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Heimlich VonVictor
Heimlich VonVictor
Vigilante

Aug-27-2009 20:07

A few people have PMed me asking me for advice on scripted mystery writing. My biggest piece of advice is this: Put emotion into your writing. If you can feel for you characters then you can make the reader feel for them. My goal when I write is to get a reader emotionally invested in the story. This not only ensures that the reader is likely to read something else that I've written, but also increases the chances that your reader will remember you story.

How do I put emotion into writing? As strange as it sounds, I use music. If I need to write a sad scene, I have a playlist of sad music that I'll put on. Same for action, upbeat, danger, and suspect capture. The mindset that you are in while writing will come through to your reader.

Since I know many of you probably don't believe me right now, I'm going to give you two examples from the ending of The Executor's End.

For the first part of the ending I used a song called "Letter to Dana" by Sonata Arctica. It's a sad song, but brings across the overall tone of the scene very well because it starts off quiet and calm, but escalates to loud and angry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkR9ELR6cpM

For the second part of the ending (I won't say when that starts due to spoilers) I used "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon. The song exemplifies exactly what I want the reader to feel during that scene. For those of you with the cases to spare, replay the mystery and I guarantee you'll notice an immediate change in tone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B7bVD_DkM4

I also used this technique while writing in RP threads. In fact Eric Marvington's backstory from "Frame-up" was set to the tone of one song, although I won't mention which one ;)

Hope this helps some of the great writers on here who may have been struggling with this aspect. If you have any questions feel free to post.

Replies

Breitkat
Breitkat
Pinball Amateur

Aug-27-2009 22:14

This is actually a great piece of advice. Having a TV, video game, or other piece of media on and playing while you're trying to write can often be distracting. But music (whatever kind you happen to like) can help you think better, and indeed, set a 'tone' of a writing piece.

Writing doesn't simply involve who said what to whom, or who did what where. It deals with feelings, and how people relate to each other as time goes by. A good writer simply tries to incorporate both the action part with the ethereal, emotion part of a story together.

One other thing I'd like to mention is that there are days when some kinds of writing are easier to do than others, and days when writing period just doesn't happen. For me, writing sad or extremely suspenseful stuff can be incredibly draining. I'll often take several days off after writing such a piece, simply to recoup my mental energy.

Writing is WORK. It doesn't come easy to anybody, even for the good/great writers we have round here. So for anybody who's struggling with their writing, we all have bad days, and we all have to work at it. The good ones just make it look easy. (Yeah, I know, fooled ya. ;-)

Breit

Anais Nin
Anais Nin
Thespian

Aug-28-2009 21:01

I agree wholeheartedly with both Heim and Breit! The best things in life have passion, emotion, behind them. If you want to be a good writer, you need to put all the emotion and passion you can thrust into your work there. It captures the reader's mind, enthralls them, and makes them want more. Music is one way that can help. Other things I have found are when you are at certain extremes of emotion and you write, it can intensify happiness and lessen sorrows while making your writing more passionate.

Example:

Jessie traversed down the hall, through the doors, and disappeared into the night.

OR

Jessie ran at a breakneck speed, each step falling faster and faster as she tried to reach the doors that led to her freedom. Ten more steps, nine, eight- she felt the hot breath on her neck and found an extra spurt of energy to fly to the double doors looming in front of her. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled as she gave a mighty shove and burst into the night, into freedom from the monstrous school...

Which one would you rather read? Which one has more passion?

As for the interaction of feelings, you really need to get into your characters. You need to understand them. And as the creator of them, YOU already know them best! Every character you ever make is a part of you. If a character acts one way with one person, they will act another way with another person. Write that. Show it clearly. Take the reader deep into the characters, and show what is happening. It hooks the audience, and makes you a far better writer.

Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Aug-29-2009 01:29

Great advice guys (and gals)! I'm not an eloquent writer myself and usually i fall into Example #1 in Anais' example above :-P I'm more an architect, setting up mazes for people to explore. (yes, one thing i like to do when the teacher sounded boring back in school days, [sorry Heimlich], was to draw mazes on the side of the notebooks :-) I think I should now add more senses and emotions to my skeletons.

In terms of characters creation, I do have one advice: KNOW your characters. When I say know, I mean really KNOW them. Where they came from? How they grew up? What's their world view? Their hates? Their dreams? There's no need to write everything out (in fact, i warn people to refrain from doing that), but just know it in your heart. J K Rowling knows EVERY student in Hogwarts, but thank God she didin't describe everyone of them to us, but then, that's why that little magic school feels like alive under her pen. If you like charts and tables (like me and Rowling), they do help a lot in your 'visualization' and when you need to recall a certain character (especially in SM writing, when you sometimes need to write back and forth and create fake branch offs).

One thing my mentor taught me, to really make the piece engaging, is to cut out half. 'What?' You say. Yes, whatever you wrote, go back to it and get rid of half of the content, and she doesn't mean the garbage stuffs; those should have been gone in the first place. This may sound hash and crazy, but like great music, it's not just the notes. What's between the notes, the rests and the pauses, the things left unsaid, those really drills into the heart of wise readers.

Vulkie3
Vulkie3
Haynes

Aug-29-2009 22:40

Well,I also use a lot of emotion,but I dont use music. I just "transparate" in the person for which I'm writing (RP mostly). If it's a sad part,I really use terrible things,like a "gruesome" death or a "terrible" accent. I can place myself in my RP-character.

I know how to act,let's call it that. You can look at my stories,but I don't have a certain style of writing stuff. I just think of something,relating to some stuff in the story and start writing.

Usually,I just let my mind come with stuff and just write it and I don't check it (only look for possible errors/contradictions in the story.)

But that's just my style. My advice is so : "Let your mind play a story and see how it works. There's always a line for your story. If history has taught us anything,that's for sure,that you can always do the impossible,no matter what" (But no batman stuff xD. Or superman stuff ^^)

Heimlich VonVictor
Heimlich VonVictor
Vigilante

Sep-5-2009 17:41

Another thing that may seem like a no-brainer in writing, make your story gender neutral. It can be difficult and I know I'm guilty of slipping in pronouns every now and then, but trust me when I say that your reader will enjoy your story a lot more if you don't completely conflict with the detective's gender.

For example I have a character who will often say things such as, "Stop acting stupid boy!" I have to catch myself and change every instance of "boy" into "kid".

Let me put it this way for you male detectives out there. Would you enjoy a story where you were partnered with a hunky, chiseled, Adonis of a man for the duration of the story, had several awkward silences with him, and then shared a kiss with him once the case was solved? How many of you would quit that case long before you finished it?

As tempting as it can be to include a romantic sub-plot or gear your story towards a specific gender, it's better not to, because you will appeal to a much larger demographic

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Sep-5-2009 18:29

you could put in a non-gender specific romantiuc sub plot lol :D

Nellie McKinzey
Nellie McKinzey
Thespian

Sep-5-2009 19:29

That would be interesting... "I gazed into the blue eyes of the sexy body standing in front of me and I just had to kiss those lips..." How is that? ;-)

Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Sep-7-2009 06:58

LOL Nellie you crack me up!! SS you should share some writing tips too :-)

Breitkat
Breitkat
Pinball Amateur

Sep-11-2009 20:41

(SS is often a rodent of few words, but he's prob'ly the Writing Patriarch of Sleuth. Listen to what he says, and does. He's one of two writers I look up to the most round here, and always have. ;-)

Breit

Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Sep-14-2009 09:37

Yes, SS doesn't write often, but he is gooooooooood!

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