SHALLA
CHATS with Hallie Ephron
“Writing Your Mystery Novel”
by
Shalla
DeGuzman
First of all, who ’s Hallie?
Hallie Ephron is the author of Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel:
How to Knock 'Em Dead with Style (Writers Digest Books, 2005), which
was nominated an Edgar award and for an Anthony award. She is co-author
of five Dr. Peter Zak mystery/psychological thrillers by G. H. Ephron
and crime fiction book reviewer for the Boston Globe. She won the Ellen
Nehr Award for Excellence in Mystery Reviewing.
Shalla: Hi Hallie, how are you? Everyone on Amazon is giving, Writing
and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How to Knock 'Em Dead with Style, five
stars, congratulations.
Hallie: Thank you, thank you. That creaking sound is me bowing.
Actually, I feel really good about that book.
Shalla: What are the best ways of planning a mystery novel?
In your book, you explain “blueprints” and how they are the
basic framework for a novel. Can you please tell us more?
Hallie: Based on my rigorous research…make that based on frequent
discussions with other writers on how they do it… the world seems
about evenly divided between those who swear by planning and outlining
and those who prefer to grope and hope. The important thing is that
a mystery novel has a particular structure; you’ve got to grab
the readers interest in the first scene, you need to reveal secrets
to propel your story forward, and like any work of drama it ought
to have a 3-act structure with major revelations/twists at the end of
each
scene and fireworks at the end. Easy peasy.
Shalla: Can you guide us on the writing process? How should we craft
scenes?
Hallie: The
most important thing is that every scene in your novel should have
a reason for being there; something changes between
the
start of the scene and the end, and that change moves the story
forward. Pick
up any good mystery novel and read a scene at random, you’ll
see what I mean. If there’s no change, the scene should be probably
dropped from the novel. And the other biggie: start each scene
as late as possible, end as early as possible. That’s a ‘rule’ that
was pretty much developed for screenwriters and applies absolutely
to mystery novels as well.
Shalla: How should characters be introduced?
Hallie: If it’s an important character, then the introduction
should be memorable…because you do want the reader to remember
the character. Do it with whatever tools you do best (dialogue, description,
action …)
Shalla: What is the best way to pick a protagonist—by occupation
(investigator) or by personality (nosy, irreverent, driven,
avenging, funny, secretive)?
Hallie: Write about the kind of person you know something
about; write a character that intrigues you. There’s no rules, just
make yours different from all the others out there. Piece of cake.
Shalla: What’s the best way to pick the voice? Why should a
writer choose first-person instead of third-person, or the other way
around, or a combination of both?
Hallie: It’s hard getting point of view under control, so I often
suggest that first-time authors stick to a single point of view character--usually
that’s the sleuth—in first person or third, whichever
seems comfortable.
Shalla: How is mystery created and suspense maintained
in a story?
Hallie: Create mystery with secrets. Secrets that characters
know, secrets they don’t know, that get revealed. Create suspense
by creating the sense that something bad is GOING to happen.
Shalla: Any tips on editing and revisions?
Hallie: Most of us do the real writing during revision.
It may take as long or longer to edit a book
as it did to create a
first draft. That’s not a bad thing. And word/line editing should be the very
last thing you do, after you’ve addressed all the big issues
around plot and character.
Shalla: Finally, what are the best ways of targeting
potential markets and agents looking for mysteries?
Hallie: That, my dear, is a mystery to me,
too.
Shalla: Thanks so much Hallie.
For
more on Hallie Ephron, please visit http://www.hallieephron.com
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