What I Do When I Get Stuck by Marilyn Levinson

These days I'm writing more and more as a pantser. It's not something I decided to do, but how my writing method has evolved. I hold to the premise that, as writers, we train our brains to help us come up with creative solutions. Despite this, my brain often needs a bit of help. Here are a few of the "tricks" that work for me.

To begin with, it's always good to sit down to write when you know where you're heading. Even if it's only the next step your character's about to take, if it furthers the plot, it may also lead to the next plot point in your WIP, perhaps one you never considered before. With this in mind, it might be a good idea to stop writing for the day when you know what your characters will be doing next.

When I don't know where I'm going next plot-wise, I often reread the last few pages of my manuscript. This not only brings me directly into the story stream and can act as an impetus for me to continue writing--kinda like when a little kid gets a push on a swing, and then she can start swinging on her own. Rereading the last few pages I've written can help me see if I've headed off on a tangent that's taken me away from the heart of my story. If I can't find where I began to wander off the path of my main plot, now is a good time to look at my outline. My outline will remind me what needs to be covered in my WIP or changed.

What if I'm really stymied and I don't know how to move on? Then it's time to step back and stop focusing on my plot problem. Ideas often come to me in the shower, while walking, and just before I'm going to sleep.

And there's nothing shameful about asking for help. I'm part of a group of mystery writers who help each other out--with title suggestions, plot problems, and tips about pet care. Sometimes, a friend's suggestion will fit right in with my plotline. Other times the group's suggestions will trigger one of my own. Once in a while, I've no sooner written out my problem in an email and the answer comes to me before I can hit "send." Simply asking for help nudges my mind and provides me with the solution.

What do you do when you get stuck?

A Plotting Predicament by Marilyn Levinson

Plotting has always been an uneven experience for me. While the basic theme/idea of each book usually comes easily to mind, there are many times in my writing when I have to stop and figure out how to move on. After all, a mystery writer's cast of characters includes suspects, murder victims, and a murderer all of whom have secrets, tell lies, and present red herrings. Rather a complicated situation. Still, I believe those of us who write mysteries have somehow trained our minds to create and resolve solutions that might first seem unsolvable. I've learned to trust the process will reveal to me how my sleuth will identify the murderer, hopefully in a new and unique manner.

New and unique are the key words here, because after having written sixteen mystery and suspense novels, I don't want to repeat myself. Sure, certain themes like friendship, romance, and  family relationships appear in my work, but I want every story to be fresh and different. When I began writing Death on Dickens Island, the first book in my Books on the Beach series that I write as Allison Brook, I knew exactly what the main issue would be and how it causes conflict that lead to deadly secrets and murder. However, the second book presented a problem. I often develop two storylines that conjoin near the end of the book, but this wasn't happening. My characters simply weren't cooperating. I knew I wanted the murder to be connected to both a white collar crime and a romance gone wrong some years ago, and it all starts at a book club meeting in the Dickens General Store's Book Nook. But what crime would fit my plot?

While I don't have Beta Readers or critique partners, I am part of a group of mystery writers. For the past twenty years or so, we've been helping one another with suggestions--from handy murder items found in everyone's home to catchy book titles. A friend sent me a list of white collar crimes; others threw in possible ideas, and voilà! I chose the non-violent deceitful crime that suits my future novel and fits right in with my series. Somehow knowing that, has allowed me to plot most of the novel.

For me, it's the crimes and time-lines that require deep thinking and the occasional suggestion from my writing pals. The problem is never my characters.  Since I write series, my characters are well-developed and new ones quickly take on a life of their own. I especially love to see how they interact and mature, how they cope with secrets from their past.

Plotting a mystery is a challenge. The more books you write, the greater the challenge to do something fresh and unique. To explore a new setting, a unique situation, an intriguing reason why one character murders another. What do you do to keep each book and story that you write distinctive?

Seeing Your Plot As An Itinerary by Connie Berry

My husband and I love to travel. We enjoy seeing new things, meeting new people, experiencing life in a different way. What we don’t love is wasting time—showing up at a National Trust property, for example, only to find that it closed for the season two weeks earlier, missing the last ferry between islands in Norway, ending up in Paris on a Sunday and Monday when many tourist sites and restaurants are closed. Yes, these things happened to us in the past.

That’s why I always do a bit of pre-planning now. Knowing how many days we have, I make an itinerary, noting the driving distance between stops. I book places to stay overnight, and I think through each day and the possibilities open to us. Where might be a good place to have lunch? Should we take the boat ride on the lake or get advance tickets to the museum? But here’s the point: our most memorable experiences are almost always things we didn’t plan (with a few photo):

Meeting an accordion maker and his wife in a small Austrian village

Joining the festivities as a bridal couple marched to church in Dubrovnik

Being serenaded by a Cornish men’s choir out for a weekend holiday in Devon (wish I could have uploaded the video!)

Seeing an elderly Italian man cry as he thanked us as Americans for liberating his small mountain village in WW2

Being kicked out of four taxis in Beijing because we didn’t understand their zoning system (or their language)

Watching Prince William’s new girlfriend, Kate Middleton, navigate the paparazzi as she arrived at a wedding in the Cotswolds (photo by one of our travel companions, Patti)

Plotting a novel is a little like planning an itinerary—at least it is for me. I’m what people call a “tent-pole” plotter. I know the major plot points, twists, and reveals in advance because I don’t want to waste time writing myself into a corner. But the best ideas usually occur to me in the process of writing.

Last week, for example, I was doing a bit of online research for my WIP when I happened upon a strange phenomenon connected to AI. I was fascinated by it and immediately saw how I could use it in my plot, adding a layer of intrigue to one of the characters and tweaking the plot to give it greater depth. I couldn’t have planned it ahead because I didn’t know it existed.

These “plot thickeners,” like serendipitous travel experiences, can’t be planned out in advance. They just happen. And when they do, they are almost always exactly right.

Thinking of my plot as an itinerary—a list of possibilities, stops along the way, with room for the unexpected—makes sense to me. My “tent poles” give me confidence to know I will make it to the end of the journey, but the spaces between them leave room for the unforeseen and fortuitous.

Do you leave room in your plot for the unexpected?

What is the best unplanned plot point you’ve ever used?

 

Starting a New Series by Marilyn Levinson

Recently, I started writing the first book in a new cozy series. However, there was much I had to work out before I could write the first word of the first chapter. For one thing, my new series takes place on an island that you will never find on any map. Dickens Island is my creation. It's situated smack in the middle of the Long Island Sound and belongs to New York. Creating an island requires all sorts of planning—its size; its shape; how many people live on the island year round; how many come during the summer months; what ferries link the island to the mainland; what the school system is like; its local government; its history.

I researched the islands off Long Island to learn how they deal with many of these issues, and came up with many methods of my own. Setting, as any cozy author will tell you, is a very important element. It is the world where our characters live, work, interrelate, and commit murders. 

My main characters came to me early on. I knew I wanted my sleuth to be a savvy woman around forty—divorced for many years and the mother of a fifteen-year-old son. And so Delia, short for Cordelia, was born. Twelve years earlier, she divorced her abusive husband and left three-year-old Connor on Dickens Island to be raised by her parents, while she lived and worked in Manhattan. When she moves back to Dickens Island to resume her maternal duties, is it any wonder that Connor resents her? That he's distant and difficult, and bound to get into more-than-typical teenage trouble?

Graham Dickens, Delia's father, is the patriarch of the family, and feels it's his responsibility to keep the island running smoothly. Not that he holds any position in the island's government. Those positions are held by his brother, Brad, the president of the town council, and Reenie, Brad's wife, who is the island's manager. Unfortunately, Brad and Reenie are fiercely at odds over most issues. Their open discord has begun to affect their marriage and to divide the island into two hostile camps. 

 What fun it is to create new characters that will live on in future books. Helena, Delia's grandmother, has left Delia a large Victorian house when she died the previous year. When Delia discovers her grandmother's hidden room filled with sailors' logs and journals, Helena appears in ghostly form. She fills Delia in on events that occurred many years ago that shed light on the  recent homicide.

 A shaggy dog starts to follow Connor about, often spending the night at the house with Delia and her son. Delia has no success in finding his owner. She's surprised when she sees the spitting image of the dog in an early photo with her grandmother.

 And so I've begun writing the first book in my new series. I've had to stop a few times to understand my characters' relationship with one another. I'm glad I did because that enriched the texture of the story. Now all I have to do it write about the murder, why it came about, and how it gets resolved. And a few other things, of course. That should keep me busy for the next several months. 

Plotter vs. Pantser in Life and Writing

Plotter vs. Pantser in Life and Writing by Debra H. Goldstein

When it comes to my everyday existence, I am a plotter. I make prioritized to-do lists based upon the tasks needing to be done, where I am going to be, and how long each activity should take (so I can squeeze in things so as to not waste time). It gives me great satisfaction to strike through each item on my list and know that at the end of the day, I’m ready to make the next day’s list. 

Plotting is the last thing I like to do when I write. Oh, I may have an idea where the story or book may go, but the reality is I’m a pantser from beginning to end. It is only when I’m in the “writing zone,” where the words glide forth effortlessly, that I feel a sense of satisfaction.

I have friends who set a specific word count each day. Not me. I write when the muse strikes. For the past few years that worked well. Maybe my production wasn’t as good as some of those word-counters, but seven published books, one book in review, and almost fifty published stories isn’t something I am ashamed of. I puttered or pantsed, but things got done because somewhere in my head, I knew being a published author required balancing time with my computer, family, civic obligations, and playing.

In the song “Beautiful Boy,” on the Double Fantasy album, John Lennon wrote, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” Different versions of this line have been attributed to many other people over time. Who said it first doesn’t matter. What is important is the realization that sometimes the best plot or plan we have gets shaken by life events. That’s what happened to me with some personal family issues during the past couple of years. They were events that often directly impacted my ability to write more than a story here, a blog there, or a few pages of the new book that I’d thought the world would see two years ago. 

Recently, things reached a point that I had to lean on friends, blog mates, and even a few strangers to accomplish things that normally would easily be checked off my to-do list. I thank everyone who stepped up and gave me the time and freedom to address life without worrying about the plans I’d made. Today, the issue is resolved. I’ve taken a deep breath and accepted the changes thrown at me as I live life; and, I’ve regained the feeling of joy that writing gives me. I doubt I’ll ever be a person who knocks out so many words a day, but I know that that’s okay for me. Understanding the balancing of being a plotter and a pantser in life and writing is what it’s all about.

Do you use plotting and pantsing in life - or writing? Have you ever had everything unravel and did you find your way back to a state of balance?

A Few Thoughts About Plotting by Marilyn Levinson

For me, plotting is the hardest part of writing a novel. Writing mysteries require extra special diligence when it comes to plotting because situations and scenes that occur at the beginning of the book must be followed up and addressed in what follows. I have no trouble coming up with an inciting event to start my story. It carries me several chapters. And then I run out of steam.

This never used to happen when I was a plotter and I'd figure out my entire plot while allowing for changes as I wrote. But I have turned into a quasi-pantser. Now, often after writing a third of my WIP with more than two hundred pages to go, I'm not sure how to move on. I know that my two storylines will converge; I even know my killer. But how to fill the next two hundred plus pages with logical, exciting, well-paced prose that ends on a satisfactory note requires serious thinking.

It's a good thing I have a few techniques that have served me well over the years and set me on the right track so I can finish my book.

1. I reread what I've written. After all, the first third of my mystery introduces the situation, the setting, my characters as well as the first murder. I'm lucky that whenever I go back to page one, I find I'm happy with what I've written. Also, I discover places where I can further my plot. Unbeknownst to me, my subconscious has been setting down important hints and clues that I'm quick to follow up in upcoming chapters. Think of Anton Chekov's famous quote “One must not put a loaded rifle on the stage if no one is thinking of firing it." (Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.) Then of course, there are the red herrings to be added that serve to misdirect the mystery reader. Knowing that my WIP is in good shape so far gives me the inspiration and confidence to move on.

2. Plotting requires both logic and creativity—the ability to consider various possibilities and to choose the one that best suits your story. I am grateful that I belong to a group of mystery authors I can count on to help when I get stuck. Often one of their ideas will be the perfect solution. Other times the simple act of explaining the problem and asking for help stimulates my own creativity and I come up with the plotting solution all on my own.

3. I'm not good at sitting down to focus on a plot problem. My mind starts to wander. I check my email, my Amazon standings. Facebook. Instagram. I find that solutions to my plot problems come when I'm walking by myself. In the shower. Even in a doctor's waiting room. It's always when I'm doing something that doesn't require much thinking. I imagine it's different for everyone, the time when one's mind is receptive to finding new solutions.

4. Finally, I have faith that the necessary solution(s) will come to me and I'll finish the book in a satisfactory way. Why? Because I've done it before. Plotting a novel is a series of solving problems. I've come to trust my writing instinct because I've set up my What If? situation carefully and with much thought. Some of that thought process has developed over the years and now works on an unconscious level. Writing a novel is never easy, but somehow the procedure becomes part of the mind's inner workings. The mind cooperates and helps us along. I've yet to give up on a work in progress because I couldn't work out the plot. Far be it from me to know how this miracle works, but somehow it always comes through in the end.

Starting a Novel by Marilyn Levinson

Last week I started writing a new novel. Something to celebrate but not to get all bent out of shape about, having written more than twenty books before. But that's exactly what happened when I started to plot the eighth book in my Haunted Library series. I got stymied. And nervous. And wondering if I could write a rough draft. I knew the two story lines I wanted to use, had known it for months. But seeing them through and making the necessary connections somehow seemed impossible this time.

Why? I wondered. Was it because it was the last book in the series? The one that had to deliver a rousing conclusion that brought out the best in my characters and ended the series in a memorable way? Recently, the sixth book had been published and some readers had told me it was the best one yet. There's nothing like having to match or even top yourself.

I love the two story lines I planned to follow as guides for this new novel. They're quite different from each other and full of possibilities. I'm not someone who can sit down quietly and plot out my next book. Ideas comes to me at various times—when I'm in the shower, taking a walk, drifting off to sleep. I decided to be practical this time, and so I asked my two writing friends with whom I check in each evening to become my sounding boards via Zoom. "Write out what you have so far and send it to us before," Peg said. And that's what I did.

To my surprise, I managed to write out a rough draft of an outline and sent it off to Peg and Kaye. To my amazement, they found it perfectly fine. They raised a few issues; we discussed a few points and I came up with a brilliant ending. Well, brilliant in my eyes because it works and it's different.

Once I had my friends' blessing, I began Chapter One. The opening scene came to me right away, probably because starting a novel is something I've done many times. Somehow the mechanics of doing this gets into your brain the way your body remembers an aerobic workout routine.

Do any of you ever have trouble plotting your next novel? If so, what steps do you take to get the job done? 

A Few Writerly Observations by Marilyn Levinson

Becoming a proficient fiction author develops through hard work and constant writing. Over the course of my writing career, I've written twenty-four novels. I'd like to share with you a few observations I've made regarding changes in my writing process and some writerly issues that puzzle me.

Plotting: When I first started out, I found plotting to be the hardest part of novel writing. I moved ahead like gangbusters the first five chapters, then stopped not certain how to proceed. I needed a good deal of help from my mentor. Eventually, I managed to write out synopses and followed my outline. These past few years I've been writing the Haunted Library series as Allison Brook. I think in many ways it's easier to write a series than a standalone because many of the characters as well as the setting and the tone are set in the first book.

Since I worked from a detailed outline, I considered myself a plotter. I knew who would be murdered, the major plot points, the array of clues and red herrings. But I discovered my process changed when writing the last four books in the series. As always, I knew the book's major theme and the two seemingly unrelated elements that come together at the end. But I was no longer working from an outline. I had the option to veer off in various directions into the great unknown. 

To my amazement, this didn't frighten me. I'd changed into a pantser—sort of. Somehow writing so many books had given me the confidence to have faith in my plotting. To know I would move ahead and write the right scenes to bring each book to its logical conclusion. This didn't mean I no longer needed the assistance of my dear fellow Plothatchers occasionally, but sometimes simply by being on the verge of asking for their input I found the answer to what I was seeking. Which leads me to believe that we authors know more about the book we're writing than we think.

Changing the murderer:  While I've never changed my murder victims, I have changed the identity of a few murderers from those I originally had in mind. I think this can only be possible if a writer isn't following an outline set in stone. I like to supply my readers with many possible murder suspects because part of the fun of reading a mystery is figuring out who dun it. Also, as I write each book, I get to know my characters better—their personalities, their value systems and their secrets. Sometimes this results in my casting a different character as the killer. In fact, I recently changed the murderer in my Work In Progress for a variety of reasons. 

Grammar and words: Grammar rules evolve just as language evolves, and we'd better keep up with the times. For example, I once thought I was pretty good when it came to using commas. These days I defer to others. I used to put in a comma to separate compound sentences. Now I find my editors often remove them. They also remove commas before such adverbs as "too" and "finally," words I always comma'd. Now I question whether an adverbial phrase requires a comma when once I was certain that it did. 

Compound word, hyphenated words or two words: Here we have three possibilities and I often choose the wrong one. I thought "homecooked" was a word, but my editor changed it to "home-cooked." "Semi-circular" seemed right to me, but no, "semicircular" won out. There are more of these word/words than one would imagine. I'm grateful that at this point in my career, I have an editor and a copy editor to sort them out.

Has your writing method evolved? Do you have any word usage or grammar issue that puzzles you? Please share if you do.

The Blank Page by Connie Berry

Every story ever written begins with a blank page.

 

Oh, yes, there may be thoughts circling in your brain. Some as-yet unformed characters. The first glimmers of a setting and a plot. But none of this has made it to the page—or, more likely, the computer screen.

 

A blank page means limitless possibilities. Anything is possible. Even if a writer has ideas, those ideas can still change because nothing is set in stone. This is as true for plotters (those who plan out a story in advance) as it is for pantsers (those who let the story unfold organically as they write). Either way, as words begin to fill the metaphorical blank page, the possibilities narrow. If X happens, then Y is no longer a possibility. If my protagonist chooses a particular course of action, the alternative (barring a major rewrite) must be left behind.

 

Writing a story is a process that involves choices for both the characters and the writer. Those choices will impose limits that must push the characters toward a conclusion, a revelation, that, at some point, becomes inevitable.

 

When I think about writing a new book, as I’m doing now, I always think about my life.

As a child, I was taught by my parents that all possibilities were open to me. With enough desire and work, I could become a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, an archaeologist, a professor, a business executive, a writer, or anything else that captured my passion.

 

Over the course of time, my choices, plus the skills and abilities I possessed, narrowed the field. Since I wasn’t blessed with the math gene, a career in science wasn’t in the cards. My dislike for hot weather and sweating made archaeology less appealing. I didn’t care about the world of business or the law. I didn’t have the patience it takes to teach children. What I did love was reading, writing, researching, learning, answering questions, and communicating what I’d learned. That narrowed my field of opportunities pretty dramatically, and the resulting path led to my two careers—teaching theology to adults and writing mysteries.

 

At the moment, I’m trying to apply the lessons I’ve learned in life to the main characters in my new book (whoever they turn out to be). Here are the questions I’m asking right now: What does my main character want? Why does she want it? What foe (external or internal) will prevent her from getting it? What events will force her to make choices leading to consequences and eventually to change and growth?

 

This brings me back to the blank page. I’ve yet to write a single word. First, I have to make choices. I must narrow the field and place my main characters on the path I’ve chosen for them.

 

Does a blank page terrify you or fill you with anticipation? 

Secondary Characters Stepping Up by Martha Reed

I recall seeing a movie once where a secondary supporting character said something so funny and witty that when she walked off camera it kicked me out of the movie narrative because I lost interest in following the movie’s plot any further. I wanted to follow her to see what she was going to do next.

Judy Dench has this kind of magnetic pull on me, as does David Tennant, Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth.

What are authors supposed to do when one of our secondary characters suddenly steps forward and demands more face time?

This has happened to me twice. At an active crime investigation in my Nantucket Mystery series, a CSI specialist made a remark that was so wry with dry humor that I had to rewrite the scene and dial it down because it literally stole the focus from the corpse. I never forgot the strength in her voice though, and when it came time to develop my new NOLA series, Jane stepped in, ready-made. It felt like a gift.

I also developed a young, vibrant UBER driver named Cleo for a short story. When the editing phase came, as it always does, I needed to trim the word count. Poor Cleo got axed. I remember apologizing to her as I hit the highlight and delete buttons. Being a frugal writer and knowing that aggressively vocal characters are a truly rare treasure, I pasted Cleo into a blank Word document and saved her for later, vowing to return. She has been very patiently waiting for me to do so, and as I worked on my current WIP I needed a strong new female antagonist and there she was. Another gift.

Readers and family members ask me if I hear my character’s voices when I write. I have to admit that eventually I do although I worry that my family’s going to notify the authorities and send for the men with the nets to come get me.

I remember the very first time this auditory surprise happened because as a newbie writer it scared me. I was drafting a scene with two characters enjoying a tea party when I “heard” the clink of a silver spoon against a fine china teacup. I was alone in the house. I stood up to see who it was, then sat back down as I realized that I’d heard the sound inside my head. Now that I’ve gotten used to the creative writing process I rejoice whenever I reach that level of creativity because then I know I’m solidly in the zone and for my money that’s the most joyous place to ever be.

So, writers, have you ever had a secondary character demand the spotlight? And do you hear voices in your head?

The Chicken or the Egg: Writing From the Inside Out by Jean Rabe

Which comes first … the method of demise, or the victim?

How he died … what killed him … motivates me. Who, what, when, where, and why are obvious necessary elements, but it’s the How that sits at the heart for me.

I often write mysteries from the inside out, picking the method of demise and then spiraling outward with the plot. I establish the method first, then the victim, before building the story around that deceased character. It’s usually initiated by some tidbit I saw in the news.

For example, a few years ago I read about a pacemaker that could be hacked. Patients would use landlines to call in and have their implants checked by wirelessly connecting them to a hospital’s internet. During such a call, a savvy hacker in Bluetooth range could slip in and modify the pacemakers in a potentially fatal way. Some prominent individuals, among them Vice President Dick Cheney, had the wireless feature of their pacemaker disabled to protect against this.

So my victim would die by a hacked pacemaker. And it would be difficult to detect, almost impossible. My victim had to be someone who needed a pacemaker, so I created a feisty and interesting nonagenarian who on the surface had no enemies.

Then the villain. Who would be low enough to hack a pacemaker? And clever and skilled enough? Why would they do such a truly rotten thing? And why kill this particular nonagenarian?

From method to victim to killer to motive I grew my story, and then seeded it with a wealth of other characters and happenings. That happened in one of my earlier Piper Blackwell novels. I’ve just released the fourth in the series, The Dead of Jerusalem Ridge, and I plotted it from the inside out, too, though I dealt with two murders in this case. One was straightforward with a bullet, the other was rather…well, I won’t go into that as it would give away the story.

Maybe it’s a backwards approach. I’ve written forty-plus novels, most of them fantasy and science fiction, and while they dealt with death—sometimes in the thousands—they weren’t specifically about murder. I drifted to murder mysteries a few years ago and have decided this is the genre I’ll stay with. Fits me like a comfortable old shoe. My backwards-inside-out method suits me, too.

There’s no one correct way to write a mystery…to write anything for that matter. You pick the way that works best for you and run with it. Me? For whatever reason I’ve become fascinated with unusual methods of demise. I have a file on my computer stuffed with all manner of possible methods to kill characters. This morning I added a piece on the Asian Giant Hornet, the two-inch-plus beastie called the Murder Hornet that has made its way to the United States. In Japan, these hornets kill about fifty people a year, most of them to anaphylactic reactions. However, a colony of the hornets can sting with enough toxicity to take down a one hundred and fifty pound animal … or person.

Death by Murder Hornet is on my radar. So is dry drowning. My folder is filled with unfortunate

possibilities. “Creative Killing,” I’ve labeled it.

I think the “how” of a death is central to the plot because it helps define both the villain and the victim. How someone does away with another individual tells a great deal about that killer, about the deviousness, cruelty, affluence, motivation, physical capability, age, sex, and perhaps culture.

I started my writing career as a news reporter for various papers in Illinois, Kentucky, and Indiana, and later as a news bureau chief. I covered plenty of accidents, disasters, and murders. Too many murders; I learned how truly awful people can be to each other. Following the cases from the discovery of a body up through the trial was an education and a glimpse into the dark parts of a human heart. Even back in my reporter days, the “how” of a death was a crucial component in determining why someone committed murder. It was all sadly fascinating.

I much prefer my fictional murder mysteries to the real thing. I can always let the good guys win and can always lock up the villains. And I can plot it all from the inside out.

Hmmmm? I think I hear Murder Hornets buzzing.

Jean Rabe is the author of forty-some novels and more than one hundred short stories, and she’s edited a few dozen anthologies and more magazine issues than she cares to remember. This summer she was presented the Faust Award and named a Grandmaster by the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers for her body of work. She won the Illinois Author Project 2019 Award for her novel The Bone Shroud. And she’s been nominated for a Silver Falchion Award this month for her Piper Blackwell novel, The Dead of Summer. When she isn’t writing or editing, she delights in tossing tennis balls for her cadre of dogs. She lives in a tiny town surrounded by railroad tracks. To learn more about the USA Today bestselling author and her work, please visit her website at www.jeanrabe.com.

What To Keep Track of When You're Plotting a Mystery by Marilyn Levinson

Keep in mind all aspects of your sleuth's personal and professional life.

Don't forget to include updates in the lives of your sleuth's love interest, family, and friends.

Who are your victims and why were they murdered?

Who are your suspects and why are they considered potential murderers?

Make the most of the season (holidays, special events and celebrations.)

Always keep your setting in mind. Have a mental map of your town. Even better, draw one.

Make a list of all your characters and make sure you don't change their names midstream. (Don't laugh. My editor caught me putting Sammy, my real cat's name, in the manuscript instead of Smoky Joe.)

Most important: as you write, keep track of your days so that Friday follows Thursday. And of your weeks, so that you know if you're still in April and not yet in May. It will save you time later on.

Be careful when you name your characters. Don't start too many names with the same letter. Vary the number of syllables. Consider that some readers might confuse names like Don and Bob. Don't end all of your female names in a or ie.

Keep track of where all your suspects are at the time of each murder.

If you're writing a series, be sure to vary your methods of committing homicide. Whatever the method, the details may be few, but those you include must be authentic.

Have your sleuth acquire information in various ways. Consider that some sources of information may not be accurate or truthful.

Create secrets for your characters. Whether or not they are part of the murder investigation, secrets intrigue readers. Unearthing secrets may provide a piece of the investigative puzzle. They may also be used to send your sleuth in the wrong direction entirely.

Consider your characters' emotions. Readers love to cheer your sleuth on. They love to see her nemesis get put in her place.

A love interest adds a dimension to your book, but don't let it overshadow the mystery.

Red herrings and misdirection are necessary to maintain suspense.

Even if your protagonist is an amateur sleuth, the police will have a place in your book. Don't make them out to be idiots. While your sleuth may not have access to their labs and equipment, he/she may know the victim's family, friends or neighbors, who may be more willing to talk to share information.