The Mystery Starts Here

I am wandering around my house, starting at walls, trying to figure out what to do for the next hour, day, week. Why? I finished the first draft of novel number ten today and now I feel lost. After so many weeks of writing a minimum of 1000 words a day - I have nothing to do. I want to print this glorious manuscript out and rush it into the mail to the person at the top of my agent list, but I won’t. I won’t because this first draft is crap. They all are. They sound fine when I’m writing them; coherent, fast-paced, full of conflict and wonderful characters. But the truth is - it’s crap. So I will leave it alone for at least two weeks, a month will be better, maybe longer. Then I will re-read the manuscript and start the first of what will be many revisions.

So after I finished the last of my 78,000 words this morning, I closed my computer, read a book for a while, walked the dog, read some more and took a nap. I was tempted to turn on the television but…it’s Sunday, do I really want to watch a golf tournament? I’m lost and have nothing to do until I have to start making dinner.

Oh, I know I can write short pieces while I wait for the manuscript to stew in my computer and I will. I have several in mind. But not today. I have other books to write too, but I don’t want to take on another big project until this one is finished. I have notes for book 11 and ideas for two others. No, for now I will try to put this book out of my mind, stop thinking of cleaver lines for the characters to say, quit writing down plot twists at midnight on the pad of paper next to my bed, push the whole thing to the back of my mind. Tomorrow I’ll start a new piece of writing to fill that month while I wait. I have to because after all, I’m a writer and that’s what I do, I write.

I’ve already talked about where to get ideas for your mysteries, but don’t forget the most obvious - your own memories. For my first book, I took a group of my best friends from grade/junior/high school, fictionalized them and killed them off, “One by One.” That was fun! I lived in Chicago for a few years in a crappy apartment with four other young women. I fictionalized them and killed them all at once in, “The Worst Evil.” Hmmm, I seem to see a pattern here. For that book I got use not only my Chicago experiences (describing an El stop at 7:00 AM in February for instance - THE coldest place on earth!) but also the time I lived in New England.

I spent a week on Amelia Island off the coast of northern Florida a few years ago. While my hubby attended a seminar I walked around town, looking at all those gorgeous old Victorian homes, and came up with the idea for “Stormy Love.” No friends killed in that one! In “The Colors of Death” I fell back on my expericence working with my husband in our printing business and I only killed one friend. I must be mellowing with old age! Low and behold, with “Call Sign:Love” I didn’t kill anyone! But I did draw on my experiences of being a volunteer at the Sheriff’s Department.

I’m not done mining my memories, not by a long shot. I spent an entire summer on Cape Cod and learned I’d been riding to work everyday with a man who was on parole for killing his wife! It still gives me chills. And I’m sure to get a book out of the three winters and one summer I spent in Miami, too.

So sit down and start remembering. You don’t have to know any serial killers or murderers to come up with great plot ideas! Do be sure and come back to check my blog on Sunday. I’m finishing up a Mystery Writing E-book that I’ll be giving away FREE!