Despite my better judgement, I am currently working on a new Mystery manuscript. Mystery not as in ‘suspenseful thriller’ ala The Grey Sisters, but mystery as in a whodunnit. Boy, are those hard! They are structured, they are convoluted, the bones need to be solid, the premise sharp, the characters rendered with precision. It all has to make sense.
Le sigh.
Those of you who have followed me through the years know that I don’t outline much. I do in-depth character sketches and setting sketches and I love to draw maps. I usually start writing a book with a vague idea of where it is going but more often than not, it is a thorny problem, an enigma, that draws me in. What do I want to say with this book? I ask myself.
And to get there I compile a series of ‘what ifs’. Glorious ‘what ifs’.
I get to know my characters and then I throw ‘what ifs’ at them until we’re all jumping around like crazy creatures. It may not strictly adhere to the rules of writing but it works for me. I tend to dig in pretty deep, situate myself within my characters and my setting, try and feel what they are feeling, and once I know that I know what they are going to do and how they will react.
At some point of course, I need to grab the reins and direct the flow of action but in the heady beginning days I love to feel the same anxiety, fear and bewilderment as my characters do. It keeps the excitement and my interest at a high and enables me to get down 10 or 20,000 words at which point I (had better) have an inkling of what is going on but am also prepared to be completely blind-sided, surprised and delighted.
For this particular w.i.p. (provisionally entitled Tiny Boxes- because I absolutely have to have a *working title to write a book) I’ve thrown so much mystery at my characters that I am not sure I can get them out of their dilemma. However this is what I LOVE.
Figuring out the problem. Gathering up all the loose threads and making something that can withstand a whole lot of poking and prodding, and hopefully at the end, not only delight myself but also the reader.
Every writer has their own way of moving forward. And this is not the same for every book because every book is different and so are the methods that work. But within dwells all the joy.
*note: none of my published books have retained their working titles except for The Grey Sisters.