1. Power of the Pen Selected plotting and planning techniques from
May 14, 2016
Presenter: Michelle Rau
Selected plotting and planning techniques from
Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock ‘Em Dead with Style
By Hallie Ephron

2. Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock ‘Em Dead with Style
by Hallie Ephron
Features comprehensive instruction, exercises, and worksheets for mystery writers of all levels, including a format for a novel blueprint
Addresses all subgenres of mystery from hardboiled crimes and cozies to romantic thrillers and medical mysteries
Covers how to grab readers from the first chapter, how to construct effective plots, and how to revise and submit mysteries to publishers
ISBN
Michelle wrote “cold case” murder mystery in 2014 – editing it using Scrivener
NaNoWriMo – Pantsing – didn’t write chapters in order, had continuity problems
50 cents at a yard sale – great value!
Book has lots of helpful insights into the genre

3. Selected plotting & planning techniques
The shape of a mystery plot (chart)
A blueprint for planning a mystery novel
Scenes, chapters, acts
Example overall plot structure
Scene-by-scene outline
Pacing check
Continuity check

4. 1. The shape of a mystery plot
The Sleuth’s Quest
Drama works in direct proportion to how miserable you make your protagonist.
Ask for examples
Example: Kurt Wallander – protagonist of Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell’s novels
Wikipedia: “He consumes too much alcohol and junk food, exercises very little, and sometimes struggles with anger. His relationships with his colleagues are tentative; they are alternately amazed by his intellect and frustrated by his brusque manner and aggressive tactics. Over the course of the series he is diagnosed with diabetes, and towards the end of his career he suffers from memory lapses, discovering he has developed Alzheimer's disease, with which his father was also afflicted.”
Roadblocks, setbacks and mishaps
Discomfort, inner demons
Modulate the misery
Keep raising the stakes

5. Subplots Secondary plot(s) Makes novel complex, interesting
Gives reader a breather from ongoing, increasing tension of the main plot
Romance
Trials & tribulations of main character’s friends & family
Health issues
Challenges of the protagonist’s “day job”
Investigation of another, apparently unrelated crime
Unresolved event in character’s past
Ask for examples
Example: Kurt Wallander – protagonist of Swedish crime writer Henning Mankell’s novels
Subplots: He is frequently at loose ends socially and with his family. 
Difficult relationship with his rebellious only child, Linda
Difficult relationship with his father, an artist who painted the same landscape 7,000 times for a living
Divorced from Mona; affair with Annette, a married woman; inconsistent long-distance relationship with Baiba

6. Exercise DRAMATIC TENSION ACT I ACT II ACT III
Think of selected scenes or paragraphs in a novel or story (yours or someone else’s)
Find approximate location of when the scene falls in the story (Act I, II or III)
Rank the dramatic tension in the scene on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high) 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
DRAMATIC TENSION
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III

7. 2. A blueprint for a mystery novel
Premise:
Shows you where you’re going, keeps you on track throughout the writing process
Use to pitch your book to agents, editors, booksellers and readers
“The words “suppose” and “what if” anchor a well-articulated premise, turning an idea into a premise.”
Suppose a troubled young man writes violent fantasies into his personal journal and shares his journal with his therapist. And what if a series of violent crimes occur that closely mirror the details of his fantasies….
Working title: Short and snappy, easy to remember. Don’t let it constrain your thinking. Agents, editors or publishers may want to change title.
Accurately set reader expectations
Intrigue potential readers
Easy to remember

8. 3. Scenes, chapters, acts Exercise: Plot structure
Analyze the plot of a standard, one-hour television crime show
TV Show
Description
Most likely suspect at the commercial break
Opening scene – short scene at the very beginning (before the first commercial)
Plot twist before next commercial break
Final climactic scene; final plot twist and resolution
Ask for examples -- cliffhangers

9. 3. Scenes, chapters, acts
Scene: building block. Dramatic telling of an event at a single time in a single place. Payoff at end
Chapter: several scenes grouped together (or 1 long scene)
Act: dramatic structure.
Tension racheted down at the start
A major plot twist
Tension has risen to a crescendo by the end
Dramatic Opening
ACT I
Chapter 1
Scene 1
Scene 2
Chapter 2
Scene 3
ACT II
ACT III
Coda
Chapter: Ephron doesn’t provide guidance on how to group scenes into a chapter. Different character’s experiences in a similar time frame? Same characters moving from point to point within the story? (ex: two detectives in a squad car, back at HQ, in a coffee shop, interviewing a witness) Change in Point of View? Some other logic?
Act: From Wikipedia:
An act is a part of a play defined by elements such as rising action, climax and resolution.
Successive scenes are normally separated from each other in either time or place.
The division between acts is more to do with the overall dramatic structure of the piece. The end of an act often coincides with one or more characters making an important decision, else having an important decision to make that has a profound impact on the story being told.
Elements:
Exposition, or setup
Inciting incident
Major dramatic question
Complications
Crisis or turning point
Resolution

10. Example overall plot structure
“30,000 foot view” – high-level overview, “big picture”
10 to 30 scenes per act in a typical mystery novel
40 to 90 scenes total
Chapters
Scenes
Pages
Ending plot twist
Dramatic opening 1 10
Julia realizes she’s being stalked
End of Act I 7 13 60
Likely stalker is murdered
End of Act II 24
100
Julia arrested for running next likely suspect down
End of Act III 26
Sleuth confronts, injures villain
Coda 2
Villain’s secrets revealed 66
280
Your mileage may vary depending on how your story is structured
Looking at these numbers can reveal if plot is unbalanced, front-loaded, back-loaded or uneven in some way
Or if there are too many scenes in one chapter relative to all the others
Keeps the “shape” of the curve of the rising and falling tension at the right frequency

11. 4. Scene-by-scene outline
More detail about each building block
Brief descriptions of major plot points in each scene, plus basic chronology of the story
Keep it spare
Chapter
Scene
Elapsed time
Season / day / time
Main plot points 1
Week 1 Day 1
Sunday early (late summer)
Annie & Peter at home; Chip calls asking for Peter’s help 2
Continued
Peter drives to Weston, meets Nick, finds Lisa murdered, calls police 3
Police arrive; Det. Boley questions Nick 4
3:00 pm
Anne & Peter leave Nick’s house; newspaper photo taken
Week 1 Day 3
Tuesday late morning
Jail – interview w/Nick; Peter thinks he sees his wife’s murderer
Can use Scrivener to generate an outline like this
Can add custom fields in Scrivener to indicate action vs. narrative, level of dramatic tension, POV, etc.
Use Table of Contents / outline feature in MS Word?

12. Pacing check
Pacing: Controlling and modulating the speed and intensity of the story.
Begin with a scene-by-scene outline
Get a pink, yellow, and blue highlighting marker
Highlight scenes in the outline by intensity:
Blue for narrative, basic investigation, and reflection
Yellow for rising suspense
Pink for action and plot twists
Check for:
Rising and falling tension
Scenes with high suspense and action and modulated by scenes of investigation and suspense
Plot twists are spaced out
Intensity should build, with more leisurely storytelling at the beginning, more tense suspense and slam-bang action toward the end.
Too many suspense & action sequences in a row >> reader becomes numb from overstimulation
Too much exposition and description >> reader’s attention drifts, boredom

13. Chronology check Begin with a scene-by-scene outline Check for:
Continuity errors Are the clock & calendar logical and consistent?
Cluttered days Is time overfilled with 20 hours of events between sunrise and sunset?
Snowing in summer Is the weather right for the location and time of year?
Sunrise / sunset When do they occur? Is it light / dark outside?
The domino effect A chronology fix in one scene may mean fixes to the chronology in surrounding scenes.

14. Appendix

15. Example scene-by-scene outline
Label
Title
Time_of_Day
Elapsed time
Type
Tension
POV
Synopsis
Chapter
Monday, May 2
Scene
NYC - morning
6:30 AM
3 hours
Suspense 1
Narrator
In which a mysterious agent is dispatched to the West.
Denver - midday
1:00 PM
45 min 3
Rancher
In which a rancher experiences an odd feeling.
NYC - evening
8:00 PM
15 min
Narrative
In which a confidential phone call is placed to two cities.
Tuesday, May 3
Denver - morning
4:30 AM
1 hour
Action/Plot 5
In which two mysterious happenings at the ranch occur at the same time.
NYC - midday
11:45 AM 2
Dr. Nick
In which Dr. Nick X-rays the mysterious artifact.
12:20 PM
1.5 hours 4
Det. Roley
In which the police investigate the ranch events and Det. Roley forms a hypothesis.
Cheyenne - late afternoon
4:45 PM
20 min
In which police find a connection between the current event and an event in Denver.
Can use Scrivener to generate an outline like this
Can add custom fields in Scrivener to indicate action vs. narrative, level of dramatic tension, POV, etc.
Use Table of Contents / outline feature in MS Word?

16. Generate a Scene-by-Scene from Scrivener
Set up the new meta-data fields you want to use (Project > Meta-Data settings)
Adjust Outliner view to see the new meta-data fields (dropdown arrow at top of Outliner scroll bar > check off columns to show)
Enter scene meta-data either way,
Double-click on field within Outliner to add data
Open Custom Meta-Data Section within Inspector and enter data there
Method 1: Outliner CSV export
File > Export > Outliner contents as CSV
Convert or work with CSV file
Method 2: Compile custom w/metadata
In Compile screen, choose Format as… Synopsis Outline
Choose Formatting from left bar and check boxes in the Meta-Data column
Select “Synopsis Outline” from the Compile for… dropdown then click Compile

17. Scene-by-scene setup (both methods)

18. Method 1: Outliner CSV export

19. Method 2: Compile custom w/meta-data