Writing Murder

Today's Guest blogger is S. M. Harding, author of 24 published short stories, photographer, and editor of  Writing Murder, a collection of essays by Midwest crime and mystery authors. The handy primer on the art of crime fiction is based on a successful lecture program held at the Mystery Company in Carmel Indiana. (Disclaimer:  I am a contributor.) 

Michael Dymmoch

This is what S. M. has to say:

"When it comes to writing crime fiction, I dislike rules. The kind that say, “You must have a body (preferably dead) in the first chapter.” I know you know what I mean: how-to writing books that are rule-bound, prescriptive, and formulaic.

As a teacher most of my life, I tried to give students the basics and then say “Go play.” I tried to give them a toolbox that they could dip into to pick and choose. Basics they could use in different ways. When I started writing crime fiction, what I wanted was a toolbox – clear, precise delineations of craft that could find different applications.

Some of the questions I had were: How can I raise the suspense level in this sagging middle? My opening sucks – what can I do to hook the reader? I’ve written a character that has less personality than a cardboard cutout – how can I breathe some life into him?

I’ve finally found my ideal toolbox: Writing Murder.

(Disclaimer: I edited the book, so I may be a tad biased.)

The book began as a series of classes at The Mystery Company, Jim Huang’s bookstore in Carmel, Indiana. Each author not only presented a wonderful class, but then wrote an essay for the book. Each of them donated their work to the Writers’ Center of Indiana, publisher of Writing Murder and co-sponsor of the lecture series. Profits from the book go to support WCI outreach programs to writers, schools and prisons of central Indiana.

Outfit members Michael Allen Dymmoch (“The Bloody Ends: Killer Openings, Killer Endings”) and Libby Hellmann (“Building Suspense”) join Jeanne Dams, Phil Dunlap, Kit Ehrman, Terence Faherty, Dana Kaye, William Kent Krueger, Beverle Graves Myers, Tony Perona, Mary Saums, Sharon Short, Barbara Shoup, and Mark Richard Zubro to offer wonderful essays in voices all their own.

Mystery author Barbara D’Amato said: “Writing Murder is a wonderful read. I found something helpful in every essay. They call it a basic guide, but there is useful material here for the beginner or the much-published author.” I agree.

So, if you’ve been playing with “this idea” for a story, start with the Introduction and with each essay, begin to fill in that idea. Get the toolbox and write – after all, we’re facing the post-holiday doldrums and what could be better than spending time with your own fictional characters?"

Writing Murder is available on Amazon, or directly from the Writers’ Center of Indiana at indianawriters dot org.

Collaboration

by Barbara D'Amato

It was going to be so easy. My writing group, Mark Zubro, Jeanne Dams, and I, had been working together for many years, critiquing each other's work, getting together about every two weeks. Then, in December 2003, Mark sent us an email suggesting that we write a collaborative novel. His idea had some good guys "find a disk that has the minute-to-minute election results of the next United States election."

Vote fraud was everywhere on the news. You will remember, of course, there was a bit of a tiff about the presidential election.

It takes me a year to eighteen months to write a book. I thought with three of us working on it, how long could it take? Ten months, maybe?

More like six years.

The result, FOOLPROOF, is just out from Forge, December 2009. Of course, some of the elapsed time was taken up by finding a publisher and the editing process, then ARC-shipping, and final printing. But the writing was at least four years.

It came out like this:

The morning of 9/11, Brenda Grant and Daniel Henderson met to pick up coffee for their office mates before going to their software firm in the World Trade Center. That casual act saved them, even as their friends and Brenda's fiance were killed. Establishing their own software security firm, they can't forget how helpless they felt, and they form a secret division of their very successful company committed to sniffing out global terrorists. When a college friend of Brenda's is killed on the way to an appointment with her, they begin to see the edge of an international plot to seize the presidency by rigging the results of the forthcoming election.

Why did it take so long to write? Mostly the challenge of melding different ideas, dealing with diverging plot lines, and presenting and abandoning characters. Call it negotiation. We would each, separately, come up with scenes. Then we'd get together, use some, enlarge some, delete some entirely.

It isn't easy, and yet there have been wonderful, famous collaborations--the Ellery Queen team, the Emma Lathen combo for instance. Among writers working regularly as a team today are Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child [Fever Dream, Cemetery Dance] and Charles Todd [Charles Todd and his mother Caroline Todd]. It's both a surprise and a delight that they seem to do it so effortlessly.

We had promised ourselves early on that if the book was getting in the way of our friendship we would simply stop. Fortunately, that didn't happen. But I had an earlier collaboration many years ago that ended when the other writer simply didn't send in any work. And I've heard of many that broke up over disagreements--or as my son says, "they ended in tears."

Collaboration has many things to recommend it. You receive the richness of another person's expertise and another's sensibilities.

If you are thinking of co-writing a book, here are some suggestions.

Part of the reason it worked for us was that we were old hands at getting a book together. Mark has published twenty-one books, Jeanne fifteen. We are way past the stage where we think our every phrase is gold and nobody should edit us. My advice, if you undertake a collaboration with a new writer--be very clear about who is going to make the final decisions.

If you are more of a writer than a researcher, collaborating with a researcher can work. Charles Todd recently said that he loves the reseach part.

Also, it's like working with a contractor on home improvements. Allow way more time than you could ever imagine you will need.

Winter's Coming! Whee!

by Barbara D'Amato

I get exasperated with TV news anchors who turn to the meteorologist and say, “Don’t tell me we’re going to get any of that nasty white stuff.” I like snow.

No, I don’t ski. Not downhill and not cross-country. You might as well nail boards to my feet.

But I like things to happen. The glory of Chicago weather is that it’s always changing. It’s not boring.

When I was a child, we used to visit my mother’s uncle and aunt in Florida. No matter what time of year we went, it was always the same. Warm, maybe afternoon rain. Warm, maybe afternoon rain. Warmmaybeafternoonrainwarmmaybeaft— Okay, in the summer I guess it was warmer and buggier. With maybe afternoon rain. It was boring.

The upper Midwest is the hardest place on earth to predict the weather.

I’m not a masochist. I have memories of going to classes at Northwestern in Evanston, parking the car on the lakefront in blizzards and walking to campus in sleet storms. I’d get there with a turtleshell of ice on my back. It wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t boring, either.

Now that I don’t go out to work, I can choose my weather to walk in, but there is still nothing as wonderful as walking in that first fat falling snow.

Ninety degree days with hundred per cent humidity are less fun. They make me feel sluggish and stupid, but they are a change.

The only weather that actually frightens me is the occasional extremely high wind. Jeanne Dams, Mark Zubro and I were walking back from the Newberry Library when that big wind hit—the wind that blew the scaffolding off the Hancock Building and killed several people. There was siding and glass and insulation shooting past, and we huddled in a hotel lobby for a while.

Some years ago I was out walking in a very high wind and foolishly had my jacket open. The wind picked it and me up like a sail and dropped me on my back.

But still it was an event.

Chicagoans –you who complain about the weather—is Chicago compulsory? Or do you really like our weather? My guess is that most Chicagoans have a sneaking affection for it that they don’t want to admit to.

Tell the truth, now. Do you HAVE to live in Chicago?