One of my mystery writing buddies raised a good question about how long you can wait until the second dead body shows up. Is it dumb to say that it depends upon when your killer decides to make it happen? If it's going to happen at all?
I'm keen on writing one-murder mysteries. Can you tell I don't write suspense novels? (Not yet, anyway.) I don't mind throwing in a cold case into my ms to add zip to the protagonist's challenge. I like characters with a questionable past.
Pacing does not have to depend solely upon the primary plot, right? Disaster in a related subplot is capable of bringing the protag to her knees, yes? Isn't the trick to drive your protag up a tree and throw rocks at her? The rocks don't all have to be chunks of granite. A well-placed limestone hit has the same potential to do irreparable harm.
Our protags can't live lives of quiet desperation. But what if they have a hair-trigger response to certain stimuli that tends to make them self-destructive? What if the crusty old cop protag is fine when he's not drinking, but drinking is provoked by his gambling addiction, and his gambling addiction is caused by his gambling debts...
Maybe that's going way too far beyond your story line, but in my BB stories one of her self-destructive habits comes in the form of her addiction to chocolate pills (M&Ms) as stress relievers. The bigger the problem, the more chocolate pills she needs to pop. However, adding inches to her waist will diminish the allure of her assets. The assets which keep her and a lot of other people solvent. Maybe our stories could use
more lose-lose situations in the subplots: frying pan to fire on the home front can perk the plot instead of inserting another dead body.
I'm keen on writing one-murder mysteries. Can you tell I don't write suspense novels? (Not yet, anyway.) I don't mind throwing in a cold case into my ms to add zip to the protagonist's challenge. I like characters with a questionable past.
Pacing does not have to depend solely upon the primary plot, right? Disaster in a related subplot is capable of bringing the protag to her knees, yes? Isn't the trick to drive your protag up a tree and throw rocks at her? The rocks don't all have to be chunks of granite. A well-placed limestone hit has the same potential to do irreparable harm.
Our protags can't live lives of quiet desperation. But what if they have a hair-trigger response to certain stimuli that tends to make them self-destructive? What if the crusty old cop protag is fine when he's not drinking, but drinking is provoked by his gambling addiction, and his gambling addiction is caused by his gambling debts...
Maybe that's going way too far beyond your story line, but in my BB stories one of her self-destructive habits comes in the form of her addiction to chocolate pills (M&Ms) as stress relievers. The bigger the problem, the more chocolate pills she needs to pop. However, adding inches to her waist will diminish the allure of her assets. The assets which keep her and a lot of other people solvent. Maybe our stories could use
I'm aiming for help from my subplots. I love hyperbole. There's nothing better than read about absurd events derailing the protag's search for a killer. I love riotous dialogue as the relentless underpinning of the plot's pace. Wish I could do that! That would be my choice every time the pace slowed. I prefer laughing more than feeling scared. Yes, I'd love to channel Janet Evanovich or Elaine Viets, but that's not happening.
When it comes to questions of when/if a second body should show up, you gotta trust your gut. Use your writing assets. Try not to manipulate your story to match today's industry standards. Try not to over-think your story. Industry standards get moldy fast. If the advice of the pros sounds reasonable, go for it. Just don't mistake my babblings to be sage advice - I'm only pondering my own plot line entanglements. I wonder what your muses have to say about maintaining your pace using only single dead bodies in a mystery.
Write ON!
Nan
Write ON!
Nan
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7 comments:
Hi Nan,
Nice post! My first thought was: Ah, the second body!
I think that the second body has to have a purpose. You can't just kill some one because you've reached a place where the reader will be bored and there is still eighty pages to go before the killer is caught. A second murder like that is just filler.
And you are right, lots of other actions can speed the story along without the second murder.
In Driven to Death, I do have a second murder. I wrote the second victim in early, knowing that she would be killed somewhere along the way because her death would lead us further away from discovering the real killer. Unfortunately, I began to really like her and had a hard time killing her off. I actually toyed with the idea of putting her in a coma (so lame) then I dropped the project for several months before I finally bit the bullet and whacked her.
Terrie
You hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph, Nan, when you said industry standards get moldy fast. It takes most new writers two to three years to take a novel from idea to bound book, and during that time, key rules can change drastically. The best thing writers can do is follow their gut and do what's best for the story, not for today's marketplace. When the manuscript is finished and acquired by a publisher, the editor will explain what should be done to the make story appropriate for the marketplace at that time.
I'm trying to think now, whether my second body has enough purpose. What the guy knows would out the killer, so his death is necessary, if only to ensure that the cops remain in the dark.
I'm always impressed by authors who, throughout the long middle, accomplish mounting tension whether they kill of a second person or not. It takes real skill and a great plot.
Lois
I don't think it's necessary to have more than one dead body per book. Perhaps in a thriller, but even there you should be able to raise the tension without people dropping left and right. Of course, sometimes someone needs to die--s/he knows too much, etc--but that's the kind of thing that works itself out for me as I write.
This is one of those things I'd say you write the way you feel it makes for the best story. Then, once you're done, it may turn out to be one of the defining "genre" questions.
Questions like "how many bodies" shouldn't define how your book gets written, but how you will market it, and to whom.
Dear gang,
I'm beginning to think we could team up and write a book... on writing mysteries!
Thanks for the elaborations and references to your experiences. It's all grist for the mill.
Write ON!
Nan
Good stuff to ponder, Nan. I think a murder in a book ought to feel purposeful, too, and if more silt can be churned without it, okay. I still enjoy when one murder starts unraveling a whole web of relationships and secrets.
The web of relationships and secrets - ah the back story we all wanted to put in our first chapter!
Thanks, Clare2e! From now on, when I get the overwhelming itch to plant back story early on, I'll be glad to plop it into the story after the body has shown up, when the readers are full of questions, like "Why isn't the protag running for the hills???"
That's a great point!
Write On!
Nan
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