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Posted on Saturday, September 7, 2019 2:40 PM
Remember that a good plot twist can't be thrown in at the end just to fool the reader. You have to play fair. When readers look back, they should be able to see all the clues and realize that everything fits into place. With a perfect twist ending, the reader ought to smack their forehead and say, "Wow, what a great ending! I should have seem that coming." If you kept the reader guessing until the final confrontation, your twist was exceptional. Here are some tips to help achieve that goal: |
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Posted on Thursday, July 11, 2019 1:22 PM
Every mystery is filled with the usual suspects to keep the reader guessing "whodunit" until the end. Have at least four characters in your novel who have possible motives to commit the crime. They will be hiding secrets, lying to your protagonist, and acting suspiciously throughout the book; they each may have a reason to want the victim dead. But only one is lying about being the killer. Your job as the author is to trick the reader into believing right up until the final disclosure--that any one of those suspects could be guilty. |
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Posted on Wednesday, June 19, 2019 4:42 PM
PLOTTING A MYSTERY, PART TWO: PLANTING CLUES AND RED HERRINGS There are several techniques to use for dropping clues and hiding secrets. You can divert attention from a clue with an action or a joke; you can drop clues in dreams; you can hide clues in lists of interesting things; or you can use dialogue for misdirection. - Distract the reader withaction. J.K. Rowling does this at the beginning ofHarry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkabanwith Scabbers the rat; he's mentioned as being old and missing a toe and the shopkeeper notes that an ordinary rat shouldn't live more than three years.
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Posted on Wednesday, June 12, 2019 5:17 PM
How does a mystery writer go about planting clues and red herrings, fill the book with the usual suspects and the right amount of foreshadowing, enough conflict and suspense to keep the reader guessing whodunit, with a twist at the end? Follow along on the series of blogs, coming up in the next several weeks, to see what worked for me.
This week's blog is titled "Outline or Not, but Have a Plan." Whether you're a plotter or a "pantser," when writing a mystery you can't leave |
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Posted on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 5:22 PM
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Suzanne: Posted on Sunday, June 3, 2018 5:08 PM
ARE YOU A PLOTTER OR A PANTSER?
What does that mean? To a writer, it describes how you go
about your writing process.
A “plotter” means that the writer starts by making an
outline before the first sentence of the novel is written. She knows how the
story starts, where it’s going and she knows the ending. She knows every
character, what they’re going to do, where they’re going and when. Sure, once
and a while she might change her mind and stray from her outline—she’s not inflexible,
after all—but there will still be a revised outline and a clear ending in mind. |
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Posted on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 3:41 PM
Call it flow, pacing, or
movement—your scenes, chapters, paragraphs, and sentences should be varied in
length and technique. As a musician, I prefer to call it rhythm.
Short, choppy sentences and
fragments add tension to a scene. In real life, sentences tend to grow shorter
as we become more upset. We speak in fragments, sometimes uttering single words
at a time. Especially when used in dialogue, this can add a sense of reality to
a scene. |
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Posted on Friday, December 29, 2017 8:12 PM
THE POWER OF PROOFREADING
Never underestimate the importance of the time you spend on proofreading
your work. It’s the final, and most crucial, step in the writing process. Face
it, we’ve all fallen victim to the occasional typo, misspelling, and grammar or
punctuation errors that might even change the meaning of your text.
Time, or more accurately, the lack of time, is the main reason
proofreading tasks are ignored. But if you take the time to proofread
carefully, you show your reader that you care enough about them to pay
attention to details. |
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Posted on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 12:42 PM
Anyone recognize this blast from the past? Do you know who the organist is, or any of the skaters? |
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Posted on Wednesday, September 28, 2016 8:41 PM
Missy Jenkins is a piano teacher who lives in the small community of Twin Pines, located on the outskirts of Middletown, Pennsylvania. She is in her thirties, married to a construction worker and has two young boys. The Missy Jenkins musical mystery series is set during the late 1970s so the music that weaves throughout the series includes disco, rock and classical themes. Missy teaches her students, and her readers, bits of musical history and trivia along the way. Every protagonist needs strengths and weaknesses, and for Missy, her character strengths are also the flaws that get her into trouble. |
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