Monday Resources XII

[smirkingcat.livejournal.com]

welcome back for another post of monday ressources
and sorry to the hd_fan_fair pet-fair writers who are agonizing fun at writing, i totally forgot because i was overwhelmed with all the amazing christmasy things that will come and contemplating if i might actually do 25 days of christmas myself this year - no decision made yet, it's not completely off the table, but anyway good luck to you folks too! and all the words.

as i was asked by the sweet carpemermaid for some mystery resources it is once again special feature time!
as for the last time i will warn now here: some of the posts say the same things but add information that was not there before, i try to have a lot of variety but cutting all of the redundancy is impossible so maybe it's best not go over it in one day because it will bore you and nothing will be learned
dear carpemermaid i hope this is as useful to you as you hoped it would be *fingers crossed i havent let you down*


special edition: mystery

• first i have this info-graph of a skeleton that might help with plotting a mystery novel:
  
  
  
• so after that nice picture: in a nutshell- you have 30 sec.- what is the difference between mystery and thriller?
  do you know it? are you sure?
  well, i for one had no clue as i started out researching today's post so here we go with wikihow which not only explains the distinction but also how to make a mystery work, i would say nice introduction to our special feature. a tl;dr version of this page (but without the distinction between thriller and mystery would be this 5 steps to your story page.



• here is an amazing page that explains in easy words how to keep the reader glued to your story, i especially liked the note that the reader of a mystery wants more then of a normal story- that there must be a puzzle that as a reader i have to be able to solve. i have read many stories in which the person whodunit was never mentioned until the reveal and yes i felt betrayed because how could i know that, when i did not have that piece to the puzzle? - anyone want to bug in share their experience? am i too sensitive here, does it not really matter when the culprit is introduced and relieved? don't get me wrong i understand that the master in the dark does not have to be known from the start, but the person who did the crime that person i want to know, to agonize if that person did it or didn't do it.



• this page is a nice overview of what you have to do and think about before you go into your story and during the process- i like it because it's short and to the point, which makes it very useful. you can extend those advises by checking out this post. the focus is on publishing, but the tips are helpful



• the next entry is from chuck wending's blog. i personally quite like him because i think he has a way to motivate me to get stuff done and in this post he has 25 things about creating mystery.



• short but spicy is what i would say for this page, with it's title "Understanding The Essentials Of Writing A Murder Mystery" telling you everything you can expect from the page: it will tell you the do's for mystery and also where to focus first and what not to let slip out of sight, which as a writer is always good to know



• now i have two collections for you: first this site, which is a small collection about how to research and write mystery. i have just skimmed over some 8 random pages from this site, but they were rather interesting and also helpful. and next this page that has lots of help for how to handle your characters well- especially the bad guy (i also only skimmed over it- if you know it well is it any good? do you have any opinion on it?



• at the end of the writing comes the summery, and this how to write a mystery-novel-synopsis might help with that, even if a synopsis is way to long for a summery, it might give you some ideas. also please go check out the links below- especially the one on: pacing in mystery novel and the one on the difference between conflict and crisis as i found them both very interesting and can only encourage you to check them out too.



• here is a nice discussion between two mystery writers that i found very engaging and interesting
  
  
• at this point the redundancy will be showing, but maybe that will really help to let the info sink in, why i want you to check out this page is because of the point:"help the killer cover their tracks" as this was not mentioned before in great detail BUT is a very important part to mystery



• this page is littered with self advertisement BUT it gives you short tips (which at this point you have read on one entry or another before too) in one place and put it in a way for you to stay organized




• the last entry on mystery will in it's conclusion tell you that you might survive a mystery novel by 3 keypoints and that all the other stuff is nice by-work but might not be necessary- , the author gives good examples, and also i find has a very motivating attitude in his words, and some helpful advice


and finally here are some quick look ups for thriller just to have it covered and so that the difference we read about in the first post really sinks in:


• here is a mind map with what all could be linked to thriller- its huge, massive and messy but also interesting just to look at
  
  
• here are 5 writing tips when you want to go on and write a thriller. i found them interesting in the
  openness but at the same time inspiring and helpful- so up on the list they got

last but not least i want to add one more blog-page: nine tricks to write suspense in fiction because it does not matter which genre suspense is always a great way to keep the reader reading on!


with this i shall conclude this weeks resource post!
i hope it was helpful- despite it being so long, i tried to always include pages that at least at one point not mentioned before and disregarded a lot of other pages out there so good luck with writing all the mysteries, best luck with words! and have fun creating whatever you want to create!
and remember: all words are good words!


do you want more tips on one certain topic that i so far completely ignored? (i am posting here what catches my fancy in hope to motivate you to get words down- so if you have something you need to know or read or be motivated on, let me know and i shall dig around the net trying to find something for you)
do you have a tip you want to share, but are thinking: "meh"- just pm me or write me a mail smirkingcat[at] yandex. com and i shall check it out and include it in a future post [with your name or without it]