December 2015 – Page 2 – Ladies of Mystery

by Janis Patterson

I read… a lot. Lately, however, it hasn’t been as pleasant as it used to be and more than a few books have hit the (metaphorical) wall. Without exception it’s the fault of the authors. Nearly every one was a first time author – I did verify that, but it really wasn’t necessary. Their writing said it all.

One of the most common (and worst) errors is a misuse of words. Not quite as bad as the homophonic mayhem such as broach/brooch or affect/effect or grisly/grizzly and the like, which sadly are quite common even among multi-published professionals, but I’m talking about the more egregious mis-choice of language. I’ll explain; there are two kinds of word usage – dialogue and exposition. Dialogue is what the character actually says/thinks – what actually comes out of the character himself.. Exposition is telling what is done.

I believe that dialogue should be true to the character speaking. (And in ‘dialogue’ I include written communications by the character – letters, texts, etc. – anything that is ‘spoken’ by the character, such as interior thoughts.) Is the character a crusty old fisherman who hates people? A feisty young heroine-type who prances through life cooking, talking with her cat and showing off her shoes? A silent but heroic Navy Seal with a deep sense of patriotism and a distrust of women? A culture-vulture society woman with a drive to climb higher on the social ladder? All have the potential to be great characters, but they shouldn’t sound anything like each other. They all need their own voice.

Each character has (or should have!) their own history, their own background, their own socio-economic standing, their own individuality. That means they have their own character-specific language, their own vocabulary, their own rhythm of speaking whether exterior (speaking to other characters) or interior (thoughts, letters, etc.). You can get away with almost any kind of grammar/word choice in dialogue AS LONG AS it is congruent with the character speaking and the time/location frame of the story. For example, you would not have a Regency dowager or a 1850s Plains Indian saying “Fer sure” or “You’ve got to be kidding me.” If you do have a social doyenne speaking like a dockworker or vice versa, you’d better have a very good reason for it stated in the book.

Expository writing, however, is different. This is everything that is not dialogue. This should be written by grammatical rules with correct and perhaps neutral vocabulary. Even in deep third POV expository writing is the author, not the character, and should be correct both in grammar and word choices.

That said, remember first person works have their own problem, for there the expository writing is from the viewpoint character and should reflect his age, status, attitude and general personality.

Correct use of both dialogue and expository writing can give your characters a depth and life. Done correctly, the reader should be able to determine who said what by the language they use, even if you don’t add a dialogue tag. However – both using a dialogue tag and not using one are constructions which should not be overused.

Writing is always a balancing act, but it becomes easier for both the writer and the reader when the languages choices are correct to the character.

By Sally Carpenter

Riddle: How may authors does it take to write a cozy mystery? In the case of “Chasing the Codex,” that would be 24 authors/writing teams.

CHASING-THE-CODEX_fin

That’s right. “Codex” is not a short story anthology but one novel-length story of a bookstore owner and her teen age niece unwittingly pulled into a caper of murder, kidnapping, antique books and hidden treasure.

The idea for the book came from Patricia Rockwell, the founder/publisher/editor of Cozy Cat Press and an author in her own right. She was looking for a way to promote as many CCP authors as possible on a limited budget; hence, a book that would showcase the various talents and writing styles at once.

To get the ball rolling (and the ink flowing), Patricia sent out a request for authors willing to participate. Each author/writing team would write one chapter, carrying the story forward from the previous pages. Authors were assigned chapters in alphabetical order by their last names; I wrote chapter three. Since CCP only publishes cozies, all of the authors were on the same “wavelength.” Attempting to write a group mystery with scribes of various genres (cozy, noir, thriller, true crime) would never work.

Patricia didn’t tell us the story to write. She let the chapter one author create the protagonist, the setting and the beginning action.

In writing my chapter, I re-read the previous chapters to get a feel for the characters and how the plot was moving. I created two new characters; one I liked so much I plan to use him in my next book. I threw in what I thought might be a vital clue. I was pleased to see my characters pop up in later chapters.

As each author turned in a chapter, Patricia emailed that work so everyone could see how the story was progressing. Having many eyes on the project helped, as I spotted a continuity error in a later chapter. A character had locked a door, and a few pages later someone rushed out that same door without taking time to unlock it.

About halfway through writing process, one of the authors made up a list of the characters and summarized the story for the remaining writers. As the story grew, it became difficult to keep track of who’s who and the plot points. With so many cooks in the kitchen, the plot didn’t digress too much off the track.

When the last chapter (which I haven’t read yet) was finished, Patricia hired an editor with fresh eyes to work on the ms., correcting errors and smoothing out any inconsistencies.

For the book cover, Patricia contacted a website that offers design contests. A number of designers submitted their proposals for the cover art and the authors voted on their favorites.

I’m proud I was part of the project. I stretched my writing muscles in that I was working on a story someone else had created. Writing one chapter took far less effort and time than working on an entire book. And hopefully, readers will have as much fun enjoying the book as the writing team and our illustrious publisher had in preparing it.