The Mystery Starts Here

…or any novel, do you listen to music? If so, what kind? I find that most of the time, silence is better for me. I can concentrate and visualize scenes to write. After all, I am the director of my stories. (When people ask my husband what I do for a living he tells them that I sit alone in a room, make up people and kill them). But back to music. If I’m writing a love scene, I put on some soft jazz. I can close my eyes and really see my couple dancing around the living room, kissing, hugging, pulling off clothing or …well, you get the idea.

If I want to write some action scenes, I’ll put on some hard rock. That seems to get my heart pumping and my fingers moving - fast! Writing comedy? Happy music of course, something light and tinkly. If I’m writing general stuff, I often put on nice background music, maybe jazz or classical. It soothes my brain and keeps my fingers moving. One thing I can’t do is put on a vocal. If someone is singing on my CD, I gotta sing along! When I’m singing, I’m not writing and I really hate all those complaints from the neighbors!

So, are you a silent writer or one who is musically inspired? Let me know - I curious.

When you finish writing your mystery and start re-writing, do you check to make sure you’ve used the five senses?

We all know what they are: sight, touch, taste, smell and hearing. Most writers us sight and hearing primarily and sometimes touch. Your work will be richer if you can use smells and tastes, too. We ’see’ a lot in books. Beautiful women, tall buildings, the ocean at dawn, but how many writers tell me that the beautiful woman’s clothes smelled like she just took them out of the dryer? Maybe she smells of some exotic and expensive perfume. Now you’ve described two very different women by their scent. When your hero touches her elbow does he feel the nubby fabric of her suit? How about the roughness of her working-class elbows? we know immediately that she’s not only that she might be tight on funds, but also that she has more important things to do with her money than to worry about her elbows.

How about when a woman rushes to the train station to meet her long-lost lover. They kiss and she tastes coffee, or bourbon or peppermint, or God forbid garlic. How is she going to react? It makes a difference. Perhaps he smells of cordite! Or something darker, brassier, that coppery smell of dried blood.

It’s fun to come up with unusual ways to describe the five senses. Instead of saying, “Tom Barton had the sprinkler going, watering his lawn.” we say, “I heard the kissing sound of a sprinkler.” Can you hear it? How about this one, “His words came out low and rough, like pebbles from a rusty tin can.” Want to show how scared a young boy is? “Freckles stood out on his face like chunks of coal on a mound of snow.” Or “The night was dark and beautiful, like diamonds on black velvet.” Yes, those last two are from my books - and I must say I rather like them.

It’s a mystery to me why more writers don’t use all five senses.