I met Robin Wasserman! I would have never thought I would have the chance to meet such an amazing author and see how her mind works. But I did, and it was all thanks to Girls Write Now. Robin Wasserman gave a craft talk at the GWN Crime Fiction writing workshop, and spoke to us about how to develop our own crime fiction story. One way to begin is by brainstorming things you don’t want your story to have. Like in those scary movies when the girl is running from the murderer and she is actually getting away but then coincidentally trips and gets caught by the murderer? I HATE THAT. So now I know I will definitely not be including that in my story. Robin also told us our story has to be complicated enough to keep the reader interested in finding out what happens next, and reminded us that you also have to care enough about the character to solve your *own* mystery. Robin even gave us a graphic organizer we could use to create the story:
The best part of the October craft talk was when Robin read us an excerpt of her new crime fiction story, The Book of Blood and Shadow (due to be published in April, 2012). I definitely want to know more about that mystery now!
My advice to those planning to write a crime fiction story is to make it as unpredictable as possible. The longer the reader is left confused about who might be the culprit, the better it is. You should also create alibis for all the suspects because this makes it hard for the reader to figure out the mystery too quickly (and no one wants to solve a mystery too quickly.) With these tips, you’re set to create your own story. And I’m ready to write mine!
Ed. note: For more on Robin Wasserman’s talk (including video!) check out Figment.com.