Spark on the Lam

If writers are the stars in our own TV police procedurals, then drafting a novel is like hunting down a fugitive in a back alley. Okay, we're probably not as tough as cops, but bear with me as I try to flesh out the simile!

There’s always some inspiration (clue) that initially sparks us: an image, a bit of dialogue, a character already talking in our heads, a premise so irresistible that it tingles in our fingers as we type.

So we go after it. At the beginning of the chase it all seems so clear and so doable—it’s right in front of us…. Almost grabbable…

Of course, that’s usually when the fugitive ducks around the corner and disappears and we’re left holding onto his hoodie.

That’s the darkest before dawn moment, when the cop (writer) wonders if they’ll ever solve the case. When we're so mired in the uncertainty of the process nothing is obvious anymore and nothing seems to be working. It’s even more difficult to keep up the pursuit when we no longer know what we’re looking for. (If you really want to make my TV cop comparison complete, we’d probably also be coping with in some personal problems, a failing marriage or some other crisis here, because all the good characters have them…)

But here’s the thing. That spark we’re chasing turns out to be a red herring. It’s what we thought we were looking for until we discover something even better, something that’s right in front of our noses. When we stop going after that elusive thing and we work with what we actually do have, the cold hard evidence of what’s already on the page, the real story emerges. That's when we get our man (story).

Repeat Offender: F.T. Bradley

Internal Affairs has been doing some investigations and found out we have to call one of our own authors (who works for this very site!) back in for questioning. Though we usually let our suspects go with a warning, we found this author has plenty to answer for. Hopefully, we'll get some clues about how authors write more than one mystery while keeping the stories fresh and interesting.

To answer our questions, we're bringing in Repeat Offender F.T. Bradley, author of Double Vision (Harper Children's). Along with writing, F.T. Bradley works on Sleuths, Spies and Alibis. You can read more about her in our About Us section. If you'd like to be caught up on her last interrogation (or read it all over again), you can find it right here.



Before we bring her in, you can read about her new book here:

 Washington, DC. Where spies are everywhere.

Lincoln Baker is just a regular kid. Okay, so he had this one undercover mission in Paris and, sure, he might have saved the world, but that's ancient history. He's done being a junior secret agent for Pandora.

The trouble is, Pandora isn't done with him. They've received a threat on the president's life from an agent named Dagger. Now they want Linc to go to Washington, DC, to protect the first daughter, Amy. As if that's not enough, George Washington's legendary coat, rumored to make its wearer invincible, is missing. Pandora needs to find it before Dagger does. Unfortunately for Linc, his by-the-book agent nemesis, Ben Green, is already on the case.

With Amy's help, Linc will have to dig deep into the history of America's first spies to beat Ben at his own game and stop Dagger before it's too late.

Is your second mystery part of a series or is it a standalone?

Double Vision: Code Name 711 is the second book in my MG adventure series featuring Linc Baker. This book was a blast to write--largely because Linc is such a fun character, but also because it allowed me to get lost a bit in my research on Washington, D.C. and George Washington. 

In each Double Vision book, Linc has to find the double of a famous artifact, only the double has mysterious powers. This double of George Washington's coat makes its wearer invisible... Cool, right?

What did you find most challenging about writing this novel? How did you overcome this challenge?

At first, I wasn't too inspired when I started researching George Washington. No disrespect to our first president, but he looks a little serious on the dollar bill... So that was challenging.

But then I started researching Washington, and found out he was a spy in the Culper Ring, a group of deep cover spies during the Revolutionary War. George Washington was code named 711. Once I had that bit of information, I was completely inspired. The research drove the story, honestly.

What did you find easiest about writing this novel?

Linc really makes the writing a breeze--his funny voice, crazy antics, and great heart are the best part of the Double Vision series. He may be a troublemaker, but he always does the right thing. Letting him run with the story during the first draft is always the best (and easiest) part.

Did you approach this novel differently having already written and published one mystery? Or did you use more or less the same approach?

Having established my main characters made it easier. I just had to stay true to Linc, Ben, Henry and the agents of Pandora (the top-secret organization tasked with retrieving the dangerous artifacts). The most challenging part of writing a series is making sure that the second, third, etc. books also work if you haven't read the first, but not boring your devoted fans with too much explanation. 

My process otherwise was pretty similar: I start with an interesting location, historical figure and artifact, and plot an exciting thriller from there. And then I add some cool gadgets--every spy needs those...

What are you most proud of in this book?

Finding that nugget of history, that George Washington gave orders to the Culper Ring, allowed me to bring history to life. I was able to show that just like Washington, Linc has a very strong moral compass: he does what he knows is right, even when the outcome isn't certain. That takes guts and character. 

I'm most proud of making George Washington and his choices and bravery relevant today. I hope the book connects with readers, and that it might make its way into a classroom or two. George Washington is cool.

Okay, F.T. It looks like we're going to have to let you go again... but if we catch you writing another mystery novel we're going to have to haul you in for further questioning!

Want to win a fabulous DOUBLE prize? Fleur's publisher is giving away a copy of DOUBLE VISION and the sequel CODE NAME 711. Click on the Rafflecopter thingie to enter! a Rafflecopter giveaway

Creative License: When NOT To Research

Confession: I'm an ex-academic. I languished in a Ph.D. program for years, endlessly researching an uninspired dissertation that I ended up never finishing. My long experiment with graduate school is a story for another post, I guess ("Why Pursuing a Ph.D. Should Be a Calling, Not a Fallback Option During an Economic Recession." Or, "Why You Should Cut Loose Your Safety Net -- Because It's Not So Safe!")

In those years I spent training to be a literary critic and a scholar, I developed a facility for research. That's good, right? Yes. I knew how to find information, and fast.

But I also developed a certain defensiveness.

In grad school, we were always on the defense, fortifying ourselves against professors who probed for intellectual potholes, or opportunistic young colleagues eager to knock down our arguments in a seminar and score a few points for themselves.

Or maybe it wasn't like that at all. Maybe I simply had a luxury of time back then to overthink, and to worry, and this is what sent me scurrying to the library day after day after day.

That need for research eventually carried into my fiction writing. First I wrote historical novels (not published), which might have still been that unwritten dissertation, in new clothes.

Then I wrote a mystery (Tokyo Heist) which centered on worlds that interested me greatly, but that I knew little about, initially: art conservation, the Japanese yakuza, Vincent van Gogh, Japanese woodblock prints, manga . . . if I didn't know about it, I was determined to find out about it and put it in my book!

With all the research I had to do, it's no wonder that book took eight years to write.

That pace is unsustainable, of course, for an aspiring career novelist. So when I had to write my next mystery -- with a book contract and a deadline -- I knew I didn't have the luxury of researching every detail.

For my forthcoming Latitude Zero, I chose a topic a little closer to home for me -- bicycling, a sport that I do -- and a country, Ecuador, where I once lived and worked. However, as I rounded out my main character's world, I realized I still had to do some research. (How do bike mechanics work? How are professional racing teams organized? How has Ecuador changed since I lived there over a decade ago?) But this time, I saved most of my research for after the first draft. I tried to get the story straight before I worried too much about facts. This saved me hours -- maybe weeks or months -- of research that was not needed, research I might have been tempted to shoehorn awkwardly into my plot.

I also found creative freedom in writing this book by letting go of the need to research every last detail myself. I had experts in various fields read the manuscript and vet facts or descriptions that I was worried about.

And a few things, I let go of completely.

I have a scene, for example, where a character is trapped in a shipping container with a whole bunch of bikes. In the past, worried about getting this key scene right, I would have arranged to see a shipping container packed with bikes up close. Not impossible. There's a bike shop here in Boston that packs up containers with bikes to send overseas, and they're always looking for volunteers. I volunteered at an art museum as part of my research for Tokyo Heist, so I thought I would do similar hands-on research with this book.

It wasn't easy. I tried on four separate occasions to get to a bike container load so I could see what it looked like firsthand. Family obligations got in the way every time. I was not a parent when I drafted my first book. Now I am. I don't have the luxury of time to immerse myself in every aspect my main character's worlds, as I had done before.

Beta readers looked at the scene -- and said it was gripping. I finally saw the light. I didn't need to research the life out of that scene. It was enough for me to watch a video of a shipping container bike load, to study some pictures of how the containers were locked, and then go write the scene. Readers were not likely to complain that my portrayal was not realistic. After all, how many people have been locked in a shipping container with 400 bikes? I'm guessing not many. If anyone came forward to accuse me of inaccuracy ("being trapped in a shipping container isn't like that at all!"), they'd be few and far between. So I decided to give myself some creative license and make up the experience myself. And it was fun!

In that spirit, towns in my book -- once real -- were demolished, and rebuilt as fictional entities. This freed me from the need to go out and check road signs and intersections and travel times from point A to point B. And after fruitlessly looking for a charity bike ride that my main characters might embark on, I made one up from scratch, including a route and all the logistics.

I still think research is important. Incorrect facts can pull readers right out of a book. And I still have a fat binder of research that I did for this new book -- and I still ended up venturing into unknown worlds, because I love to explore and to learn. But I've also learned to be more focused, more selective, in my information-gathering. We can let research take over, or become an excuse for not writing. As novelists, we have the license to make up a whole bunch of stuff. We should embrace our creative freedom -- and run from the temptation to over-research!

What about you? Do you tend to do too much research? Too little? How do you find a balance? When in the process do you do your research?

PS . . . have you entered SLEUTHAPALOOZA, our biggest giveaway yet? Help us celebrate our two-year anniversary and enter to win, or help spread the word! 

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Diana Renn grew up in Seattle and now lives outside of Boston with her husband and young son. Her first novel, TOKYO HEIST (Viking/Penguin) came out in 2012. Her next YA mystery, LATITUDE ZERO, will be published by Viking in July 2014. She is also the Fiction Editor at YARN (Young Adult Review Network).

Repeat Offender: Jennifer Shaw Wolf, on Writing Mystery #2!

While we generally let our Interrogation Room suspects off easy, this season we're hauling a few back in to talk about the perils -- and joys -- of writing a SECOND mystery. Many authors talk about the challenge of writing novel #2 - the psychological hurdles, the new pressures of deadlines and readers' expectations. But we have a theory that mystery/thriller writers may have additional challenges writing a second book. How do they keep clues and red herrings fresh? How do they keep surprising the readers with new plot twists and reveals, without revealing all the tricks they used in book 1?

To help us answer these questions, we're bringing in writers who are publishing or writing their second novels to talk about their process and how they got through. Kicking off our "Repeat Offenders" series today is Jennifer Shaw Wolf. Jennifer is the author of the YA mystery novel Breaking Beautiful (Walker Books for Young Readers, 2012), which received high praise from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, VOYA, and others. Her new mystery, Dead Girls Don't Lie, comes out tomorrow, also from Walker. Jennifer has a degree in Broadcast Communications and lives in Washington State with her husband and four kids. You can read (or reread!) her previous Interrogation Room interview with us here.

Before we haul her in . . . here's a bit about Jennifer's new novel!

Rachel died at two a.m . . . Three hours after Skyler kissed me for the first time. Forty-five minutes after she sent me her last text. 
 
Jaycee and Rachel were best friends. But that was before. . .before that terrible night at the old house. Before Rachel shut Jaycee out. Before Jaycee chose Skyler over Rachel. Then Rachel is found dead. The police blame a growing gang problem in their small town, but Jaycee is sure it has to do with that night at the old house. Rachel’s text is the first clue—starting Jaycee on a search that leads to a shocking secret. Rachel’s death was no random crime, and Jaycee must figure out who to trust before she can expose the truth.
In the follow-up to her powerful debut, Jennifer Shaw Wolf keeps readers on their toes in another dark, romantic story of murder and secrets.



 And now . . . here's the transcript of our first Repeat Offender interrogation!




Is your second mystery part of a series or is it a standalone?
Standalone.

What compelled you to write a second mystery novel, as opposed to working in another genre?
I kind of stumbled into writing mysteries, but I’ve found that I love it. I love creating twists and turns that keep the reader guessing and I love the “who” and “whydunnitt” that you build when you write a mystery.

What did you find most challenging about writing this novel? How did you overcome this challenge?

I sold this one on proposal so I knew from the get-go that this was going to be a mystery. My biggest problem was that I doubted my ability to write another good mystery. When you write a mystery you have to work in clues and red herrings and plot twists, and all of that takes advance planning and brainpower. When I wrote BREAKING BEAUTIFUL, I pantsed the whole thing and let the story just come out (although it was heavily revised.)With a deadline, I didn’t feel like I could do that. My solution was to outline, throw out the outline, revise, outline some more, revise, revise, revise, and a VERY patient and supportive editor. It was hard, but I really like how it came out.

What did you find easiest about writing this novel?
The setting was very familiar to me. I didn’t grow up in Eastern Washington, but Lake Ridge has a lot of similarities to the place where I grew up. I felt like the characters are people I could have known when I grew up. The situations are different, but the people and places felt familiar to me, a little like being at home.

Do you think second mystery novels present unique challenges to writers? Or are the challenges the same that any second-time novelist might face?
I think second time novels are just hard no matter what they are. You have your previous story to live up to, as well as the reviewers’ and critics voices constantly in your head as you write. I think that can block even the most seasoned author. As far as writing a second mystery, I think the challenge is to not use the same clues or situations—to make it unique and keep the ending a surprise.

What are you most proud of in this book? 
That it was a struggle, but I made it work. Often this was not a joy or a labor of love, it was just a labor. There were times when I was swept up in the story and the characters and I was loving the process, but it was harder than the first book and I’m proud that I stuck it out. I really think it’s a better book because I had to push to make it work.

Do you think your third book will also be a mystery? 
 Yes. I’m completely and totally in love with the genre, the process it takes to create a puzzle, and its ability to keep a reader (especially a reluctant reader) engaged while you talk about hard situations and hard things. The two books currently in my work in progress folder are both dark mysteries.

Okay, Jennifer . . . once again we're going to clear your name and send you back into the world to write more mysteries. Hope we don't see you -- er, I mean, we HOPE to see you here again next year  . . . when you'll be a three-book, triple threat writer!

PS . . . have you entered SLEUTHAPALOOZA, our biggest giveaway yet? Help us celebrate our two-year anniversary and enter to win, or help spread the word! 

A Little Tiny Baby Mystery

Obligatory baby pic... onesie courtesy of my fabulous agent!

I've just spent the last three and a half months on maternity leave with my first child, so I'm sorry to say that I don't have too much in the way of new writing tips (does typing one handed with my iPhone count?) or mystery books to recommend (read? ha ha ha). I do, however, feel as though I have given a lot of thought about what it means to be a conscious human being. And if my pretention hasn't stopped you yet, please do read on.

Besides the usual diapering and feeding, I've spent many hours staring into my newborn son's eyes, wondering what the heck is going on inside of that developing brain. And all of that loving gazing and ruminating reminds me just how mysterious we are to one another, even as full-grown verbally skilled adults. Not only that, but how much of what we think we know is actually projection. Case in point: My son cries when he's getting swaddled. My husband interprets this as his not wanting to be constrained. I, on the other hand, believe the baby is crying because he was just being held and now he's being put down. Will we ever know the truth? Doubtful. But our conjecture is probably more revealing about us as individuals than anything else. As parents, my husband places a high value on freedom and individuality, while I value nurturing (hello, biological determinism... I mean, could we be any more cliched?).

Anyway, this gap of not knowing can be a rich source of material for stories. Even if your characters aren't babies, chances are, like most human beings, they have blind spots (whassup Laura Ellen???). So maybe these kinds of questions can be helpful when writing and trying to create conflicts. What assumptions do your characters make about one another? What can they never really know? What do your characters not even know about themselves? How can you use these mysteries to enliven the bigger mysteries in your story? And an even bigger mystery... how can I get this little guy to nap?

The Mysterious MacGuffin

Mac·Guf·fin  noun \mə-ˈgə-fən\
Definition of MACGUFFIN : an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance (Merriam-Webster) 

Okay, I’ll admit it: I partly chose to write about MacGuffins because I just like saying the word (go ahead, try it!). But on a more serious note, I’m in the midst of crafting a new mystery and it’s got me thinking about them.

In case you don’t know a MacGuffin is, it’s what the whole story is about, yet at the same it doesn’t really matter what it is. Clear? ☺

Wikipedia says, “a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin or maguffin) is a plot device in the form of some goal, desired object, or other motivator that the protagonist (and sometimes the antagonist) is willing to do and sacrifice almost anything to pursue, protect or control, often with little or no narrative explanation as to why it is considered so important.”

Alfred Hitchcock is probably best known for MacGuffins. Here he is, explaining it all:



It’s R2-D2 and the Death Star plans in Star Wars, the statuette in the Maltese Falcoln, the ring in The Lord of the Rings. Frodo and Samwise and everyone else could just have easily been questing over a necklace or a stone or the deed to Middle Earth. The story would be the same, no matter the object.

In kidlit, it’s the baseball card in Swindle, the veena in Vanished, the horcruxes in Harry Potter, the painting in Chasing Vermeer, the million dollars in The Westing Game, Hamiathes's Gift in The Thief, the 39 clues in….well, The 39 Clues.

And, as I write that, I can’t help but think, the MacGuffin is also, oftentimes, the hook of the book. It’s the funny, intriguing, unexpected thing that might get kids to pick it up. In the library where I work, I can barely finish saying “original Babe Ruth baseball card” before Swindle is snatched out of my hands (that dog on the cover helps, too!).

I also think that the tighter the link the MacGuffin has to who the main character is, the more compelling the story. That’s why Neela’s story is so strong in Vanished. It’s her veena that’s stolen and it has deep ties to her family and her identity (it also may be cursed, which, again, helps with the hook). 

So…back to plotting. A MacGuffin that’s unique, funny, or surprising—AND that is personal to who your main character is. Hmmm. MacGuffins may be trickier than they seem...even though they’re not really about anything at all.

__________
W.H. Beck is a school librarian by day and middle grade author by night. Her first mystery, Malcolm at Midnight, stars classroom pets at midnight (it's MacGuffin is a missing iguana). You can find her online (Beck, not the iguana)  at http://www.whbeck.com.

Author? Who Me?

Writing means having authority, which isn't always the same thing as being an authority. One of the challenges of writing anything—fiction, nonfiction—is learning to trust your inherent ability to figure out what you don't know, because sooner or later the not-knowing is going to smack you in the face.

Writing mysteries and thrillers is newer for me, and taking on the Pretty Crooked series and my most recent WIP felt like a huge leap of faith. Sure, I had faith in my command of the language, but I had serious, keep-me-up-at-night-sized doubts about my ability to craft a story in a new genre, especially one that was as complex as mysteries and thrillers. (This is not to say I have completely mastered it. I haven't. I'm learning new stuff every day, and it's a process. Even writing entries like this one sometimes feels hard because I'm still like, really? I'm supposed to be giving advice here?)

What I've come to realize is that authority is kind of a fake-it-til'-you-make-it situation. And truthfully? I don't think there's anyone, published or not, who doesn't have the sneaking suspicion that they're about to be unmasked as some kind of fraud.

I remember last summer when a bookseller referred to me for the very first time as the author of Pretty Crooked. I immediately felt so intimidated by the label I wanted to run away. Never mind that it was completely accurate—I'd written the darn thing. She was holding the ARC for crying out loud.

A year later, it finally feels more comfortable. I'm an author. I'm even a mystery/thriller/contemporary author. And hey, if you call me that, I might even nod and smile.