Elizabeth Spann Craig's Blog, page 21

June 18, 2023

Important Elements of Mysteries

by J.R. Lancaster, @jrlauthor

For those of you who don’t know me yet, mysteries are my jam so there couldn’t be a more perfect topic for me to chat about. More so, let’s talk about important elements in mysteries.

Could there be anything more gratifying than reading a mystery where you have no clue who did it or why, but the resolution makes so much sense? Not at all. Now, I could say a million things about what should be in a mystery according to the experts, but I think I’d rather share what I think makes a good mystery. This is purely from a reader’s standpoint because, after all, we are supposed to write the book we want to read, right?

First up, foreshadowing.

Give me all the things I wish I would have seen along way and reveal it to me at the end! A great mystery has you fooled into thinking you can solve the puzzle when in reality, you haven’t the slightest hint of what’s in front of you. It’s like a magician tricking you with the left hand while the right one is doing all the work.

Next, is layering on the suspense.

For a good mystery I need to feel something is coming without seeing it. This is the ultimate distraction from the clues peppered within the plot. I want to be distracted by the feeling of fight-or-flight. That’s all part of the fun.

Give me all the Red Herrings.

This really goes beyond someone being a great writer and boarder’s common sense. We need clues not to seem out of place, they have to make so much sense, the reader has no idea you’ve already given them the key to unlocking it all. As a reader, I want to be led astray, tricked, and thrown off course. Why? Because you bet your bottom dollar, I will be paying attention. Not to mention, when I figure out that I’ve got it wrong I’ll be hooked until I find out the truth.

This is a big one, pacing.

I have found the secret for me is to begin a chapter with a inciting incident and end it with a question. The middle is filled with all the action to get from point A to point B. When writers do this, I have that good ol’ fashioned feeling of ‘just one more chapter.’

And lastly, a strong finish.

At the end of the novel a riveting mystery needs to line it out for me. What were the clues I missed? What might I have figured out? Why was wrong in my first theories? And what are you going to do about it? All I am looking for is a resolution to the game of cat and mouse that we’ve been playing from cover to cover.

When you combine all of these elements you have the making of an immersive experience for readers. And that’s really the goal. Think about it like the board game CLUE or CLUEDO. Almost everyone has played it, and even if you haven’t, you’ve certainly heard of it. How did it become so popular? It gives players an experience not just a storyline.

I hope you have had fun exploring this with me! It was really interesting to compare and contrast my favorite mysteries in order to identify what hooks me as a reader. I would love to hear what you would add to the list!

Important Elements for Mysteries by @jrlauthor :
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J.R. Lancaster is a published journalist, Editor and CEO of Musings & Company Creative Agency. She lives in the Midwest with her husband and children. J.R. is a graduate of Southern New Hampshire University and possesses an MFA in Creative Writing and Teaching Degree in English. She has a passion for writing that is only rivaled by her love of reading. In her spare time, you can find her outside with her family or behind the pages of a book. Connect with J.R. on Twitter @jrlauthor or Instagram @authorj.r.lancaster.

Book Blurb:

Basil Billingsly has dedicated more than ten years to flying under the radar of everyone in Badger’s Hollow.

He employs Mrs. Greene to do his bidding while he sets to work with clients far from prying eyes in the Village. He answers to no one and there isn’t a soul alive that relies on him either. Everything was perfect, until it wasn’t.

Now, a decade later, the killer has struck again, and Basil is forced to revisit the unsolved murder of his mother. Torn between love and lies, Basil must sort out his feelings before it’s too late. Old habits die hard, will he break them to save his friends, or will solitude call him home?

Image by Dorothe from Pixabay

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Published on June 18, 2023 21:01

Review Those Outlines

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

It’s recently struck me how much I’ve had to say about outlines lately. I’ve gone from being a pantser, to being a reluctant outliner, to having a grudging respect for a tool I never wanted to use in the first place.

I now follow my outlines fairly closely, although I permit myself any deviations needed to improve the story. But I realized for one of my last books that I’d left myself a few choices in my outline. I wrote “either do this, or do this.” I guess I figured I’d have a better feel for the story once I was writing it and could make a more natural decision later on.

The only problem was that I was following the outline and didn’t realize there was a fork in the road until the fork suddenly appeared. I write my outlines about 3-4 months before I work on the book, so I didn’t have any recollection of the divergent story ideas.

Not only that, but taking one story path over the other meant other changes were needed earlier in the story. It was sort of a domino effect.

The point is, any issues would have been headed off if I’d just reread the outline before I hopped right in. I need to either read the whole document (usually mine run about 30-35 pages) before I start, or I need to review and revise the outline directly after I finish writing it.

A quick tip, but one that might help a few folks out. :)

Are you an outliner? Have any writing tips for outlines or anything else?

Review Those Outlines:
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Published on June 18, 2023 21:01

June 17, 2023

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 65,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers. While you’re there, check out the Writer’s Digest award-winning Hiveword novel organizer.

Have you visited the WKB lately? Check out the new redesign where you can browse by category, and sign up for free writing articles, on topics you choose, delivered to your email inbox! Sign up for the Hiveword newsletter here. Follow the WKB on Facebook here.

The Top Writing Links From Last Week Are On Twitterific:
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Published on June 17, 2023 21:01

June 11, 2023

Jump Right In

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I'm pretty disciplined with my morning writing session. I get up, get ready, let the dog out, then settle down to write with a cup of tea. I reach my goal for the day before I get up from my chair.

The problem sometimes is any additional writing sessions during the day. The reason I protect my early-morning writing time so much is because there are so many different ways a day can get derailed during its course. You know what I mean: everything from family crises to mundane things like errands that need to be run or cleaning and cooking to complete.

I've found that what works for me is telling myself to get started with a writing session before I'm really ready to do so. To jump right in.

There I'll be, trying to figure out when I can squeeze in more writing time. I'll look at my to-do list and start thinking that 3 p.m. looks good. Apparently, my muse is an imp because she'll say, “How about right now, instead? This minute? Only a short one.”

As I've mentioned before, if I bring out my loyal timer, I'll do it. I can convince myself to do anything if it's just in 5 or 10 minute increments. I'll usually blow right through the timer and go an extra five or more minutes.

By jumping in before I'm ready, I think it's a way of decreasing my own expectations on my performance. I'm lowering the bar for myself. Giving myself a little grace. And I'm always relieved that I squeezed in the time.

How about you? Do you throw yourself into your writing when you're not ready? How do you motive yourself to write (or to do anything that requires effort?)

Writing Sessions: Jump Right In
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Published on June 11, 2023 21:01

June 10, 2023

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 65,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers. While you're there, check out the Writer's Digest award-winning Hiveword novel organizer.

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Published on June 10, 2023 21:01

June 4, 2023

Best Practices for Selling More Books

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I've noticed through the years that some writers get very discouraged when their book doesn't generate many sales. This discouragement can make them wonder if they should even continue writing. Many times these writers have put everything they have into a single book.

While there's no magic bullet, there are some things you can do to make it easier for readers to find your books.

Go wide: This means not putting all your eggs in the Amazon basket. It's the best way to hedge your bets and make sure your income is protected if and when Amazon makes changes to its algorithm or even backs out of selling books altogether. How can you go wide? An easy way is to go through a aggregator like Draft2Digital. You can find other ideas in this post of mine from 2019.

Write more than one book: There are many reasons why you should do this. One good reason is that it will stop you from being over-sensitive and anxious about book one. Another good reason is that the more books you've written, the more real estate you have online, so to speak. That can make readers find you easier. One excellent way to write more books is my next point:

Write in series: You've all heard me talk about this a lot. I have three active series currently, and I love the way series engage readers. It's also less work. You've already created the setting and readers are familiar with it. You've already developed the main characters and the huge amount of work that goes along with that is mainly finished. The groundwork has been laid and you can focus on other aspects of your story. Plus, once you've hooked readers on book one, you'll be able to funnel them into the other stories. After all, readers have also made an investment in your stories, time-wise, and it makes sense for them to continue in the same story world they've gotten used to.

Update your Amazon book page and author page: Although it's important to go wide, it's also important to make sure your spot at Amazon is updated. This means both your author page (bio, links, etc.) and your book page (make sure your books are all listed under your name). Find more ideas for taking care of this basic chore on this post I wrote for the IWSG.

Be consistent with your metadata: Is your series name the same across all retail outlets? Is your author name? Although it seems like a small thing, it works much like an old-fashioned card catalog. If something's different or flat-out wrong, it can hinder discovery. Ingram Spark puts it well:

One mistake self-publishers make is—believe it or not—their name. If you use your middle initial or a hyphen in your author bio, spell it exactly the same way on your book cover. This creates more links to you and your book, and the more links there are, the more you and your book will appear in searches.o

Categories and keywords matter: Your keywords don't need to stay static. Reader interest changes and so do the terms they search for. Find out the most popular searches by either manually typing terms into the Amazon search box, or using a tool like KDP Rocket. Dave Chesson explains both methods in his post, here. Categories are also vital for reader discovery. Are yours as narrowed down as they possibly can be? It would be tough for readers to find me under the huge “mystery” category, but they have a better chance with “cozy mystery-animals.”

Create a newsletter: This doesn't need to be a rabbit hole you fall into. Put a sign-up link on your website. When you have a new release, email the folks who sign up. It really can be that simple. See more at this recent post on my blog.

What have I missed? What other best practices do you follow to help readers find your books?

Best Practices for Selling More Books:
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Published on June 04, 2023 21:01

June 3, 2023

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 65,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers. While you're there, check out the Writer's Digest award-winning Hiveword novel organizer.

The Top Writing Links From Last Week Are On Twitterific:
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Published on June 03, 2023 21:01

May 27, 2023

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 65,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers. While you're there, check out the Writer's Digest award-winning Hiveword novel organizer.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable and meaningful Memorial Day weekend! I'm taking tomorrow off, but will be back here with Twitterific next week.

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Published on May 27, 2023 21:01

May 21, 2023

Don’t Give Up on Your (Writing) Dreams

by Mike Martin, @mike54martin

I have been a writer all of my life. As long as I can remember I was captivated by the magic and wonder of books. And I wanted to be a writer, a published writer, part of that community. But I did not come from a family or an environment where that was even considered as a career possibility. It was great that you could sing in the choir, but don’t even think about doing that for a living. Not for you. Same with writing. Great that you got an A on that essay, but keep studying and go to school for a real job.

So, I did what I could, tucking my writing dream under my hat as I took on all kinds of jobs and responsibilities in what my parents would call the ‘real’ world. But even as I did this I found a way to write in just about every job I found myself in. Along the way I wrote policy papers and backgrounders and then speaking notes and speeches, graduating to ghost writing editorials and opinion pieces for the big cheeses I worked for. What I found was that this sustained me, kept me going, kept my writing dreams alive.

It wasn’t until much later in life, maybe in my mid-forties that I had to write more. I just had to. That’s when I turned to freelance writing. For newspapers, magazines, business publications. Sometimes I had a by-line, but mostly it was anonymous, under-paid and under recognized work. But I was still writing, I told myself. That’s what really mattered.

But underneath all of this, the writing urge was not just percolating, it felt like a volcano was erupting. I couldn’t afford to quit my day job, so I started writing at night. Short stories, story ideas, poetry, screenplays, it didn’t matter. Slowly, over time I turned my career into part-time and writing into my vocation. I wrote and published a self-help book which to my embarrassment is still in publication. Needless to say, that was not enough to quench my writing thirst.

Finally in my early fifties, the idea for writing a book came into my mind and five years later at age 55 I published The Walker on the Cape, the first book in the Sgt. Windflower Mysteries series. And I have never looked back. This month I am celebrating the launch of Book 13 in the series, All That Glitters, and I already have Book 14 just about finished. I don’t how much longer I will continue, but at this point, it doesn’t matter. I have succeeded in achieving my writing dreams. And so can you.

I don’t have a lot of advice to offer. But I do know that writing and publishing a book takes time and determination. You have to have the physical time and space to be able to create. That will come. At some point in your life you will have that. The determination, the drive has to stay with you and that is what will propel you over the finish line. Every author I know has projects and plans and half-finished books in their writing file. Those who succeed in making them a reality are those are determined and never give up on their writing dreams.

All That Glitters is available in fine bookstores all over Canada and around the world on Amazon

Mike Martin was born in St. John’s, NL on the east coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand.

He is the award-winning and best-selling author of the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series set in beautiful Grand Bank. There are now 13 books in this light mystery series with the publication of All That Glitters.

A Tangled Web was shortlisted in 2017 for the best light mystery of the year, and Darkest Before the Dawn won the 2019 Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award.

Some Sgt. Windflower Mysteries are now available as audiobooks and the latest A Tangled Web was released as an audiobook in 2023. All audiobooks are available from Audible in Canada and around the world.

Mike is Past Chair of the Board of Crime Writers of Canada, a national organization promoting Canadian crime and mystery writers and a member of the Newfoundland Writers’ Guild and Capital Crime Writers.

You can follow the Sgt. Windflower Mysteries on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheWalkerOnTheCapeReviewsAndMore/

Have Writing Dreams? Don't Give Up (by @mike54martin ):
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Published on May 21, 2023 21:01

May 20, 2023

Twitterific Writing Links

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Twitterific writing links are fed into the Writer’s Knowledge Base search engine (developed by writer and software engineer Mike Fleming) which has over 65,000 free articles on writing related topics. It’s the search engine for writers. While you're there, check out the Writer's Digest award-winning Hiveword novel organizer.

The Top Writing Links From Last Week Are On Twitterific:
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Published on May 20, 2023 21:01

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