Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel by Barbara Gregorich
We are delighted to welcome author Barbara Gregorich to Omnimystery News today.
Barbara's new Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel (Philbar; September 2014 trade paperback and ebook formats) promises lots of examples … plus dead bodies! We're pleased to present an excerpt from it.
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Introduction
WHY, YOU MAY BE ASKING yourself, should you read this book or trust its advice? It's not by Dennis Lehane, Sue Grafton, Michael Connelly, or any other bestselling mystery writer. What can somebody who's not a bestselling mystery writer possibly know that will help you write that mystery novel you've been yearning to start? Or maybe finish. Or maybe rewrite.
The answer is: Lots. Even though you probably haven't heard of me, I've been a writer for more than thirty years, and during that time I've published close to 200 books, many of them educational/instructional books. As a writer and a teacher of writing, I pay close attention to the process of writing — to what I need to know in order to write a certain kind of book, to the obstacles I face, to the decisions I need to make, the order I need to make them in, and the byproducts of all these processes. I've published two mystery novels (adult) and ghostwritten four Boxcar Children mysteries. The advice and suggestions I make in this book are based on three particulars: (1) the fact that I've been an avid reader of mysteries since I was eleven years old and have paid attention not only to what I like and don't like, but also to what works and what doesn't work for me as a reader; (2) the fact that, in writing my own mysteries, I paid attention to the decisions I had to make; (3) the fact that I greatly enjoy helping other people learn how to do something for themselves.
So that's why you might want to read this book and trust its advice.
Speaking of which, I've designed the chapters of this guide in such a way that you can read them in any order. While I think you will benefit most if you read from the beginning of the book to the end, I also recognize that you may want or need to know something in particular (subplots, say, or dialogue) immediately and will go directly to those chapters.
Throughout this guide I'll talk about the mystery novel both in general and in particular. For the particular, exact, see-what-I-did advice, I will use my second mystery, Sound Proof, as an example, with occasional forays into my first mystery, Dirty Proof. I will talk about characters in the book, give examples of how I hid clues, examples of how I threw suspicion onto innocent characters, examples of how I developed conflict, and so on and so forth. Because I want each chapter to stand on its own, I have occasionally repeated information and examples.
As you read this guide, you will learn which characters committed the three crimes in Sound Proof. If you think you want to read Sound Proof before you read this guide, the novel is available in softcover and ebook form.
I hope that this book, Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel, helps you in a myriad of ways.
Chapter 10 — Subplots
It may be possible to write a novel that has no subplots. There would be one and only one story, and by default it would be the main story. There would be no other stories within the novel than the main story. Chances are this would be a dull book.
Why? Because subplots exist in almost all novels, where they function in several different ways:
• to provide relief from the main plot, be it comic relief or just plain diversion
• to reveal backstory
• to aid in characterization
• to provide parallels or contrasts and thus enrich the theme
How Many Subplots?
As its name implies, a subplot is a secondary plot in a work of fiction, its importance being less than that of the main plot. Like plots, subplots have their own plot points and rising action. Their story is sometimes parallel to the main story, sometimes intertwined with it. Some writing teachers say that a subplot should contain either different characters from the main plot, or occur at a different location, or take place at a different time. I don't agree with this 100% of the time, particularly when it comes to mystery novels, where the plots and subplots are often intertwined.
How many subplots a novel contains is up to the writer and the story he wants to tell, but keep in mind that an adult novel probably requires at least two subplots in order to maintain reader interest and expand the story's scope, but perhaps no more than five subplots, else the main plot might seem less important. (I've read novels which have seven or eight or nine subplots and find that the multitude of subplots lessens the intensity of my experience with the main plot.)
The subplots should come to the fore just often enough for relief and to keep them fresh in the readers' minds, but not so often that they interfere with the main plot. Whether your subplots are separate (in characters, location, or time) or intertwined, they need to be scattered throughout your novel in a planned way. If you have three subplots you would of course introduce A first, then B, then C. But you need not continue in that order — readers would soon pick up on the rigid order and become bored, or at least lose their sense of anticipation. You could change the order to something like this: A B C B C A C B B A C. Or some other order.
In Building Better Plots Robert Kernen advises using notecards to build and lay out plots and subplots. He suggests using a different color of notecard for each subplot. So if your main plot notecards are white, subplot A could be written on pink cards, subplot B on green cards, and subplot C on yellow cards. Kernen advocates spreading the notecards on a large table, then moving them around to figure out not only the order of events for the main plot, but also to figure out where to begin, continue, and end the subplots.
If you find that you have seven plot points for subplot A, and you find that you have seven pink notecards all bunched together on the table, this could be a sign telling you to rethink the structure of your novel. Do you really want to introduce and conclude subplot A in one area of the novel? Maybe that's necessary, in which case the answer is Yes, I do. But maybe it's not necessary, in which case the answer might be, Hmmm: I think I'll move some of these pink notecards to the center, and some nearer the end.
Because each subplot is a story, it needs conflict, rising action, and resolution. I've already talked about conflict in a previous chapter, and I'll talk about rising action in a later one. That leaves resolution — the solving of a problem or situation. Readers feel greater satisfaction when the issues in a story are resolved. Sometimes readers feel great impatience and disappointment if the issues are not resolved. In most cases, the subplots you introduce to your story need to be resolved. That resolution can either be spelled out in detail or very strongly suggested. (The resolution of my Mary-and-the-Sheriff subplot is strongly suggested.)
When it comes to series, though, many authors choose to not resolve certain subplots, but rather to carry them over from one book to the next. And the next. Subplots such as: will the hero stop drinking? will the protagonist and his love interest break apart? or get together? what will happen to the main character's sister, who seems on the verge of a bad marriage? And so on.
As both a reader and a writer, I think it's fine to have one or two subplots that aren't resolved until the next book in the series. Or perhaps the book after that one. But as a reader, I become extremely annoyed if it appears that a subplot is being dragged on forever, one book after another after another. When you write your mystery, keep in mind whether or not, and when, to resolve each of your subplots.
Subplots and Third Person POV
How you present your subplots to the reader is largely determined by the point of view you've chosen for your novel. If you've chosen to tell your story in third person limited POV, as many mystery and espionage writers do, you will most likely signal your subplots by the use of white space on the page — white space that separates what came before from what comes now, in terms of time, characters, or location. Michael Connelly and many, many other mystery writers use this time-honored technique to indicate that while the POV is still the same (Harry Bosch, third person limited POV), the time, place, or characters with Harry have changed. Readers have no difficulty following what is happening: the white space prepares them.
On the other hand, if you've chosen third person multiple POV to tell your story (as I did with She's on First), you could also use white space to switch between the characters and the stories. Some of the characters you choose for third person multiple POV will of necessity be part of a subplot that interweaves with the main plot: it's very difficult to write a story with four POVs, say, in which all four characters are protagonists. Not impossible. But definitely difficult.
If you're telling your story in third person multiple POV in alternating chapters, one for each character whose POV you depict, then the telling and placement of your subplots will be determined by which character they belong to. If one of the POV characters is Travis, and his story is a subplot, then that subplot will appear in the chapters from Travis's POV — or possibly in chapters from other characters' POVs when they're interacting with Travis. In third person multiple POV told in alternating chapters, there would not be a strong reason to signal a subplot by the use of white space on the page. But it would still be possible to do this if you needed to.
Subplots and First Person POV
If you've chosen to tell your story from the first person singular POV, as I told Sound Proof, then you cannot separate the subplots from the POV (as you could with third person limited and third person multiple POV). The entire story will be seen from the eyes of your sole POV character, and so she will be present at every incident in the story, including the subplots. Of course the location could change, the time could change, and the characters (except for the POV character) could change each time one of the subplots appears.
Weaving the subplots into a first person POV story is a bit trickier than weaving them into either of the other POVs — all because your POV character is always there. This isn't to say that you can't use the white space technique in a first person POV novel. You certainly can, and it will serve the same function as it does in the other POVS: signaling a change in time, place, or characters. I've read first person POV stories in which this is done.
With first person POV, though, I prefer a smoother reading experience than the bumps of white spaces allow. So in plotting Sound Proof I integrated my subplots into the main plot without much use of white space. (I used chapter breaks much more than I used white space.) If you choose to write from the first person POV, you may end up doing the same. But the other guidelines for developing subplots still apply: scatter them throughout the story; be sure they contribute to the main plot or provide contrast to the main plot; be sure they develop and reveal character.
Subplots in Sound Proof
In Sound Proof there are many characters; there's theft, blackmail, and murder; there's the music; the instruments; the farm. There's the main plot. And there are four subplots:
(A) the story of Frank and Suzanne's relationship: will she move in with him?
(B) the story of Mary and the guitar she intentionally leaves on the stoop each day;
(C) the story of Mary and Yale's relationship: what went wrong and why;
(D) the story of Mary and the blackmail notes.
For now, let's look at how I scattered these subplots throughout the 28-chapter novel, and whether or not I resolved them.
As you can see, Subplot A, the relationship between Frank and Suzanne, is the subplot that is present most often, appearing in fourteen of the twenty-eight chapters. This seems reasonable in that Frank is the protagonist and Suzanne is his love interest, and she's the reason he's at Midwest Music Madness. This subplot is not resolved. (But I promise to not carry it over forever!)
Subplot B, the story of Mary and the guitar she leaves on the stoop each day, is introduced in chapter three and resolved in chapter twenty-three. It's present in only four of the twenty-eight chapters.
Subplot C, the story of the Sheriff and Mary, is introduced in chapter seven and resolved in chapter twenty-eight. It's present in twelve of the twenty-eight chapters.
Subplot D, the story of Mary and the blackmail notes, is introduced in chapter ten and resolved in chapter twenty. It's present in four of the twenty-eight chapters.
You can see that I have two subplots that span most of the novel, and two that are contained within the central portion of the novel only. In other words, two long subplots and two short subplots. I could have had four long subplots, which might have been satisfying. Four short ones would not have been satisfying to readers, who enjoy subplots and don't necessarily want to see each and every one of them short and sweet.
I didn't follow Robert Kernen's suggestion that the subplots be resolved in the order they're introduced, each of them tied off before the novel's climax. Two of my subplots (A and C) continue on into the denouement. I further veered from Kernen's suggestions in that B is resolved not before D, but after D. For the purposes of the mystery (introducing possible motives in both the main plot and subplots), my subplot order works. Each introduces new suspicions and a new line of investigation and is then resolved as the detective eliminates possibilities, narrowing the hunt to the one actuality.
You need subplots in your mystery, so as you think about your main plot, think also about subplots. Consider that some of them can relate directly to the mystery, probably complicating it and leading the detective and/or the reader down the path of false clues. Consider also that some of them can probably not relate to the mystery, if only for relief from the mystery itself. For the most part, the subplot of Frank and Suzanne's relationship doesn't relate to the mystery itself.
And remember that your subplots, like your scenes, should contain conflict and reveal character.
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Photo provided courtesy of
Barbara Gregorich
On her eleventh birthday, Barbara Gregorich was given a book of selected Sherlock Holmes stories, and from that moment on she was addicted to mystery. After she consumed the hundreds of titles in her local library, she moved to the library's basement storage area, delving into forgotten authors and titles of the past. The addiction continued: after the basement came Interlibrary Loan, and she spent years borrowing selected mystery titles from around the country. At the same time, she frequented bookstores of all kinds, buying and reading novels by mystery writers from many nations: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Cuba, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Russia … she traveled far and wide while in the comfort of her favorite reading chair.
Besides being a mystery addict, Gregorich is also a writer, author of nearly 200 books, fiction and nonfiction. She has written two adult mysteries and has ghostwritten four Boxcar Children mysteries.
For more information about the author, please visit her website at BarbaraGregorich.com and her author page on Goodreads, or find her on Facebook and Twitter.
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Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel
Barbara Gregorich
Lots of Examples …Plus Dead Bodies
For those contemplating writing a mystery novel and those who have written one or more but are looking for fresh and invigorating insights into the approach, Guide to Writing the Mystery Novel provides an overall view of how to think like a writer in general and a mystery writer in particular.
Covered are topics such as:
What are the possible patterns of suspicion when the villain is a major character?
What changes when the villain is a minor character?
How many subplots work best, and in what order can they be introduced?
How can a writer throw suspicion on innocent characters while at the same time providing clues that point to the guilty one?
These topics and many more are examined and analyzed in this solid how-to book which is rich with examples and suggestions.
