It's a Crime Sunday - How to Set Up the Murder

How do I set up the murder?

by Heather Haven

Setting up the murder is easier than you think. When your imagination is doing the victim in, the sky’s the limit. What you need to remember, though, is the type of mystery you are writing. Soft and sweet? Hard-boiled and gritty? You can have the same type of thing happen to your victim(s), unless you go to an extreme either way. Having a disabled little old lady, raped, mutilated and dismembered on page 5 of a cozy sets up a dark flavor to your story, no matter how many doilies and kittens you throw in. With the easy, breezy cozy, it’s best to have the murder victim go in a way that’s more palatable - quick, but inventive. Drowned in a vat of cabernet sauvignon comes to my mind, but I live in Wine country and we lust for that kind of ending.

If you’re writing a hard-boiled detective story where the protagonist eats rusty nails, drinks rotgut, spits on people’s shoes, and hasn’t talked to his mother since he was eight, dismemberment is not so bad. Throw in a lame dog, while you’re at it.

Try to provide access to the victim’s demise to a myriad of suspects or do just the opposite: none at all. Right away tension is created. Who, who, who? How, how, how? Ratchet it up whenever you can. Each suspect should have something to gain or lose by the death, which you get to invent out of your own fertile imagination. Have I mentioned the sky’s the limit?

Whichever route you take, do something different with it. The method of death, the way the body is discovered, the person discovering it, etc., should have an unusual bend. If you go for the disabled little old lady, for instance, have your protagonist find out she was a scam artist on the side, who bilked a lot of widows and orphans. If you have your victim drowned in a vat of 1997 Mouton-Rothschild Bordeaux Blend, have the victim be a tea-totaler. Then send a bottle to me. They’re out of stock around here.

HINT: Be inventive, be clever, but be realistic. Don’t turn your reader off by coming up with something that would never happen, unless you’re writing a farce. Then have at it.

And do I really have to have the murder happen by the end of chapter one?

Yes, yes, yes. Unless you know something I don’t, you are going to have to off somebody by the end of chapter one. Even writer Sheldon Siegel, often on the NY Times best seller list, follows this protocol. In his latest novel, Perfect Alibi, chapter one ends with the words, “He’s dead.” You don’t get much better than that. I’m sure there are exceptions to this rule, but it has become de rigueur to find or mention a dead body 99% of the time at the end of chapter one. Maybe it’s because we’re now in a society that wants instant gratification. To some extent, let’s thank the internet for that. Nobody seems to have the patience to wait around for four of five chapters like the good old days. This creates a certain amount of pressure on the author to slam it all out right at the beginning of the book. Actually, it’s a lot of pressure.

HINT: That’s what you get for writing a mystery. Nobody said it would be easy.


Find out more about Heather Haven on her website.

Her latest Alvarez Family mystery is "A Wedding to Die For" from MuseItUp Publishing.
 
A groom arrested for murder can put a crimp in anybody’s wedding. So when the bride’s nuptials are threatened, best friend and maid-of-honor, Lee Alvarez -- the thirty-four-year old combination of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone and Janet Evanovitch’s Stephanie Plum - heads south of the border in search of the real killer. There the half Latina, half WASP, and 100% detective is thrown into the well-organized world of plundered Mesoamerican relics and finds a few more dead bodies along the way. While having the best tasting tamales ever, she stumbles across the man of her dreams. But is he too good to be true? Probably. With the help of the rest of the Alvarez Family, Never-Had-A-Bad-Hair-Day blueblood mother, Lila Hamilton Alvarez, brother and computer genius, Richard; favorite uncle, “Tío” Mateo; and Tugger, her energetic orange and white cat, Lee tries to follow her own sage advice, ‘when Cupid’s wings start flapping, take cover.’ Good luck to her. Because can love and murder be far behind?

A Wedding To Die For is the second novel in a series of humorous murder mysteries involving the Alvarez Family, owners of Silicon Valley’s successful Discretionary Inquiries.

It's a Crime Tuesday - Location, Location, Location

Using Oregon in Mysteries

By Linda Kuhlmann

About Linda: Author of "Koenig's Wonder" and "The Red Boots." She's a fellow Oregonian who, like myself, left the work world to do what we wanted to do: Write! Linda's first book, "Koenig's Wonder" is set in both Oregon and Churchill Downs. The story comes from her own family history about horse raising and racing. "The Red Boots" is new, and I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but considering the first book, I have no doubt I'll enjoy it. For more about Linda Kuhlman, check her website.

The old adage ‘Write what you know’ is good advice, but another is just as important: ‘Write where you live.”

Descriptions used in your writing will be much richer if you are physically in the area you are writing about. Traveling to an area to write about is one way, but actually living there for some time gives you a much deeper sense of the location and native people. Using all your senses create more visual characteristics that bring your story to life.

Also, the history of the area adds a deeper dimension. Readers love to read about their hometowns and surrounding areas. They also love to learn about its past that they may not be aware of. So, your research in that area is very important. This history can lead to some hidden mystery that piques your readers’ interests. Newspaper articles in your hometown or surrounding areas can spark an idea for a possible mystery.

My first two novels take place in Oregon. I grew up in Illinois, but moved to Oregon thirty years ago. It has been my home ever since. Since I migrated here, I bring my characters to various areas in the state that I have grown to love – the Willamette Valley, Portland, Columbia Gorge, even Dufur! Generally, I don’t change the names of the locations. Sometimes, I may use actual businesses and people, altering their names for my fiction.

Now, to step away from the adages for a moment, I do tend to write about other places and activities I’ve experienced during my travels. I also live vicariously through my characters in various careers, such as flying an airplane, living on a horse ranch in the foothills of Mt. Hood, riding a Thoroughbred racehorse at Churchill Downs in Kentucky. Yet, I feel it’s important to make your writing as creditable as possible. Therefore, I research and interview experts in the various field, even if I’m writing fiction. After my interviews, I ask my experts to check my pages relating to their subject to make sure I understood correctly.

For example, if you’re writing about flying a P51 Mustang and you’re describing the take off procedures, a pilot reading your book will know if you’ve done your research. If not, he or she will stop reading.

To place your readers in the scenes you write about, become an observer. Write what you see, hear, smell in the little neighborhood café you want to include in your story. Also, write down descriptions of the people there, their clothes, mannerisms, what they order. Just make sure you use caution to change names and some features so people don’t necessarily recognize themselves in your work. Mix things up, like changing a tall blonde woman to a shorter brunette.

I’m sure your part of the world has so many wonderful venues for your writing. When I’m thinking of a murder mystery in Oregon, there is Portland’s Pearl District, Crown Point in the Columbia Gorge, Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, the French Glen Hotel near Steens Mountain, Gold Beach, Crater Lake…the list is endless. So, ‘write where you live,’ or at least where you’ve been in your life. Your writing will come alive!

It's a Crime Sunday - 10 Rules for Writing a Novel

**** About L.J. Sellers
I’m an award-winning journalist, editor, and novelist based in Eugene, Oregon. I write the highly praised Detective Jackson series: The Sex Club, Secrets to Die For, Thrilled to Death, Passions of the Dead, and Dying for Justice. I also have two standalone thrillers, The Baby Thief and The Suicide Effect,and her newst novel, a futuristic thriller called The Arranger. All my books are available in print and on Kindle and other e-readers for $.99 — $2.99.

 
When not plotting murders, I enjoy performing stand-up comedy, cycling, gardening, reading crime stories, social networking, attending writers/readers conferences, hanging out with my family, and editing fiction manuscripts.

This article is from a past post on The Blood Red Pencil blog.

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I evaluate fiction for a publisher, using the publisher's standard set of questions, with the last question being: thumbs up or down? It's a tough list of standards, and I see a pattern of common problems that keep manuscripts from being accepted. The most significant problems involve the bond between story and character. If you want an agent or editor to get past the first chapter of your story, here are 10 things to keep in mind:

1. Make your main character want something. Desire is the engine that drives both life and narrative. Characters who don’t want anything are rarely interesting.

2. Make your main character do something. Your story can start with a character who is the victim of circumstances, but afterward the character needs to move quickly into action. Readers like characters who take charge.

3. Let your readers know the story’s premise right away. If they get to the end of the first chapter and still can’t answer the question—what is the story about?—they probably won't keep reading.

4. Get conflict into the story early on. It doesn’t have to be all-out bickering or deception between characters, but let your readers know things will sticky.

5. Skip the omniscient POV. Let the reader experience as much of the story as possible through the eyes of your main character. This is how readers bond with protagonists. If you shift POVs, put in a line break.

6. Introduce characters one at a time with a little physical detail and a little background information for each. (Ella was five-eight, bone thin, and worked for IBM.) Too many characters all at once in the first few pages can be overwhelming.

7. It’s okay to tell sometimes, instead of show. Not every character reaction has to be described in gut-churning, eyebrow-lifting physical detail. Sometimes it’s okay to simply say, “Jessie panicked.”

8. Don’t over write. Nobody agrees on what constitutes good writing, so trying to make your writing stand out will probably work against you. The best writing doesn’t draw attention to itself; it just gets out of the way of the story.

9. Avoid word repetitions when you can. Read your story out loud. You’re much more likely to hear the repetitions than see them.

10. The components of a novel that readers (and publishers) care about most are, in order: story, characters, theme, setting. If you have to sacrifice something, start at the end of list. Never sacrifice the story for anything else.

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Watch for LJ's next book, "The Arranger," has just been released and is now available on Amazon.com

2023: Lara Evans just wants to win the Gauntlet, a national endurance contest, but a mysterious assailant wants her dead. Can she both win the contest and survive?