I figure it will take me seven days to re-write the mystery, doing two chapters a day. The weather turned cold and windy. No garden work, no long walks. Days like this keep me inside working. This is why the bulk of my serious writing work is done during the winter.
I've had a book on writing mysteries around for years that I never got around to reading. It is part of my makeup that I never follow rules. I always think I know everything. That's not likely to change at my age but today I thought I needed to think of ways to fix the problems I'd run into during the first two drafts.
In fact, the book indicates I am going at the re-write the proper way. It also points up the reasons I haven't been satisfied with the mysteries I've been reading.
My book starts with a serious and significant crime. It doesn't dilly dally around for chapters until something happens. The main suspects appear within the first two chapters. I am hiding nothing from the reader nor going off on tangents. (I hate that!) The solution must be the result of detection. There will be no surprise clues or suspects that show up in the final chapters. The reader must have all the facts.
In my first drafts, identifying the culprit was too easy. Today, I was setting up all the alternatives, not so much false clues as other ways the murder could have been done.
The book says to have a rousing denouement and that I have always had. I am good at beginnings and endings in my writing. It's only the middle I've ever had to struggle with.
So far so good. I finished the first chapters and e-mailed them to a friend to read. She has never seen this book so far, so we will see if she can figure out "whodunnit", preferably later instead of earlier.
I am on schedule.
I've had a book on writing mysteries around for years that I never got around to reading. It is part of my makeup that I never follow rules. I always think I know everything. That's not likely to change at my age but today I thought I needed to think of ways to fix the problems I'd run into during the first two drafts.
In fact, the book indicates I am going at the re-write the proper way. It also points up the reasons I haven't been satisfied with the mysteries I've been reading.
My book starts with a serious and significant crime. It doesn't dilly dally around for chapters until something happens. The main suspects appear within the first two chapters. I am hiding nothing from the reader nor going off on tangents. (I hate that!) The solution must be the result of detection. There will be no surprise clues or suspects that show up in the final chapters. The reader must have all the facts.
In my first drafts, identifying the culprit was too easy. Today, I was setting up all the alternatives, not so much false clues as other ways the murder could have been done.
The book says to have a rousing denouement and that I have always had. I am good at beginnings and endings in my writing. It's only the middle I've ever had to struggle with.
So far so good. I finished the first chapters and e-mailed them to a friend to read. She has never seen this book so far, so we will see if she can figure out "whodunnit", preferably later instead of earlier.
I am on schedule.
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