can be a choice that can help you not get lost in the overwhelming number of things you need to keep in mind for any novel.

I won't go into too much detail as there are hundreds of youtube videos about being a pantser and being a plotter by more experienced people than me. But in one sentence, a pantser is someone who sits down and begins writing 'by the seat of their pants' without an outline or a template of any kind. Steven Kind is a pantser. Being a plotter means that you start with a template, and then an outline, and then begin writing the novel itself.

There are natural-born pantsers like Steven King, and if you are one of those, that should be your pathway. However, my suggestion to a newbie writer, especially if you don't know if you are a pantser or plotter, is to try to at least have a template and at least three-act play structure to keep you on track.

#WRITERS TOOL - MYSTERY TEMPLATE

There are probably hundreds of templates out there for you to choose from. If you search "writing template" at images.google.com, you will find hundreds of them. I incorporated several of them into my own custom Mystery Template. You can click here to download the template to have a look at it or use it.

This is the template I wound up using after at least a year of struggling with the other confusing templates. In time, I began to use a template that was divided into four acts, so to speak, but I'll talk about that one next.

Writers Diary – Can’t Makes Sense of the Hero’s Journey

ONE WRITER'S OBSTACLE:

As a new writer, I watched hundreds of new writer videos and read any number of how-to articles. Everyone referenced the Hero's Journey. All the experts claimed that all stories fit within this template and this would keep a newbie on track.

For whatever reason -- maybe I'm thick or a simpleton -- I was not able to wrap my head around making a mystery romance story fit into a hero's journey template. And believe me, I tried looking at it from ten different angles. This was the first obstacle I came upon. My first novel, which turned into a series, was about a private investigator who investigated mysteries but also had a character arc that had nothing to do with a quest or battling anyone. To this day, I must confess, I still don't get the Hero's Journey.

Years ago before I even thought of writing, I watched a video series given by a writer and professor named Joseph Campbell who first popularized this 'hero's journey'. If I remember the series of talks correctly, his specialty or his great love was that of mythology. Now, mythology, if I remember from my one course in school, was all based on quests and heroics of some sort. So I do see how mythology fits into the hero's journey. I just can't get how it pertains to crime mysteries, mystery romance or psychological mysteries.

Believe me, I tried so many times to reinterpret my stories into "The Hero's Journey" and I was never able to make it work. I also tried to envision the hero's journey when I read other writer's fiction, and I didn't see a hero's journey in their works either. At some point I did just give up with the hero's journey acknowledging that I must have a mental block about it.

WRITING MY OWN MYSTERY INSTRUCTIONAL:

During this same struggle, I also searched the internet high and low for a mystery writing template that didn't use the hero's journey, and although I found a few, they were still too esoteric in nature. They all appeared to be built on the hero's journey in one way or another. None of them mentioned the crime, clue dropping or anything you commonly find in any mystery, mystery suspense, psychological mystery, or even cozy mysteries.

Now, eight novels later, I have made my own Writing a Mystery Novel Instructional as well as a Mystery Novel Template. This is not being offered as any superior template, or even a workable template as I still consider myself too new of an author. But I do offer these to others who find themselves trying to put square stories into the round holes of the Hero's Journey. Maybe this can save you the frustration and hours of searching I wound up doing. That is my purpose for this offer.

I don't have a nice graphic with a slueth's circle, but this Mystery Novel Template helps me get my thoughts organized. I offer it as a #writerstool for newbies. This is another "I wish I had it when I started" tool.

Click here to open and save the Mystery Suspense Template.

Writers Diary – First Day – Whys and Wherefores

My pen name is R Shannon and I started writing in late 2019. I self-published my first novel on KDP on 10/01/2020. The name of it is Groomed for Marriage.

I am set to retire from many careers in February 2023 at which time I hope to devote myself more to giving back to the DIY Writing Community. I learned everything I know today from the generous people who have shared their ideas, skills, and knowhow with the #writingcommunity on YouTube, their books, and their personal websites.

I have published 7 novels and am about to release my 8th book around August of 2022. The purpose of this blog is to help other people who are just beginning too. I have done HOURS AND HOURS of research and my hope is to save you some hours of research.

Most of what I'm sharing comes from other authors. My contribution is to try in some way to organize the information in some curriculum so that a newbie can learn what they need for the process of writing to publication to self-marketing.

I started writing in Word, but the tool that launched me as a writer was Scrivener. This is a reasonably-priced software that allows you to always have a bird's eye view of all that is happening. It can also be used to do initial plotting, outlining, writing the book, and even marketing. When I purchased it, it was $99 and it made all the difference in the world.

WRITING TIP:

This is a screen shot from Scrivener during the initial of writing. As you can see, I can keep track of new days, and chapters on the left-hand side, the writing itself is in the middle, and on the right hand side are various other tools, but this shot is showing the keywords. #writingtip

HOW I USE SCRIVENER KEYWORDS:

For this novel series, I use the keywords to allow me to name every relationship in the chapter. Then at the end, I can select only one keyword and track the character arc and/or the action in that plot or subplot. I didn't use keywords as a brand new writer, but I wish I knew this was a tool I could use. It is so very helpful. #writingstrategies

Category: Writers Diary