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    How to Write a Mystery Novel: Behind the Scenes - Creation of a Crime Series
    How to Write a Mystery Novel: Behind the Scenes - Creation of a Crime Series
    How to Write a Mystery Novel: Behind the Scenes - Creation of a Crime Series
    Ebook129 pages1 hour

    How to Write a Mystery Novel: Behind the Scenes - Creation of a Crime Series

    By Gene Grossman

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    About this ebook

    Gene Grossman created the popular 15-book series of Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries, all featuring Suzi, an adorable little 12-year-old Chinese girl who is attorney Peter Sharp's legal ward. She’s also a computer genius and the real brains behind Peter’s successes in court.

    If you've enjoyed reading mysteries and ever thought about trying your hand at creating one of your own, you will find this book a valuable aid because it reveals Gene's thought processes as he created the series, and provides you with valuable information that will help you with your own writing efforts.
    Among topics covered in the book’s 20 Chapters are:
    Getting Started;
    Naming the Characters;
    Plot Devices;
    Resources;
    Character Development;
    Finding Your Voice;
    Tying up Loose Ends;
    Working Backwards;
    Having Fun while writing;
    Creating Suspense;
    Also included are many more subjects every beginning mystery/crime novelist must become familiar with in order to write a mystery novel complete with a proper beginning, a lucid middle with side-plot, and a logical, satisfactory ending.
    The book also contains first chapters from many of Gene’s Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries, showing that he practices what he preaches, so you can have some idea of how to 'grab' a reader's attention while they're browsing in a bookstore - plus valuable tips about formatting, marketing and more.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMagic Lamp Press
    Release dateJan 25, 2010
    ISBN9781452402024
    How to Write a Mystery Novel: Behind the Scenes - Creation of a Crime Series
    Author

    Gene Grossman

    GENE GROSSMAN was born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in the North side neighborhood of Albany Park, where he attended Hibbard Elementary and Von Steuben High School.He pursued majors in psychology, chemistry and mathematics at Wright Junior College, Roosevelt University and Illinois Institute of Technology - all the while working his way through high school and college by playing piano in clubs on Chicago's then-famous "Rush Street."After moving to Southern California, he worked his way through law school playing piano in night clubs and appeared as a musician in seven major motion pictures.While slowly building his law practice, Gene purchased a truckload of movie equipment he rented out to film production companies and then started his own production company which over the years produced more than 50 educational programs on subjects ranting from Boating and Celestial Navigation, to legal subjects (Depositions, Bankruptcy, etc.) Sign Language Instruction and many more.Always having been interested in boating, getting divorced prompted him to buy and move onto a 45-foot Chris Craft motor yacht in Marina del Rey California,.Years later, while serving as navigator on a yacht delivery from the U.S. to Tortola, Gene wrote his first book, "Celestial Navigation for Dummies" (before the popular series of 'Dummies' books was created). He used his own production equipment to shoot a video on the subject Celestial Navigation - "Sextant Use and the Sun Noon Shot" and unintentionally started the nautical video industry in this country.Over the next few years he followed that first title up with more than 50 other educational DVD titles, all displayed on his production company's website at www.MagicLampDVDs.com.Having moved on from doing scripts for his video productions, Gene turned to writing fiction, and now spends most of his time in the marina on his new boat, where he created the 15-book series of 'Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries,' all now available both in print and as eBooks at Smashwords via www.LegalMystery.comIn addition to the 15 Peter Sharp novels, Gene compiled a group of fiction and non-fiction titles that he has either written or edited for others, plus some classic stories: the publishing company he formed (www.MagicLampPress.com) now has more than 60 books in print.The Peter Sharp Legal Mystery Series#1: Single Jeopardy#2: ...By Reason of Sanity#3: A Class Action#4: Conspiracy of Innocence#5: ...Until Proven Innocent#6: The Common Law#7: The Magician's Legacy#8: The Reluctant Jurist#9: The Final Case#10: An Element of Peril#11: A Good Alibi#12: Legally Dead#13: How to Rob a Bank#14: Murder Under Way#15: The Sherlock Holmes CaperThe Suzi B. Mystery Series (a spin-off)#1: ...Sorry, Wrong Number#2: Movie Magic#3: Two Perfect Crimes#4: He's the Guy#5: The Magic BulletsAll 20 of Gene's mysteries are described in detail in a free eBook: The Mystery Books of Gene Grossman: Summaries with the Author's Comments.

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      Book preview

      How to Write a Mystery Novel - Gene Grossman

      How to Write a Mystery Novel

      Behind the Scenes: Creation of a Crime Series

      By Gene Grossman, author of the popular 15-book

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery series

      Magic Lamp Press

      http://www.LegalMystery.com

      Smashwords Edition 2.1, June, 2011

      MMXI Gene Grossman - All rights reserved

      *****

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      Chapter One: GETTING STARTED

      Chapter Two: Name-Calling

      Chapter Three: Bringing People to Life

      Chapter Four: Resources

      Chapter Five: The Clients & Side Plots

      Chapter Six: …by Any Other Name

      Chapter Seven: Working Backwards

      Chapter Eight: Know Your Limitations

      Chapter Nine: Finding Your Voice

      Chapter Ten: Variety is the Spice of Life

      Chapter Eleven: Tension

      Chapter Twelve: The Butler Did It

      Chapter Thirteen – Putting it on Paper (or on E-ink)

      Chapter Fourteen: The First Book

      Chapter Fifteen: No Loose Ends

      Chapter Sixteen: We Can All Get Along

      Chapter Seventeen: The Way it Really Is

      Chapter Eighteen: I’ll Call You Back

      Chapter Nineteen: Do Your Homework!

      Chapter Twenty: Have Some Fun

      The Last Chapter: Finding Readers

      Some Real Examples

      Closing Comments

      Bonus Section: Creating Suspense

      *****

      Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries: the Complete Series

      More details and ordering information at: http://www.LegalMystery.com

      Single Jeopardy

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #1

      …by Reason of Sanity

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #2

      A Class Action

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #3

      Conspiracy of Innocence

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #4

      …Until Proven Innocent....

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #5

      The Common Law

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #6

      The Magician’s Legacy

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #7

      The Reluctant Jurist

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #8

      The Final Case

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #9

      An Element of Peril

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #10

      A Good Alibi

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #11

      Legally Dead

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #12

      How to Rob a Bank

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #13

      Murder Under Way

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #14

      The Sherlock Holmes Caper

      Peter Sharp Legal Mystery #15

      * * * * * *

      Editor’s Note: DISCOUNT COUPON OFFER

      To show our appreciation for your having ordered one of our Magic Lamp Press eBooks, we would like to offer you a 50% discount on 25 other titles we publish - from authors Gene Grossman, Nick Shoveen Edwin H. Sinclair, Jr., and Barry Neal.

      Visit our website at http://www.LegalMystery.com and make note of the Discount Coupon Code given after (to the right of) each of the Audiobook links. The book’s Smashwords Discount Coupon Code is two letters, two numbers, and ends with a letter, and looks like this: AB22C

      The Coupon Code will look like a link, but it’s not: it’s the discount code for you to use when ordering another book, by clicking on the Non-Kindle (Smashwords) link [that one’s real, so it works].

      Order from Smashwords (even if you’ve got a Kindle): they’re the only ones honoring our Discount Coupon Codes … and if you’re a Kindle user don’t worry: Smashwords has a version that is compatible with your device.

      If you’ve found a typo in any of our books, or can’t locate a Discount Coupon Code, please contact us through Editor@MagicLampPress.com

      * * * * * *

      INTRODUCTION

      If you noticed how this book’s cover described me, you know that I’ve written a ‘popular’ 15-book series mysteries, and the main reason that description is accurate is because of Amazon.com’s three divisions, handling print books, ebooks and audiobooks.

      Don’t be misled: this book is not intended as a commercial for Amazon.com, because there are several other sources for writers to gain popularity that I’ll go into later in this book, but at the time I wrote my mysteries, they were the only game in town for getting titles distributed in those three formats without going through an agent or major publishing house.

      Of course the landscape continues to change rapidly, and ebooks have finally become mainstream, through the efforts of Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Sony’s eReader, Plastic Logic’s Que, Apple’s iPad, Borders’ Kobo, Hearst’s Skiff [my books are available on all of them], plus all the other devices that are continually coming to market. A generation from now, kids graduating high school may have the same expression on their faces when you mention printed books that kids graduating high school presently have when you mention Johnny Carson. It’s called the ‘that’s before my time’ look.

      I’m pleasantly surprised by the popularity of my fictional titles, because even while writing them I felt it was taking a big chance… and this thought is being confirmed now, because I’ve also written 19 non-fiction titles and amazingly, the best-seller of them all is a non-fiction book I completed in 2009 that compromises 24% of my eBook royalties (including all 15 of the Peter Sharp Legal Mysteries) – and don’t ask why, because I’ve been trying to figure it out for some time now. The non-fiction title I’m talking about is Celestial Navigation for the Complete Idiot, and when writing it I kept thinking to myself Nobody will want this book, but I don’t care if it sells or not, because I’m having a good time explaining it to sailors like me who are interested in the subject… and that’s not a bad attitude to assume when writing a non-fiction title, because your psychological mindset comes through in the writing: the readers can sense that you really care about them learning the subject you’re writing about – and they appreciate it.

      It might also interest you to know that the book you’re now reading is running a close second to the Celestial Navigation title, which means that if you have choice of which to write, I’d suggest non-fiction. However, since the reason you’re reading this book is because you’ve probably already got your heart set on writing a mystery or detective novel, you might as well get it out of your system before switching over to non-fiction.

      *****

      Chapter One: GETTING STARTED

      If you plan on being a one-trick pony, then any type of character you want to create will probably be just fine, as long as you do a good job at it. But, if you plan on writing a series of books featuring the same protagonist (leading character), then you’d better spend some time crafting him (or her), because the character traits your main protagonist starts out with will have to carry all the future books too, without much of a character arc.

      Arthur Conan Doyle wrote 60 stories featuring Sherlock Holmes (4 novels + 56 short stories – I know, because I read all of them every five years or so); Agatha Christie had her Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot; Rex Stout wrote 72 books featuring his armchair detective Nero Wolfe, and other authors have created main characters that were successfully brought back time and again.

      Ever since reading Edgar Allen Poe’s The Gold Bug and Murders in the Rue Morgue (while in elementary school) and then graduating to Doyle, Stout and Christie, I was hooked on mysteries, so there was never any doubt in my mind that someday I’d write a series of books that featured a main protagonist who could be brought back again for subsequent adventures. The main problem is creating a lead character that deserves to be brought back… and repetition can be a good thing.

      You can tell what’s working and what’s not, the same way you can tell if a movie or television show is working: if you look at your watch more than once during the presentation, it’s not working, but if at the end, you’re sorry it’s over and are looking forward to the next episode or sequel, it’s definitely working.

      When starting to write the Peter Sharp Legal Mystery series, I wanted to make sure that my protagonist wasn’t too perfect. I wanted someone slightly flawed so that the readers could identify with him.

      It was bad enough

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