Dramatic Background
I’m reading James Frey’s book, How to Write a Damn Good Mystery right now. Okay, not at this instant because I am blogging about it while I let the last chapter sink in. I like Frey’s books as they are such a nice, fast read. You are learning while laughing (and no, I’m not going to kill you with any of that silly, waaaaay overused ’LOL’ crap. It’s straight from the hip, anti-hyperbole headquarters around here. Mostly). Anyway, tonight I came across his idea that dramatic events besides the mystery should be happening in the background. In some ways the dramatic event will have an effect on the murder investigation that is central to the story and in other ways, it won’t. Either way it will add a sense of realism to your story. And realism is good.
(I’ve never been to an anti-war protest before, just a tuition hike protest. My shoulder was on the news.
I know, my fame astounds me too.)
Being a writer of chick lit/romantic comedies (whatever you want to call them), I would argue that a dramatic background event could be used in any story, not just a mystery. The problem is, murder investigations are usually short lived and the timeframe covered in a mystery is rather short compared to other stories. His examples are short-term events, or events that you sure as heck hope will be short term, such as a hostage situation, political campaign, protest, etc). These work for stories that cover a short timeline. What about other stories? Stories that cover a longer period of time? I suppose you could have something dramatic going on.
The immediate example that came to mind was from one of Meg Cabot’s Heather Wells mysteries. There is a blizzard going on. It changes the setting in more than one way. The blizzard becomes a character, it becomes an accessory, it becomes an obstacle; it becomes more than fluffy stuff on the ground. Cool. Very cool. But what about non-mystery stories? Hmm. I think I’ll be keeping that in mind for future stories.
