In case you missed my guest blog on A Blue Million Books, here is a recap...
Starting a new
mystery book is the exciting part for me. Having a mystery series affords me a
small group of main characters to work with. So with each new mystery I need to
establish three factors–crime, antagonist, and motive. Filling in those blanks
can come from the most unexpected of places–a phase overheard on a train
platform in Worchester; the headline from a centuries-old newspaper; the chance
meeting of an interesting (or not so interesting) guest at a party, and so on.
It seems the seeds for murder and mayhem are endless. For that reason I keep a
small notepad in my pocket. It isn’t odd for me to excuse myself during a
conversation to quickly jot down a few notes. The action usually prompts a
somewhat confused look from the person I’m speaking with over what was so
important that I had to write it down. Some leave it at that; other will go so
far as to ask what I was doing. “Just a thought I don’t want to forget,” is my
usual reply. I dare say it would be quite unnerving if I replied, “Your last
statement gave me a rather unique way to murder someone.”
After returning
home I take the note and place it in one of three small boxes I keep on my desk
that it most aligns with. If you haven’t guessed, those boxes are labeled:
Crime, Antagonist, and Motive. Because of Ernie Bisquets being the protagonist
in all the stories, there is, at time, a
deuteroganist
in the stories. There is a box for that too. This
is where it starts to get exciting.
When I sat down to
start the most recent book in my Ernie Bisquets Mystery Series, the first thing
I did was place the boxes in front of me. Having been compiling small shreds of
paper in each of the boxes over the course of time I’m at odds to remember what
any of the scraps had written on them. Reading the resulting scrap of paper
pulled from the first box, Antagonist,
rekindled the flame it raised in me when I first jotted it down. The note read
thus: Older Member of Parliament. Well
respected, but with a dark, hidden past. Not obviously evil. I’ll not
reveal where I was when I jotted this note down, but I will admit I was
terribly intrigued more with the outward appearance of the person I was talking
to than to what he had to say.
To add a twist to
the dark past and hints of evil in the Antagonist I felt there was a need for a
Deuteroganist. From that
box I pulled the following note: Pathetic
wretch, valet or servant of some sort. Kind but hints of a questionable character
or background. (I eventually named this character Prophet Brown) As I
remember this note derived from a combination of two people I met within
minutes of each other. One seemed incredibly kind, the other not so much.
Combined they created an exceptional character persona.
Next came the Crime. The notes in this box are short
and to the point. Reaching in I extracted the following: Murder.
The final piece of
this puzzle was Motive. There is no
shortage of scraps of paper in that box. It’s sad, but people are driven to do
bad things for three basic reasons–greed, jealousy, and revenge. This scrap
read thus: Revenge for mistaken belief.
With all the
pieces assembled I started the synopsis for PassageOf Crime, third book in the Ernie Bisquets Mystery Series released a few
months ago. Not to worry though, this post is not the spoiler it may seem. I
reach a point when writing the books where I break away from the synopsis and
allow the characters to take over direction of the story. This usually leads to
an “Aha!” moment for me. I also feel if it surprised me, it most certainly
should surprise my readers. It’s that twist at the end where you thought you
had everything figured out and then, without warning, the ambiguous
foreshadowing comes flowing back like a flash flood. The obscure becomes the
obvious and a smile of satisfaction comes over you. It’s what we writers live
for.
