Yippee!

I’ve just finished the first draft of my 12th novel (or my first novella). Now comes the easier part (except for author blind spots) of self-editing and polishing before it goes to a manuscript assessor.

It’s my first mystery novel. I’d class it as a “cosy” form of mystery – the most popular but least realistic, according to the 1992 The Writer’s Digest Handbook of Novel Writing.

The sub-genre form involves an amateur detective (in this case a freelance journalist).

I may have broken the rules in having the lead protagonist end up with a confession by one of the guilty parties before he comes up with the murderer. Also, some of the violence is not minimal and not offstage but reasonably sanitised nonetheless.

Maybe I reached the climax too soon – the reason why I’m currently 5,000 words short for novel-length. However, I drained my imagination on clues and red herrings and reached a natural end in the story telling, but without having a final scene that explains how the solution was found – another breaking of the rules for the “cosy” form of mystery.

Any advice from you mystery writers would be welcome.