Peg Herring's Blog - Posts Tagged "plotlines"
Two Reasons People Write Mystery Novels
#1-To show the world as they view it
#2-To show the world as they wish it
Yeah, I know, there is money and fame and the dream of winning some massive prize for the Great American Novel. But mostly, it is a desire to do one of the above.
I'm reading (as usual) several books at a time, and they brought me to this conclusion. I see in one author a desire to show the reader what life is like for a person with a certain problem: how he comes to face it, how he feels about himself, how he fares in his journey to wellness. It's obvious from the story that the author either went through this journey or is close to someone who did. The scenario is real-world. Down-to-earth.
My second current is the fun kind of mystery, a "what if" scenario that takes the reader along with ever-so-clever detectives from an earlier era who work perfectly in tandem. As I read, I slip into believing what the author wants me to believe, that treads and threads and clever heads will solve the crime. Don't we all wish for a partner who combines love for us with genius and the ability to read our minds?
The third book presents a tough-guy private eye who inhabits a world I cannot imagine, a world where knives flick into view and slice someone's throat before the victim knows what's happening. While I can read such books from time to time and enjoy them, it's not the way I see the world, even if in some cases, it's true. Readers of this sort of book get a peek at a world they can only imagine, and the writer's job is tough, because even the protagonist is pretty scary, the sort most readers would not invite to tea.
My point is that an author writes to show his world view, either wishful or truthful, according to his own experiences. Some become famous, usually because they do it so well. And how does one do it well? I suppose by making their own world view available to us and making us believe, at least for the duration of the book, that that is how it was at a certain place and at some point in time.
#2-To show the world as they wish it
Yeah, I know, there is money and fame and the dream of winning some massive prize for the Great American Novel. But mostly, it is a desire to do one of the above.
I'm reading (as usual) several books at a time, and they brought me to this conclusion. I see in one author a desire to show the reader what life is like for a person with a certain problem: how he comes to face it, how he feels about himself, how he fares in his journey to wellness. It's obvious from the story that the author either went through this journey or is close to someone who did. The scenario is real-world. Down-to-earth.
My second current is the fun kind of mystery, a "what if" scenario that takes the reader along with ever-so-clever detectives from an earlier era who work perfectly in tandem. As I read, I slip into believing what the author wants me to believe, that treads and threads and clever heads will solve the crime. Don't we all wish for a partner who combines love for us with genius and the ability to read our minds?
The third book presents a tough-guy private eye who inhabits a world I cannot imagine, a world where knives flick into view and slice someone's throat before the victim knows what's happening. While I can read such books from time to time and enjoy them, it's not the way I see the world, even if in some cases, it's true. Readers of this sort of book get a peek at a world they can only imagine, and the writer's job is tough, because even the protagonist is pretty scary, the sort most readers would not invite to tea.
My point is that an author writes to show his world view, either wishful or truthful, according to his own experiences. Some become famous, usually because they do it so well. And how does one do it well? I suppose by making their own world view available to us and making us believe, at least for the duration of the book, that that is how it was at a certain place and at some point in time.
