Like
Persian Cats, Writing a Mystery Must Be Brushed and Stroked
By
Kelly Oliver
In the
past two years, I’ve learned that writing fiction is a lot like combing a
matted Persian cat. It takes a lot of
patience and determination. And sometimes the cat bites back.
Let me
explain.
For the
last twenty years, I’ve written philosophy and nonfiction, and until lately it
was very satisfying. But, a few years ago, writing philosophy started feeling a
little routine—you know, thinking hard thoughts and writing them down. Anyway, I’d always wanted to write fiction.
The trouble was, for decades I’d been trained to get right to the point and hit
readers over the head with my thesis.
With mystery, you have to do the opposite and hide the point, meander
along, and create suspense. Like sneaking up on a weary long-haired cat, to
write mysteries you have to have a few tricks in your grooming kit.
I got the
courage to switch from writing nonfiction to fiction after attending a Killer
Nashville Mystery Writers’ Conference. The 2014 convention gave me just enough
ammunition to make me dangerous. The four-hour session on writing your opening
line sponsored by Sisters in Crime had me on the edge of my seat. I loved
mystery writing already and I hadn’t even written my first word.
Immediately
after the convention, I wrote the first draft of Wolf in two months and
spent the next two years editing it. During that same time, I also wrote Coyote,
and alternated between editing one and then the other. For decades, I’ve relied
on nonfiction writing to keep me sane. Now, writing novels, I find even more
pleasure in inventing characters and whole worlds. But, like everything fun
that’s worth doing, it’s also hard work! And when you’re determined to finish
that next novel, you can get saddle sores… not to mention cramps in your
fingers. Giving that matty cat a good brushing can be exhausting!
For me,
the best way to write is to get something down on the page. Then comes the hard
part, revising and editing. After writing quick first drafts, I go back and
revise and revise and revise, concentrating on several key aspects of writing,
including: consistent point of view, strong action verbs that show rather than
tell, and interspersing enough backstory to enrich characters without
sacrificing action.
Each
chapter or section needs to stay within its main character’s point of view both
in terms of what she says, how she says it, and descriptions of place and
action. How she describes the situation tells us a lot about her. But it has to
be consistent. In a first draft, it’s easy to drop out of your character’s
point of view, and that’s why you need to revise. For example, a character
probably wouldn’t describe herself using these adjectives “her delicate
beautiful hands” or “her exquisite lips and soft silky hair,” unless she was a
narcissist. And of course, she can’t describe something she doesn’t see or
can’t possibly know. On repeated careful readings, these spots start to stand
out like “hot spots” (a polite euphemism for ring worm) on your beautiful
Persian kitten’s coat.
It’s
challenging and fun to go back through your manuscript to replace common verbs
like looked, pulled, pushed, or walked,
with more exciting stronger verbs such as glanced
or stared, hauled or yanked, shoved or thrust, strode or sauntered, etc., again with an eye to
consistency in point of view. So “she looked at him, pulled his hair, pushed
him down, then walked away,” becomes “she glared at him, yanked his hair, shoved
him down, then strode away.” Speaking of pulling and yanking, you have to keep
at it, teasing out those pesky mats that mar the flow of your story.
Finally,
balancing backstory and action can be tricky. You have to cut out big matted chunks
of backstory to keep the action moving. Then go back and add a subtle dusting
of backstory—one-liners are best—throughout the novel. Once you hook your
readers on the action in the first few chapters, you can always add more
backstory later, still keeping your readers on a “need to know” basis when it
comes to the past.
You have
to keep brushing, combing, and teasing out the mats in your novel. Like the
coat of that Persian cat, with every stroke, it will get smoother and finer
until it flows beautifully. But, then there are the days when you just have to
say to hell with it and get out the clippers!
# # #
Kelly Oliver is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at
Vanderbilt University and well-known feminist philosopher. She is the author of
fourteen nonfiction books, most recently, Hunting Girls: Sexual Violence from The
Hunger Games to Rape on Campus
(Columbia University Press, May 2016). Her work has been translated into seven
languages, and she has been featured in the The New York Times and
on ABC television news. Kelly is releasing a new mystery trilogy featuring
kickass heroine Jessica James, a Montana “cowgirl” and philosophy grad student
taking on ripped-from-the-headlines crimes like date rape drugs on campus, sex
trafficking, fracking and more. The adventure begins with trilogy debut Wolf
(Kaos Press, June 2016) and Jessica’s adventures
continue in Coyote (August
2016). Read more about Kelly and the Jessica James Cowgirl
Philosophy Mystery series at www.kellyoliverbooks.com
