Basic Mystery Tropes and How to Start Writing a Mystery
I had fun with the first Mystery Monday. With an Ask Me Anything base, I answered a few questions as well as covering the topic for the day – Basic Mystery Tropes.
A Setting in Time At the time of Argolicus Rome was neither the capital city of Italy nor the center of the Roman Empire. King Theoderic, ruled Italy from the north of Italy in Ravenna and the Roman Empire was centered in Constantinople. In The Roman Heir Argolicus and Nikolaos leave Rome to begin his…
Derek Pacifico conducting Homicide School for Writers Real Cop Details in Your Fictional World Unless you have worked in law enforcement, writing realistic cops for your mystery involves getting to know law, law enforcement procedures, and a realistic picture of how cops think, act, and work. Reading and online research will give you a general…
Research is Background, Not the Story Historical research, especially for a time when not much original material from the period survives, can be daunting. At any given time my desktop may be covered with notebooks, maps, and reference books. Or I may be looking at a collection of photos I took at the Domus dei…
Photo by Arthur Edelman on Unsplash How to Bring Action to Your Mystery Mystery tropes like – the corpse, evidence hunt, sweating the perp, summation – comprise elements of the mystery novel readers expect. Action scenes will help build tension and, a well-written action scene pulls your reader into the story.Don’t overlook action scenes to…
The Writing Process with Jo Nesbø Interview with Jo Nesbø by the Pacific Northwest Writers Association detailing his beginnings in childhood as a storyteller and his writing process.My favorite quote is the one above: You don’t really know your characters until they start speaking. Tweet: You don’t really know your characters until they start speaking….