@obrian-of-the-surface-world

Does this help?

A whole lot! Thank you so much, Brian! That’s exactly the kind of overview I needed!

I already know who the murderer is and I have a faint idea of their motivation, but this will really help me work it out! Thank you so much!

Hi Rose,

I have been wanted to respond all day, but it has been so busy at work.

I agree with Joelle. You have to reverse-plot a mystery.  Determine what will happen and be revealed at the end and then work backwards.

You need to determine the main motivation for your villain.  What would drive them to commit a homicide.

There are the usual r…[Read more]

Sure thing, Rose!! (Hehe, ’tis pretty accurate. :P)

@joelle-stone

Thanks Joelle! I’ll absolutely go check it out! I have a lot of research to do XD

Also, I love your quote XD

Mm, good question, Rose! The only advice I can offer is to check out Abbie Emmons and Kingdom Pen and Story Embers and all their advice on mysteries. If you’re trying to plot, try reverse plotting (yes yes, I know you’ve heard me rant about it before XD) or going for a three-act story structure – or check out the SE resource library!! You never…[Read more]

@erynne

HI Erynne,

Oh, definitely! Yes!  If you are just starting out, in the preliminary drafts, you have to put “Mr. (or Mrs.) Ick” in a box, or lock it in a closet and dump clothes over him/her to muffle the sounds of his/her protest at being kept from being allowed to criticize your writing.  Critiques come later, and only when they have b…[Read more]

Anddd I forgot to tag you again *facepalm*

@obrian-of-the-surface-world

Wow, I’m pretty sure you helped me more than I helped you…oops XD

That is a pretty good one!

You’ve got internal thoughts of the MC. You’ve set up a degree of loss, feelings of failure, disappointment, contrition, and an odd juxtaposition of her mother and sister as spectators in her prospective torture and death.  You’ve introduced tensio…

[Read more]

@erynne

Good evening, Erynne!

Thank you for your response! Delighted to have you join this topic and discussion.  No need to apologize for the delay.

I totally understand. Today was a busy day for me too.  Sorry, I am so late getting back here to your reply. (writing this at night)

You wrote:

That is a pretty good one!

You’ve got int…[Read more]

Hello Brain! Thanks for tagging me! Sorry about the delayed response though, I’ve been busy with work work and work here at home…

Anyway, I am still in the process of plotting out my suspense novel, but I have had this opening line thought out for months. I haven’t told it to anyone so it might be absolutely awful on paper rather than in my…[Read more]

@lissie-w

Hi Lizzie,

So how did “Lucy’s” day begin to go south? How did you first begin to indicate something was going wrong?

If a potential reader was walking through a book store and happened to pick up your book from the shelf, and open to the first page, what lines would you use to hook them in to keep reading?  Do you have any examples…[Read more]

After a few not quite satisfying starts of my most complete WIP, I finally settled on putting my first scene, POV character into hot water as quickly as possible. The 911 dispatcher was already on the line as the character was in the process of climbing out the window onto the fire escape. I took the advice of Les Edgerton and wasted no time in…[Read more]