The Writing Process

[B.R.Stateham]

In another discussion (the one about Literary vs. Genre writing) John Dishon brought up the point that, in a site like this, so little is written about how each of us goes about writing their brand of mysteries. The comment struck a chord. I like hearing the techniques others use to write their novels.

So here is how I do mine.

1. My aim is to capture the reader within the first five paragraphs of the opening page. So I
set up an intriguing homicide scene. Since I write police-procedurals, a murder has to
take place for my main characters to show up.

2. I want to create three-deminsional characters. So you see flies in the oatmeal, as it were.
The second book is going to do far more on this than the first one did. But I think the
first one set up some interesting premises about the two detectives I write about.

3. I don't outline. I have the opening scene; and I've basically plotted out an overall course
of where the story is going. But its very generic and subject to change. Hell, I find myself
exploring the plot with as much sense of adventure and intrigue as the two characters
do. That's part of the fun for me. Sure, I write myself into dead-ends sometimes. But I
know how to rewrite.

4. Although--and get this--some have said my writing reminds them of a Mickey Spillane
novel, where justice metered out to the bad guys--in reality sometimes the bad guys win.
For now.

5. Police-procedurals have lots of recurring characters. As they should. The aim is to make
each one interesting--but not to the point they outshine the main ones.

6. I like to experiment with style. So fragment sentences are okay by me--if effective.
Sometimes a verbal jolt in the writing sets up the suspense in the plot. Or that's my
theory at least.

7. And I like a number of sub plots. Side stories which open up and reveal more of the
main characters. Again--the three demensional thing. Human beings never drive
down a narrow one-way path. All kinds of misadventures happen in our lives.

8. The crime scenes have to be believable--the action scenes equally so. Nothing turns
me off in a book as much as a hero having almost god-like powers doing super-human
stunts in action scenes. (or conversely; the bad guys being the worst goddamn shooters
ever to carry an Uzi).

9. The end of the story might not be what you are expecting. Most readers of this genre
read'em with the idea of figuring out who did it and how the story is going to end. I
like to give them a surprise or two. Most satisfying when done well.

And that's it for me. That's how I carve the turkey. How do you do it?

[doug anderson]

I carry around an idea for a long time and then I start to hear the voices. I try to have something on the first page that lets people know they aren't in Kansas any more. I began my present novel with the image of a woman who had been forcibly tattooed in an Albanian gypsy circus. Somebody told me a story about such a woman in 1980, and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind. The image finally bore fruit. Then someone in my writers group said the image should be moved till later on and the story should start with an action by the central character. They turned out to be right. Now the novel begins with the central character jogging across the Williamsburg Bridge. He comes home to find two detectives parked in front of his apartment building. The jogging allows me to come up with a solid physical description of the character and his way of being in New York City.

I guess what this means is that I don't really have a plan when I begin, but a set of feelings. I make the initial mess, and then begin to shape it.

I've written a lot of poetry and am used to working at the edge of language, moving from image to image, trying to discover what I'm doing.

Writing narrative forms has forced me to be more methodical, but I still begin with an image. In a way, the tattooed woman, in spite of my having moved the scene to the second chapter, was the emotional/imaginative beginning of the whole process. She was an image of the conflict between who we are and who we are forced to become, and, finally, making peace between the two.

I think I will become more practical, more organized as I get better at narrative. However, I don't think I'll ever change the idea of beginning with an image.

[Jon Loomis]

That's interesting, Doug. I started my first crime novel with an image, too--dead harbor seals at a small, tourist-trap aquarium in Provincetown. It's also drawn from a true story. It didn't actually stay in the book--got taken out in the second (or maybe third) draft, but it was such a compelling image for me I'm guessing it'll be back in another book. I do poetry, too, and I agree that the poets' necessary obsession with image can be both a great thing and, at times, a bit of a distraction in crime writing.

[Jon Loomis]

Sad but powerful, maybe. They are lovely animals.

[John McFetridge]

I had a creative writing professor who was a poet (aren't they all ;), Garry Geddes, and he had us read our stories out loud in class. At first I didn't understand what he was doing, reading is a solitary thing it isn't a performance, but after a while I saw how he was getting us to focus on the voice.

Now, I may have gone a little overboard, but it's all about the voice for me. I still don't like to use any words that I've never heard out loud in convesation. Police characters are fun for me. My brother has been a cop for 39 years and when he tells a story (not necessarily about a crime, maybe just something my crazy sister did) it always starts out casual but becomes filled with the kind of detail that would be in evidence, like, "I got there at four-fifteen," instead of, "a little after four."

The criminal characters are the opposite. In my books they are prefessional criminals. As my brother says, they lie - all the time. They lie when the truth woud serve them better, it's as ingrained as his details in giving evidence. And the professional criminals are good at it (or they wouldn't stay pros very long), as they're saying it they believe the lie.

What I like is when these characters tell their parts of the story themselve and there's no narrator between them and the reader.

And yeah, I sart with what I think is a cool image.

[B.R.Stateham]

I should point out that--for me at the essence--I want to write a good 'whodunit.' So the mystery turns out to be more important element. Yet I can't say that's completely true. I'm interested in the characters who come walking across the pages like strutting Shakesperian actors. They have to be real.

So I guess I could say the 'whodunit' element is the gas for the car--but the characters become the main vehicle to move the story along.

[Jon Loomis]

I don't have a strict formula, but I do want to get things moving pretty quickly and bring my main characters into the action reasonably soon. I try to write books that would entertain someone like me (who else is gonna do it?), so I make sure there's lots of sex, food, drinking and jokes. I also set my series in a spectacularly beautiful place, so I spend a fair amount of time describing it: readers who hate description should skip over those parts. My books are basically dark comedies with mysteries attached, and I spoof a lot on genre conventions while trying to simultaneously write a mystery that casual readers will recognize and enjoy. I'm also interested in the realities of police work and the ways they rub up against the expectations of genre: the detective doesn't always solve the crime in real life, the lab results never come back, jurisdictional issues get in the way, and so on. I set my series in a majority gay community, so I have a lot of fun playing with gender stuff, too. One of my minor characters is a part-time summer cop named Pinsky, who will return in the next book in the midst of a torrid affair with a six-foot-six inch African American transsexual named LaWonda. And so on. For me it's really about telling a good story, and making sure there's lots of room to romp around the edges.

[B.R.Stateham]

Yes, I agree with you Jon. Your style does wonders for dark comedy/mysteries. And I can see your personality in your books every time we talk. Conversations which I enjoy greatly.

[Jon Loomis]

Thanks, B.R. I enjoy talking with you, too.