What Grover Taught Me about Writing Mysteries

By Heather Weidner

 

I am Gen X, first-generation Sesame Street and first-generation MTV. One of my favorite children’s books of all time was the classic, The Monster at the End of This Book. I still have my copy. Mystery, fantasy, suspense, monsters. This book had it all.

 

 

As I look back on some of my childhood favorites, I realize I’ve been reading mysteries for a long time. Here’s what this Little Golden Book and the blue fuzzy monster from Sesame Street taught me about writing mysteries. 

• You need to build suspense in your stories to keep your readers engaged.
• Your readers need to like or empathize with your protagonist.
• Everyone is afraid of something, and writers need to tap into fears to build tension.
• Write strong (and fun) dialog. Make it sound like real speech, slang and all.
• Use pacing correctly. Slow down the action to build suspense, and speed it up to amp up the excitement.
• Your protagonist needs a challenge or a problem to solve.
• Your character should not be perfect. Little (or big) flaws make your character relatable and interesting.
• Make sure your character is not flat. He or she needs to be a real person (or monster) with all the things that life throws in the way. Your protagonist has to stumble and make mistakes.
• When you think your character has had enough and is close to breaking, pile it on. Add more tension.
• Don’t load up your work with a lot of narrative and back story. Readers want to stay in the action.
• And most importantly, never forget that reading is fun.

Do you have a favorite children’s book that taught you some life lessons?

Heather Weidner writes cozy crime fiction for readers who want justice with a sprinkle of fun and a southern accent.

Through the years, Heather Weidner has been a cop’s kid, technical writer, editor, college professor, software tester, and IT manager. She writes the Pearly Girls Mysteries, the Delanie Fitzgerald Mysteries, The Jules Keene Glamping Mysteries, and The Mermaid Bay Christmas Shoppe Mysteries. 

Originally from Virginia Beach, Heather has been a mystery fan since Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew. She lives in Central Virginia with her husband and a crazy Mini Aussie Shepherd. 

 

Where Did Your Love of Mysteries Begin? – by Heather Weidner

When I’m asked about where did my love of mysteries start, I always say that Scooby-Doo and Nancy Drew were my gateways to the mystery world. But as I look back on my favorite children’s books, I realized that the first mystery that really hooked me was actually a picture book, Jon Stone’s The Monster at the End of the Book. Grover, the blue fuzzy protagonist, spends the entire book fretting over the monster who is supposed to make an appearance on the last page of the story. In hindsight, this is where I was discovered a passion for suspense, mystery, plot twists, clues, and irony.

Saturday morning cartoons were also the beginning of my mystery-watching addiction that has blossomed to include true crime shows, podcasts, and a host of murder documentaries. There were so many cartoons in the seventies with crime fighters and puzzle solvers like Scooby-Doo Where Are You, Josie and the Pussycats, The Funky Phantom, Captain Caveman, Jabber Jaw, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Speed Buggy, Lassie’s Rescue Rangers, The CB Bears, Deputy Dawg, Mumbly, and Devlin, and I watched them all.

Cartoons and my picture books started a love that grew to include a whole host of books as soon as I discovered the library. In fourth grade, my friend and I raced to finish the yellow-covered Nancy Drews, and then we moved on to the Hardy Boys and the Three Investigators. (And it didn’t hurt that Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevens starred in The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries every week on TV.)

Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, like the Mystery Inc. gang in the Scooby-Doo series, were ordinary kids who were able to solve mysteries that the adults couldn’t. They had freedom to explore, cool transportation, and friends to help them solve the crime and bring justice. I devoured these books and moved on to Two-Minute Mysteries, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Mystery and crime fiction followed me to college where I took the best course offered in our English department, Dr. Magnuson’s “Mystery and Detective Fiction.” He introduced us to the history of the genre, key tropes, subgenres, and the “rules” for writing crime fiction, but the best part was that I was required to read an entire syllabus of new-to-me authors.

My love of mysteries started early with cartoons and books. It also didn’t hurt that I was a C. K. (cop’s kid), and murder and true crime were regular topics at our dinner table.

Where did your love of mystery and suspense start?