Writing Popular Fiction by Dean Koontz

Author:Dean Koontz [Koontz, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Horror
ISBN: 9780911654219
Google: 1hZ2QgAACAAJ
Amazon: B000I2YUNS
Barnesnoble: B000I2YUNS
Goodreads: 454062
Publisher: Writer's Digest
Published: 1972-11-30T06:00:00+00:00

As you see, there is a dramatic element intertwined with the explanation. As the detective tells how he put two and two together, he also searches for a way to turn the tables on the antagonist. This is much more readable than a dry summation.

15. In the course of your story, does your hero gain some piece of data from every interview and avenue of investigation that he conducts? Some new mystery writers construct paper suspects who can easily be proven innocent in the detective's first confrontation with them. Then they propel their protagonist through a series of interviews and surveillances that lead absolutely nowhere—except that the hero can say, at the conclusion of each dead end, something like: "Well, Walters, we don't know anything more about Lady Randolph's death now than when we started. But at least we can be certain that Lord Biggie is not the man we want!" It is acceptable to have your protagonist follow up a few bum leads, for this gives the story a realistic touch; but the majority of tacks he takes must provide some information, no matter how minimal, that has a bearing on the solution of the case.

Again, I must stress, these rules and requirements of the form will not be all you need to know to write a salable mystery novel. As important as knowing what pitfalls to avoid is your familiarity with the writers who have been successful in the genre. Toward that end, you should have read something by each of these writers: Ross MacDonald (The Goodbye Look, The Underground Man, The Moving Target, The Zebra-Striped Hearse, The Ivory Grin), Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None, The A.B.C. Murders, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Passenger to Frankfurt), Georges Simenon (any of his Maigret stories), Evan Hunter (Shotgun, Jigsaw, Killer's Choice, all under the pseudonym Ed McBain), John Dickson Carr (The Problem of the Green Capsule, The Dead Man's Knock, The Man Who Could Not Shudder), Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long Goodbye), Nicholas Freeling (Death in Amsterdam, The Dresden Green, Strike Out Where Not Applicable), Harry Kemelman (Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, Sunday the Rabbi Stayed Home), Cornell Woolrich (The Bride Wore Black, The Black Angel, The Black Curtain, Deadline at Dawn), Colin Watson (Charity Ends at Home, Coffin Scarcely Used, Lonelyheart 4122) and Dashiell Hammett (all five of his brilliant novels: Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man). This is, of course, only the barest of lists, and should be supplemented with as many other mystery writers' work as you can find and can find time to read.

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