Writing DNA #12

In yesterday's interview with debut author Jennifer Shaw Wolf, the subject of 'memory' came up while we interrogated her about her awesome novel BREAKING BEAUTIFUL. Allie, the novel's protagonist, is trying to reconstruct the memories of a tragic night. It occurred to me that, as writers, sometimes our stories can resemble reconstructed memories of events in our own lives.

The old edict is 'write what you know', but it might be better stated as 'write what you remember'. Or better still, 'write better than you remember'. I've noticed in my own writing that settings, people, and events might start out as close approximations to real-life inspirations from childhood and beyond. But, we're talking about fiction, so real-life is but a spark*. The resulting flame is so much brighter/hotter/dangerous than what came before it.

I wonder...do any of you have super vivid memories that could serve as inspiration for a story? If so, how can you make those memories even more fantastic (while changing names to protect the innocent...remember, fiction...fiction)?

While you think it over, be sure to checking out BREAKING BEAUTIFUL and our Interrogation Room interview with Jennifer Shaw Wolf.

*Real-life is also where the lawyers live. If I write about real people and places (particularly when it involves grisly fictional crimes), I might be looking at some lawsuits sooner than later. I don't want to look at lawsuits sooner than later, so I don't write about real people and places.

Writing DNA #11

We’ve been talking about settings all month and how they can enliven stories and add another dimension to mystery. The following are just a few examples of settings that are used to great effect in books for young readers.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb, 2009)

The 1970s New York in Stead’s MG novel is gritty and daunting but just magical enough to keep its eleven-year-old protagonist enchanted.

The Gallagher Girls books by Ally Carter (Disney/Hyperion)

Gallagher Academy is an elite school for girl spies and the setting for all of the GG books. Its luxurious accommodations, high-tech laboratories and secret passageways make it an intriguing place for readers to explore.

Remarkable by Lizzie K. Foley (Dial; April 12, 2012)

The whimsical world of Lizzie K. Foley’s upcoming MG story is a town where everyone is talented, extraordinary and above-average, but beyond its colorful facade, this unusual place also has plenty of mystery to keep its protagonist Jane Doe (and readers) guessing.

Gilt by Katherine Longshore (Viking; May 15, 2012)

Told through the perspective of its teen narrator and set in the court of Tudor England, Longshore’s juicy YA drama is filled with exacting historical detail that animates the era and all of its intrigue.

The Jade Notebook, by Laura Resau (Delacorte, March 2012)

Laura Resau's most recent novel in a trilogy about a globetrotting teen and her free-spirited mother transports us to a lush beach town in Mexico. Even in an idyllic setting, mysteries are encountered and danger abounds. Resau's other two books in the series, set in Ecuador and in Southern France, are also international mysteries where the settings are more than mere backdrops. Any foreign locale is a mystery in itself to a traveler, but having a sleuth navigate cultural differences while looking for clues to a larger mystery makes for a really compelling read.

Writing DNA #10

This time in Writing DNA we're discussing Family Ties. Not the sitcom from the 80's for those who remember, but the family relationships that can influence (or hinder) heroes and villains in Young Adult Mysteries.


Lamar "L.R." Giles: What traits run in your family? Do you come from a long line of athletes or chefs? Are you all tall, short? Does everyone have brown hair? Does your family have an affinity for solving (or committing) crimes? From the YA Mystery genre's first family, The Hardy Boys, to Katarina Bishop, daughter of an art thief in Ally Carter's Heist Society, sometimes crime is just in the blood. As writers, we're often asked what motivates characters? There's nothing quite like a long line of trouble makers and trouble seekers to imbue a character with the right amount of drive and skill to get the job done.

Diana Renn: In many young adult mysteries, a young sleuth's family seems to provide obstacles to effective detective work (setting limits and curfews, restricting their freedom) OR the family recedes into the background, maybe popping up as an occasional annoyance. More and more in YA mysteries, I see only children (siblings complicate plots, and mystery plots are complex enough). I see many absent, traveling, alcoholic, or clueless parents -- often single parents -- again, perhaps because it's easier to get them out of the scene and explain why the young sleuth has the freedom to hunt for clues or to get into dicey situations. But I'm always looking for exceptions. I find some mysteries are really compelling when they hit close to home -- that is, when they directly involve the main character's family members. If a young sleuth is motivated to find a missing sibling or parent, or to clear the name of a relative who's been wrongly accused, or to save a family business -- or to save a family name -- that's high stakes, and I'm all in. I particularly like Peter Abraham's Echo Falls series -- there is some family dysfunction, but they are a nuclear family dealing with realistic issues. I also love Laura Resau's Notebook series (The Indigo Notebook, The Red Notebook, and The Jade Notebook) because the mysteries the teen sleuth pursues directly relate to her ongoing quest for a family; the mysteries she solves in various countries put her on the path to finding lost family and becoming more anchored in the world.

Elisa Ludwig: I'd argue that family relations are critical to character development in any story. How the protagonist feels about their parents and their siblings, even if these characters don't play a prominent role, tells us a lot about who they are. In mysteries, family can support or obstruct the protagonist's search for the truth, or they can provide extra motivation—something to prove. A recent example is Sheela Chari's Vanished. Neela, the protagonist is thwarted in her search for her missing veena by her parents' rules and refusal to believe her. At the same time, Neela's pesky little brother is a constant source of comic relief before they ultimately find some understanding. All of these relationships make the story that much richer, and they ground it in a believable context for readers.

Writing DNA #9: Using Lore, Legends, and Superstitions

Photo by Jasmaine Mathews

It's March -- a month full of Blarney Stones, four-leaf clovers, leprechauns, the Luck of the Irish, and let's not forget, Beware the Ides of March! With a month so full of lore, legend, and superstition, we thought we'd talk a little about the part such things play -- or doesn't -- in our own writing.

Laura Ellen: Kids love  magic and curses and legends; they want to believe there are things that exist beyond what we can see and feel. Naturally, then, you find many a mystery shrouded in these very things. Superstitions, curses, and legends do make awesome springboards for mysteries. They add that extra element of intrigue and unknown that immediately draw readers into a mystery. But they can also be tricky because the author must decide if the story is going to be anchored in reality -- in which case the curse or magic will have to be explained away at some point -- or if the story will indeed have that element of magic -- in which case the author must build a world that is not our own and yet still makes sense. Of course, a story can have a little bit of both like many urban fantasies do, but the author still must walk that fine line between real and fantasy, deciding what to explain away and what to keep as magical. Myself, I love the unknown, the hint that there may be something out there beyond ourselves, but I am also a very contemporary writer, always keeping my plots and characters firmly footed in reality. So while I may use a legend or a superstition as a tool to amp the tension and fear,  the outcome of the plot won't rely on the existance of that legend or superstition. (Well, so far I haven't anyway; I suppose there is always a chance, right?)

Diana Renn: Like Laura's, my fiction is contemporary and grounded in reality, but I am drawn to the unknown. In very early drafts of Tokyo Heist, I had a ghostly figure -- OK, a ghost -- but eventually I had to accept that using the ghost would require all kinds of significant changes to support its mere existence. (Or non-existence, I suppose). He only had a cameo appearance, so it wasn't worth all that. Yet I let myself be haunted by this ghostly presence, rather than my character, and he whispered all kinds of good ideas in my ear. It was useful to think of an angry figure from the past and what he might want to see happen or not happen in the story. However, I did tiptoe into the realm of superstition and luck: I have a fortune that crops up in the novel, which the main character receives at a shrine. Its maddening ambiguity (does it foretell, in its broken English, good luck or bad?) led me to a fun plot twist, so I'm glad I had the good fortune to think of playing with a superstitious device. Even if you don't use real magic in your story, a character can wrestle with the concepts of superstition, curses, legends, and luck, and send your story in surprising directions.

W.H. Beck: I don't have a curse or a legend in my novel, MALCOLM AT MIDNIGHT, but I do have a couple of sayings that haunt the Midnight Academy (the secret society of classroom pets). However, I'm embarrassed to say how long it took me to come up with them! I Googled. I searched. I browsed quote books. But nothing I came across conveyed the feeling I was looking for about midnight. Then, all of the sudden, one day it hit me: I was writing fiction. Duh. I COULD MAKE IT UP. And so I did. :-)

L.R. Giles: I used to have dreams of being a horror writer because I grew up on all manor of ghosts, ghouls, and monsters. The more I read and researched things that go bump in the night, I discovered many stories were rooted in legends and superstitions dating back to, heck, the beginning of time. Looking into the legends/superstitions themselves, I found that they were often the result of ancient storytellers trying to make sense of a world they didn't understand. It was their (albeit faulty) way of solving life's mysteries. Now, in terms of my mysteries, I look at legends/superstitions as inspirational gold mines. The same way ancients used legends to explain the things around them, I can use them to explain the world my characters live in, give them some quirky motivations. I don't go to legends/superstitions every time, but I am working on something right now that is heavily driven by an old tale that goes like this: If you say "Rabbit, Rabbit" on the first day of a month--before you speak any other words--you'll have a month of good luck, but, if you don't say it, your luck goes the other way. When this blog posting goes live, it will be the first day of March. Hmmmm, Rabbit, Rabbit.

Elisa Ludwig: Like many writers I'm pretty superstitious about the conditions I need to be productive. It's never terribly outlandish but I do need a good seat, usually in a cafe, with strong coffee, and my screen facing away from where anyone else can see it. Some cafes are better than others but there's one that I prefer the most. With the particular piece of writing I'm working on now, I have also become addicted to a specific soundtrack of German minimalist music. And when I'm at home, I need my lucky metal pinecone on my desk—it was given to me by a writing teacher in college.

Kristen Kittscher: I didn’t weave any superstitions or curses into the plot of my middle-grade mystery/comedy THE WIG IN THE WINDOW. However, my white main character’s overenthusiastic appropriation of Chinese cultural traditions plays itself out in ways some might interpret as superstition. Much to the annoyance of her Chinese-American best friend and fellow sleuth, Sophie Young arranges her room in accordance to feng shui principles, consults the I Ching, and wishes her parents would let her place fu dogs at their front door to guard against evil chi. Though Sophie’s zeal provides comic relief and is a source of tension in the sleuths’ friendship, it’s also symptomatic of her desire for greater control over her circumstances. As I researched feng shui principles, I couldn’t help but soak them up: when a writing challenge stymied  me, you bet I’d make sure to face west and enhance the “creativity” sector of my room. In addition, when I am writing I also always keep nearby a tiny pewter medieval knight that my best friend gave me when I sold THE WIG IN THE WINDOW. Her late father, a writer and scholar I respected very much, always kept it with him on his desk as a reminder to charge ahead with his writing adventures. It’s now one of my dearest possessions.

DNA #8

In honor of Valentine's Day, this week in DNA we're looking at the magic of sidekicks in mysteries. Here's what our detectives have to say about it.

Laura Ellen: What would Sherlock be without Watson? Frank Hardy without his brother, Joe? Nancy Drew without her friends Ned, George and Bess? Every good sleuth needs an assistant. But why exactly?

An assistant can push your sleuth to take a risk, to look at something or someone in a different way, to make the right decision . . . or a wrong one. Assistants or sidekicks or partners in crime—whatever you call them—they are an author's best tool for pushing plot forward while deepening character.

I love the sleuth/assistant relationships where there is a lot of bantering going on between the two, where each character brings out the best and the worst in each other, highlighting each other's strengths and weaknesses, at each other's throats more often than at peace—but are also always on the same page when it counts. And because I love me some romance with my mystery, my sleuths and their assistants are almost always boyfriend and girlfriend—even if they don' know it yet. That extra tap-dancing that comes into play when the heart is involved adds an extra layer of tension that I just love writing.

Elisa Ludwig: Our characters, just like people in real life, get by with a little help from their friends. In Pretty Crooked, Willa conducts most of her covert activities on her own, but when her mom starts acting strangely, she does get some assistance from her best friend Cherise. In one particular scene, they set out to tail Willa’s mom, and for me, this was one of the most fun moments in the book.

For one thing, the dialogue flowed really easily between these two characters, with Cherise

drawing some conclusions that Willa just doesn’t want to hear. For another, it was an opportunity to bring it back to the teen experience—Willa is doing a lot of grown up (and illegal) things in this book but when she’s with Cherise she’s undoubtedly a 15 year-old girl. Finally, your protagonist simply can’t figure everything out on their own, so having a sidekick there can really take the burden off of them and advance the fact-finding process.

Diana Renn: I love a strong, independent sleuth, but that doesn't always translate to excitement on the page. A sleuth working on her own too long means too much time in her head, or voicing rhetorical questions to an empty room, or Googling stuff (yawn). Talking through clues and and strategizing with a sidekick is way more interesting, and inevitably leads to action . . . if a plan is dreamed up, it must be acted upon! I love sidekicks so much I actually have two of them in Tokyo Heist, one in Seattle and one in Japan, since my main character has to travel. Sidekicks can be sounding boards, skilled experts, love interests, best friends, occasional rivals, comic relief . . . the possibilities are endless.

Writing DNA #7

We're tackling a pair of topics this week in Writing DNA. Motive & Magic...let's see what the detectives say:

Diana Renn: Motive. We mystery writers and readers are alert to it in criminals. Someone commits a crime, in life or in fiction, and we almost immediately wonder: why? Understanding motive puts us on the path to clues, or to catching the culprit, and we begin to solve the puzzle. But it's also important to think about an investigator's motive -- or motivation -- and that's the issue I'm sliding under the microscope today. Why is the sleuth getting involved in the case? If it's an adult mystery and the sleuth is in law enforcement, or a PI, it's probably just in the job description. And even so, there's likely some inner drive to solve the mystery or to serve justice. If it's an adult mystery and the sleuth or stumbles into the mystery, the writer may have to work harder to justify involvement.

And if it's a mystery for young people, and the sleuth is certainly an amateur, this becomes an even trickier issue. A child or teen sleuth may be breaking parental or school rules to get to the bottom of a case, and possibly even breaking the law (for example, driving without a license to flee an attacker; or hacking into a computer to get information on a suspect). The stakes seem higher with kids involved. Adults have to be pretty much clueless or gone to give young sleuths room to operate, and these young sleuths have to be pretty committed to the cause to risk the penalties they might incur. Yet successful kids' mysteries seem to present sleuths who have greater motivation than "I love a good mystery." Some motivations I've come across in recent reading:

• A family member or friend of the sleuth has been framed, is accused of a crime, is in danger, is personally impacted by a crime.
• The sleuth has been framed, accused of a crime, or put in danger.
• The sleuth must prove his or her worth in the face of great skepticism.
  
• The sleuth has screwed up, and solving the mystery will redeem him or her in some way.
• The sleuth needs to save someone or something (a life, a reputation, a family business, a school, a legacy

Can you think of other motivations for young detectives? Can you think of examples of highly motivated young sleuths you've come across in fiction?

Kristen Kittscher:  Magic. I always find it interesting to try to pinpoint what fuels suspense in a passage or book I love, but I often come up short. I can pick out the usual suspects -- the rhythm of its sentences, the atmospheric word choice, the foreshadowing – but when it comes down to it, I’m convinced magic is at work. In fact, I’m fairly certain Shirley Jackson was dabbling in witchcraft when she wrote the gothic masterpiece We Have Always Lived in the Castle, but that won’t keep me from trying to explain what makes its initial chapter one of the most suspenseful pieces of writing I’ve ever read. I think the crucial ingredient is how hard Jackson works to create a sympathetic figure of her utterly unreliable first-person narrator before, gradually – and with increasing frequency – having her toss out puzzling and potentially horrifying asides. “I must be kinder to Uncle Julian,” Merricat eerily reminds herself every few pages. “I’m not allowed to prepare food or to gather mushrooms,” she mentions casually not long after she’s let it slip that her entire has family died. Soon thereafter she's prattling on about her cat.  However, at first Jackson makes Merricat seem like a vulnerable, immature outsider whose dark thoughts about her fellow villagers -- though exaggerated – seem like justified rage at her treatment by them. It's only a bit later that Jackson begins alienating us from Merricat, cutting us loose gradually until we know we’re adrift in a sea of unreliable narration. We Have Always Lived in the Castle reminds me that suspense at its best is about rattling expectations and putting your reader on uncertain, shifting territory.

OUR GIVEAWAY CONTINUES! Win an ARC (Advance Readers Copy) of Robbie Forester and the Outlaws of Sherwood Street, signed by Peter Abrahams! Contest closes at midnight EST, 1/23/12.Click on the link below to access the Rafflecopter thingie and enter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Writing DNA #6

For our Writing DNA this week, we thought we would share our writing resolutions for the new year.

Elisa Ludwig: While there are certainly some more concrete goals I could set for myself in terms of page counts or drafts finished, my major writing task for 2012 is to stay calm. As I spend more time and emotional energy on fiction, I'm starting to see some obvious patterns emerging. Every day of easy, flowing writing is followed by a day where things get jammed up, and then the cycle repeats. The mood swing concluding "this sucks. I suck." usually swings right back into the other direction with thoughts like "Damn, I'm good." My point is that it's very easy to get caught up in all the little shifts that happen. But one day's work will not make or break the WIP and it certainly won't make me either a genius or a failure. So this year I'm going to try my hardest to just stick with whatever I'm working on, keep it all in perspective and have fun.

Laura Ellen: My biggest writing resolution for the new year is to WRITE. I find myself stressing about too many other things -- blog posts, marketing, press kits, my website -- and by the time I get to my Work In Progress, I'm burnt out. So this year I am going to put my WIP first each day. Regardless of what else is on my plate for the day, I am going to make myself work at least one hour on it first and then tackle the rest!

Kristen Kittscher: My writing resolution for 2012 is to be kinder to my works-in-progress. While a healthy dose of self-criticism can be helpful when revising, I have a tendency to belittle my own work and never be satisfied with the results. Recently, when I was (yet again) complaining about a manuscript's various flaws, a writing friend stopped me and said, "Shhh! Your book can hear you!" It was a healthy reminder that my negative thoughts do much more harm than good. There's no point in sapping all the fun out of the process by beating myself up over shortcomings, so I'm going to do my best to be more respectful of my own writing in 2012.

Diana Renn: I have many writing resolutions for 2012, which echo those of my fellow sleuths above. Finding -- no, making -- more time to write is a huge priority for me as well. My number one priority is to get out of my house to work, four days a week. My productivity soars when I meet my writing buddy at our local library. The house is simply too filled with distractions, including telemarketers, clutter calling out to be organized, and various appliances falling apart. And while there is wi-fi at the library, I'm too embarrassed, in the public reading room, to jump onto Facebook or other distractions, or to get sucked into endless research. So I resolve to go out into the world, into my psuedo-workplace, and treat my writing as the daily job that it is.

Writing DNA #5

Listen up all you crime scene investigators, writing is a tough gig, even for the best of us. When things get overwhelming, a little inspiration is a wonderful thing. As part of Writing DNA Thursdays, we're going to clue you to what our detectives do to keep their muses on the grind. So break out your lab kits and see what you can make of these DNA samples:

Laura Ellen: Sometimes I hit a rut with my writing. I am either stuck and unsure how to move forward in my novel, or I am simply feeling uninspired and don't want to sit down to write. When this happens, I read my way out. Sometimes it will be a new book - one everyone has been raving about or one I've really been wanting to read and haven't had the time. But more often than not, it's a favorite book. Favorite books are 'favorites' for a reason -- whether it is the endearing characters or the rich writing or the smart way the plot unfolds -- something in each inspires me and makes me want to write. Two of my all-time favorite get-me-out-of-the-rut books are: A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly and A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray.

Elisa Ludwig: One of the challenges in writing about crimes is learning to think like a criminal (assuming, of course, that you, the writer, are not one yourself). The other day I stumbled on a show called I (Almost) Got Away With It, which is on Investigation Discovery. (Not having cable I watched old episodes on Netflix.) The show details the amazing things fugitives have done to escape the cold hard handcuffs of the law. One of the shows I saw involved a murderer who escaped prison THREE separate times before fleeing to Canada. One of his escapes involved fashioning a saw out of a toothbrush and a razor blade. You can't make this stuff up!

Diana Renn: Sometimes I find inspiration in taking a break from a big project, like a novel, and turning to something smaller. Recently I've been reworking a short story. I set myself some manageable goals: whittle down the word count, make it more contemporary, amplify suspense and tension, and see if it's possible to write a micro-mystery in under 8,000 words. It's very satisfying to hear the gears click into place and enjoy the thrill of experimentation without having to jettison potentially hundreds of pages. Writing in shorter formats reminds me of of how to make choices and boldly plunge forward to see if they work. Reading and re-reading short stories by others also inspires me, bringing elements of writing craft to the foreground.

Writing DNA #4

Listen up all you crime scene investigators, writing is a tough gig, even for the best of us. When things get overwhelming, a little inspiration is a wonderful thing. As part of Writing DNA Thursdays, we're going to clue you to what our detectives do to keep their muses on the grind. So break out your lab kits and see what you can make of these DNA samples:

Elisa Ludwig: Lately, I've been working on the sequel to Pretty Crooked, which is called Pretty Sly, and it has a ton of action scenes and a lot of narrow escapes. I've been watching every action and heist movie I can get my hands on as research—even the bad ones usually have some interesting solutions for getting a hero out of a jam. And I have to say, after seeing the remake of Ocean's Eleven for the 20th time, that it never gets old.

Kristen Kittscher: I'm a local crime blotter junkie. While most reports are, sadly, of typical violence and crime -- at least once a week I'll stumble upon something unusual that fills my head with the kind of "What If..." questions that generate stories. Recently, I read of one house robbery in a wealthy area of town in which "only shotgun shells and a strand of pearls" were missing. Another report detailed how bands of pre-teen kids were robbing houses under the direction of an adult crime ring. (Oliver Twist and Fagin, right here in my town!) Then there was the local barber and mentor to under-served youth was killed by some of his protegees right outside his shop. While I may not write actual stories based on the tidbits, the wondering mindset they put me in always inspires ideas.

Photo by Saïvann ¤

Laura Ellen: Could you write the life story of the person in this photo?

Of course not! You don't even know him . . .or her . . . heck, you don't even know if it's a him or her!

Why, then, would you start a story without knowing your characters?

This week, my Writing DNA tip is: get to know your characters. I mean really get to know them. Sit down with a pen and a paper and talk to them, all of them - your main character, your supporting characters, your villain. Ask them questions about their likes and dislikes, what they are afraid of, what they can't live without. Ask them about the time they were lost or the time they were scared or the time they laughed so hard they wet their pants. Ask the questions you'd ask if they were a new friend or a potential date.

Most of the stuff you learn about your characters won't  be in your story. These are things for you to know, background info that will let you understand your character and how he/she should  react in certain situations. However, often what you learn about your characters will at some point help you write yourself out of a tough spot or give you new material to work with when you find your plot going in a direction you hadn't expected.

So get interviewing - you'll be surprised at what your characters have to say!

Lamar "L.R." Giles:  Lately I've been entranced by visual storytelling and the way societal perceptions change over time. DC Comics recently rebooted all of their major characters. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman...all starting from scratch. While not related to mysteries directly, I've found inspiration in how the past mirrors the present and, in ways, predicts the future. Now I'm jotting down notes about a mystery that may stretch across all three time frames, possibly as a graphic novel. Time (get it?) will tell if anything comes of it.

Diana Renn: I always find inspiration in my writing group. We're a group of eight. We've been meeting for about ten years now, with a little turnover in the group now and then, but generally stable. I always come away from our meetings energized and motivated, even when my own material isn't up for workshopping. I love hearing about what my friends are working on and struggling with, and I love celebrating their successes. Every time someone gets an agent, or sells a short story, or finishes a draft of something, it feels like a win for our whole team. I also find vacuuming somewhat inspiring, or at least soothing -- something about white noise -- so I'm off to do that now, since it's my night to host my writing group!

***********************************************************************************

We're giving away a signed copy of THE DARK DAYS OF HAMBURGER HALPIN by Josh Berk! To enter the contest, simply comment on any of the Sleuths Spies and Alibis posts between Wednesday, November 16 and Monday, November 21. Contest closes November 21 at midnight, EST. The winner will be announced on Friday, November 25. One comment = one entry in our drawing; limit one per day.

Writing DNA #3

Listen up all you crime scene investigators, writing is a tough gig, even for the best of us. When things get overwhelming, a little inspiration is a wonderful thing. As part of Writing DNA Thursdays, we're going to clue you to what our detectives do to keep their muses on the grind. So break out your lab kits and see what you can make of these DNA samples:

The Palos Verdes Peninsula

 Kristen Kittscher: One of the advantages of having grown up in so many places is that it's easy for me to conjure up specific childhood memories just by remembering the house and neighborhood I lived in at the time. If I want to feel like I'm 9, I travel back in my mind's eye to my room in the house we lived in outside of San Francisco for a year. Or maybe I need to tap into seventh grade -- so I mentally transport myself to Reno, Nevada. I'll look at old pictures of my room, remember my friends, the many dramas -- both major and minor -- and then free-write a bit before I dig into writing a scene in my manuscript. Though the setting and characters are entirely different from reality, the mental exercise helps me tap into an emotional truth and inspires better work. I loosely based the setting in my debut novel on a stunning Los Angeles-area peninsula where I was lucky enough to spend sixth grade. Since I live close by, I visited there from time to time while writing, which inspired me even more. 

Photo by Dave Dyet

Laura Ellen: The dark, scary, not-so-nice characters and scenes are what make any mystery or thriller suspenseful and exciting. But sometimes the villain and the dark, edgy events that occur thanks to that villain or villains are the hardest to write. As authors, we don't want to seem like we identify with the thief or the murderer or the arsonist. We don't want readers thinking that if we could imagine something so dark or twisted, it must be in our DNA; we must be evil too. And so, we avoid writing these scenes; we get stuck; or we write something way too nice and safe to be a mystery. The thing to remember is that we all have a bit of evil in us. Yes, you do! Haven't you been so envious of your sister's new toy, sweater, whatever - that you borrowed it without asking? Or broke  something you weren't supposed to have and lied about how it got that way? Have you ever been so angry at someone or so jealous of someone that you did or said something you later regretted? Every villain has a motive spurred on by anger or envy or jealousy or revenge. So . . .when you are writing your edgy, dark, villain scenes, figure out what your villain's motivation is by tapping into a time when you felt those same emotions. How did you feel? What did you do? What did you feel like doing? Then, take that and put it into your story. What is your villain feeling? What does he want to do? How might he do that and get away with it?  Don't be nice. This isn't the place for it. Escalate those emotions, those actions, those fears until you've written the darkest, edgiest, most suspenseful scene possible.

Elisa Ludwig: There was a period of time in my life when I'd just graduated from college and I was living at my parents' house and working in a video store. I'd get home late at night and, too wired to sleep, I'd settle in front of the TV. Many times I'd use the hour or two to catch up on the classic/foreign/art house films I was supposed to be personally recommending to customers, but just as often I would watch reruns of the original episodes of Unsolved Mysteries that aired nightly on Lifetime. The pounding synth soundtrack, the dramatically lit reenactments, the suspicious talking-head interviews—it was all conceived perfectly to draw you right in. Eeriest of all was Robert Stack, who stalked around in his trenchcoat and offered a husky-voiced narration. The first frame warned "this is not a news program," but because the stories were ostensibly true, the show never failed to give me shivers. There were nights when I'd be so spooked out by a story of a woman gone missing or a creepy encounter with the paranormal that I'd have to stay up and watch a Godard film just to get it out of my head. The show was resurrected in 2008, and I haven't seen any of the newer episodes, but I suspect that without Stack (he died in 2003) it's just not the same.

Lamar "L.R." Giles: When I gear up to bring the scary I tend to think about the masters. King, Lovecraft, Matheson...and I remember that less is more (well, maybe not for Lovecraft). I revisit the novels and scenes that scared me most and I realize there's never as much detail as I remember. The masters are good at giving you just enough to get your imagination going, then your own fears fill in the gaps. I try hard to do the same.

Diana Renn: When I need to write something scary, the night is my friend. I cannot draft anything remotely spine-tingling or creepy in the light of day. I need a dark house, and a soft pool of light on my desk. Wind howling is a bonus. I open window shades so that I'm confronted with darkness outside, so that I can feel it pressing in on me. This summer, I wrote the scariest scene in my novel at a vacation cottage on Cape Cod, where there were no outside lights and the moths hurled themselves against the screen I sat by to get to my computer screen glow. One huge bug was as large as a small bat. Maybe it was. I hate bugs. I hate bats more. I was terrified. I wrote on.

*****************************************************************************

We're giving away a copy of Dan Poblocki's book THE MYSTERIOUS FOUR: HAUNTINGS AND HEISTS. Comment on any Sleuths, Spies & Alibis blog post by 10/31. Simply fill out our contest form here.

Writing DNA #2

Listen up all you crime scene investigators, writing is a tough gig, even for the best of us. When things get overwhelming, a little inspiration is a wonderful thing. As part of Writing DNA Thursdays, we're going to clue you to what our detectives do to keep their muses on the grind. So break out your lab kits and see what you can make of these DNA samples:

Laura Ellen:
One of my favorite ways to get into what I'm writing is to find a picture that represents some aspect of my story. Setting, character, tone—you can find anything captured in a photo or painting. Try looking through magazines, calendars, postcards, or visit an art museum to find something that echoes what you are writing. Make sure you keep a collection of pictures that inspire you too—it's a great source when you have writer's block.

Diana Renn:
The writing advice book I constantly circle back to is written not by a fiction writer, but by a dancer and choreographer. THE CREATIVE HABIT, by Twyla Tharp, is a wellspring of inspiration and practicality. It emphasizes the need for rituals and habits to activate creativity; she also provides many tips for breaking down daunting projects into manageable components, offsetting perfectionist tendencies, and accomplishing one's creative goals. There are numerous exercises, useful for writers or for anyone involved in creative endeavors. You can dip into the book anywhere or read it straight through. I especially love how Tharp starts her dance choreography projects with an empty box, into which she dumps any potential seeds of her projects (news clippings, CDs, books, photos, etc.). I've used this approach as a way to gestate new projects, and found it very helpful.

L.R. Giles:
I live in Virginia, and whenever October hits there's this scent in the air...a crispness, mixed with the smokiness of burning leaves. That smell has always reminded me of cool quiet nights leading up to the spookiest day of the year, Halloween. It gets me into a special mood, and makes me want to write scenes that are a little darker and scarier than my norm.

Elisa Ludwig:
Last weekend I saw the movie Drive. I loved the slick ’80s feel to it, all the Miami Vice references from the electro music to the aerial skyline shots. But what's really interesting is how the story unfolds. Ostensibly, it's a crime thriller, and there's a whodunit killing to figure out. Yet there's even more mystery surrounding Ryan Gosling's nameless character, and the plot hinges on our discovery of who he really is. It's fascinating and utterly dark but it got me thinking a lot about the inner life of characters and how slowly revealing that can provide its own kind of suspense.

*********************************************************************************

We are giving away an autographed book from our next Interrogation Room suspect! To enter the contest, simply comment on any of the Sleuths Spies and Alibis posts between Tuesday October 4 and Friday October 14. Contest closes October 14 at midnight, EST. The winner will be announced on Monday, October 17. One comment = one entry in our drawing; limit one per day.

The interview with Suspect #2 will appear tomorrow, Friday 10/7; check back to find out her identity! Clues: She's a former chef, she's an expat writer now living in London, and her MG mystery novel - -released earlier this year -- takes place in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 

Writing DNA #1

Listen up all you crime scene investigators, writing is a tough gig, even for the best of us. When things get overwhelming, a little inspiration is a wonderful thing. As part of Writing DNA Thursdays, we're going to clue you to what our detectives do to keep their muses on the grind. So break out your lab kits and see what you can make of these DNA samples:

Elisa Ludwig:
For me it's fall. Knowing that cooler temperatures are on their way, and with them, the desire to stay inside and drink hot beverages is keeping me at the computer focused on my WIP. While the change of seasons isn't affecting the content of my writing, it's just inspiring me, period. After a long, super-hot summer, there's a renewed sense of energy, and the back-to-school time of year always makes me want to buckle down and get serious.

Laura Ellen:
Music is the one thing that inspires me most, and it always goes hand-in-hand with my creative process. When I am kicking around a novel in my head, I start gathering songs that remind me of the characters or the setting or the plot - even the tone and pacing. It can be in the lyrics or the rhythm, but something in each song attaches to something in my plot. As I begin writing, I am constantly adding to the songs and rearranging them in a playlist that parellels my plot. This playlist becomes a tool for me. I listen to it before I start writing each day to get back into the story, or when I get stuck and need to figure some plot point out.

Kristen Kittscher:

Nothing inspires me more than re-reading a book I loved, no matter the genre. When I find myself feeling blocked and tired, I take a break and pick up a favorite -- maybe only to read a chapter or two. Without fail I return to work feeling refreshed and eager to forge ahead, even though I know I won't match their greatness. Some middle-grade titles I've turned to are The Penderwicks (Jeanne Birdsall), When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead), and From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg). However, I've also re-read favorite classics for adults such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Muriel Spark), Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier), and Frankenstein (Mary Shelley), as well. 


Lamar "L.R." Giles:
I live by a really great bookstore and when I need inspiration I like to go and walk the aisles. It's something about the smell of all that paper, and the way the light gleams off glossy dust jackets that gets me really geared up. Usually I'll find something new to read, but the atmosphere just does something for me. It's like the feeling of coming home.

Diana Renn:
Whenever I'm gearing up for a new project, or stuck in the middle of an ongoing one, I like to look at a postcard I have had over my desk for a decade. "Giacomond," by Quint Buchholz, shows a surreal image of a man walking on a tightrope from the edge of his roof toward a distant full moon. He's holding the end of the tightrope over his head and laying it out as he walks. This image always makes me think of how writing can feel precarious, even impossible, but it can be done calmly, one step at a time. I also love the confidence of the tightrope walker here. He seems strangely in control. This reminds me of how I want to use a voice of authority when I write, even when I'm feeling my way through the dark.