mystery novels

Breaking The Rules

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

#writetip

As an author starting out, there is a ton of advice to consider. I’ve been reading blogs with different opinions on this one. Some say follow all the rules. Some say follow none of the rules – it’s your art, your creative process.

Here are my thoughts on “Do you have to follow the rules?”

Some of the rules (advice) include:

  • Don’t change point of view mid scene
  • Don’t open a scene with a character waking up
  • Eliminate/minimize adjectives
  • Don’t use names that are hard to pronounce
  • Etc.

My advice: learn the rules, use the rules, become an expert at the rules, and then break them to your heart’s content.

Being a master at something is tremendously satisfying and, I think, worth the effort.

Dialogue Tags

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

#writetip

Who is talking? Do you always need a tag? Advice from how-to-write books say it should be clear from the dialogue, who is speaking. For the longest time, I interpreted this to mean that the character should have some unique way of speaking.

I don’t like to read dialogue where I get distracted with unique speech patterns, so I don’t like to write that way.

I finally understood what the advice means. The context and what the character has to say should give the reader enough information to know who is talking. If it doesn’t then a tag is needed.

If you need a tag, you could try using character movements or thoughts instead of a tag.

So back to my original thought. I now get the advice. So here’s an example.

A brother and sister are talking.

“What?” – can’t tell who’s speaking. Consider a dialogue tag or other method of indicating who is speaking.

“Mom loved you more because you’re a girl. She liked to dress you up and do your hair. I had nothing but scrapes and bruises to offer.”  – easy to tell the brother is speaking, so no dialogue tag needed.

Starting My Fourth Novel

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

#writing

Novel One, Novel Two, Novel Three . . . Now what?

I’ve eighteen pages of notes on my fourth novel, and it’s time to move location.  Three novels are set in the Purcell Mountains, BC, Canada.

The fourth novel (and I feel like I should play music here) is set in the Bahamas. It’s time for a sailing adventure.

It’s been quite the experience writing about the Purcell’s. A place I lived and loved. An isolated mountain resort provides a great setting for a romantic thriller.

But the winds are changing and pushing me in a new direction. This is not to say I won’t continue to write about BC, only that it’s time to try something new.

New characters, new location, new mystery. It’s all a bit overwhelming, but also fun.

Now to go back and read what I wrote about the writing process and make sure I remember it all.

BURNT – A NOVEL

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

#writing I’ve submitted my third novel, BURNT,  to my agent, Margaret Hart, at HSW Literary Agency in Toronto. So it’s time to relax? Not quite. I’ve got to update my books pages on this blog, the Crime Writer’s of Canada web page, my agent’s web page, LinkedIn and on and on and on . . .

This is the third novel in my Kalin Thompson series. Here’s what it’s about:

Kalin Thompson’s life spirals out of control on her wedding day. Instead of exchanging vows with her fiancé, Ben Timlin, she finds herself trapped by a forest fire and is forced to deliver her best friend’s baby on the shore of a glacial lake high in the mountains of British Columbia.

While Kalin tries to keep her friend and the baby safe, Ben is hanging from the rafters of a burning building, fighting for his life.

Arson is declared the cause of the forest fire.

Arson ruins her wedding day.

Arson turns her new home and half of her beloved ski resort into ashes.

Finding the arsonist becomes her personal mission. Kalin, the director of security at Stone Mountain Resort, gets on the wrong side of small town corruption and uncovers more than just arson. There are those who will go to extreme measures to keep Kalin from exposing their secrets. Kalin will go to extreme measures to protect what is hers.

How to Create Chapter Breaks

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

#writetip  There a many different ways to write a novel, but one thing most have in common is the story is broken into chapters.

How do you do this?

Do write in chapters, plotting the entire novel ahead of time?

Do you write the novel in scenes and then group them into chapters?

Or, do you write one long scene and then break into scenes and group into chapters?

I tend to write in scenes. This gives me a small section to write. As the saying goes, Inch-by-Inch, Life’s a Cinch.  I find it less overwhelming to write a scene than attempting an entire novel.

Once I’ve completed a draft and have all my scenes printed, I try grouping them into themes. If I can give several scenes one name, then I make it a chapter. If I can’t, then I look for another way to group scenes. I don’t focus on the length of a chapter. I think it’s more important to have the grouping right than to have consistent chapter lengths.

Canadian versus American Spelling

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments

#writetip There are too many ways to spell the same word and be correct. My goal is to spell consistently, thinking that should do the trick and I’ll end up with a professional manuscript.

Now I’m having my third novel, Burnt, proofread by two people. One is Canadian, the other American.  The American is circling words that are misspelled . . . but are they?

Let’s look at the word: travel

Say, one of my character takes a trip.

Canadian Spelling:    She TRAVELLED by car.

American Spelling:   She TRAVELED by car.

I’m Canadian and want to use Canadian spelling, but what happens if I get lucky and get published in both countries? Will one set of readers think I can’t spell?

Any opinions on this one?

A Story Worthy Problem

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

#writetip How do you know if you have a story worthy problem and why do you want one?

I guess it depends on whether you are writing short stories or novels. I write novels, but love to read short stories. Let’s say a novel is somewhere between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Some can be more and some less.

For a reader to want to spend their time reading 70,000 words, there has to be a problem they are interested in and it has to be big enough to write that many words about.

Your main character needs to strive for something of they are just sitting around being boring. They need to come up against obstacles.

My idea is that you know you have a story worthy problem if you find yourself at 70,000 words (ish) and are still writing about it. If you run out of things to say, it might not be the story worthy.

Small Caps

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments

#writetip Tricks of the trade are hard to come by, and it’s one more reason to have a mentor. If you’re a Canadian crime writer you might want to check out CWC. My mentor, Garry Ryan, President of Crime Writers of Canada, pointed out that I should use small caps when using acronyms such as RCMP, SUV, or DIN. Here is the same sentence. The first is 12 point for all words. The second has RCMP written in small caps.

RCMP Constable Wagner prepared herself for a fight. She squared her body . . .

or

RCMP Constable Wagner prepared herself for a fight. She squared her body . . .

The second sentence is the correct way. It even looks better on the page. You can see for yourself how RCMP blends better in small caps and doesn’t pull the eye away from the rest of the words.

Character Names

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

#writetip Do you refer to your character the same way throughout your novel or short story? Does this change depending on who has the POV in a particular scene?

I’m wondering if this matters.

I have a character, let’s call him Mike Chambers.

When Mike has the POV or his girlfriend has the POV, I refer to him as Mike.

When a cop who is interviewing him has the POV, I refer to him as Chambers.

I think it’s more personal to use Mike in his POV scene or his girlfriends POV scene.

When it’s the cops POV, I think the cop should be more distant from Mike and I refer to him as Chambers.

The question is: is this okay or does it confuse the reader?

My solution to answering this question. I ask my readers what they think after they’ve read the scenes. If the reader is not confused as to who the character is, I think using first and last names allows me to indicate closeness of a relationship. If the reader is confused, maybe it’s better to use either the first or the last name, but not both.

Show, Don’t Tell

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 2 Comments
#writetip How many times have you heard “Show, Don’t tell” ? So the advice is everywhere and it must be easy. Ha Ha. Here’s a technique I use when I’m trying to force myself to show and not tell.

For each scene, establish a point of view character and stick to it. If you find yourself throwing in other characters thoughts or feelings, see if you can get rid of them without hurting the scene. This narrows the POV to one character.

Once you’re that far, check the scene for anything the character can’t know, but you’ve described. There’s a good chance this is telling. It might be something that can be removed or put in as part of what the character is doing. This way you’re revealing the character’s experience and not what you as an author want the reader to know.

I’m not saying write your whole novel this way. I’m not even saying this works. What it does is give me a process to check if I’m telling and not showing. Then I can decide whether or not to make changes.

If you have other ways to check if for telling versus showing, I’d love to hear them.