How do you plot a mystery? Ask ten different authors, and you’ll get ten different responses. Everyone’s method is unique. However, genre conventions dictate that certain reader expectations must be met. When writing cozy mysteries or traditional mysteries, readers expect a puzzle to solve, an amateur sleuth, a collection of suspects, and an exciting climax … [Read more…]
You may not write suspense novels. You may not even write mystery or thriller novels, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to add suspense to a story. Any type of book can use the spice of a little, added suspense. And all stories need at least some deadlines and ticking time bombs. There are … [Read more…]
Foreshadowing pays off if you do it right (and really falls flat if you don’t.) Think of foreshadowing as planting subtle clues for the reader of something that is going to happen later in the story—that something being of major importance.