James N. Frey « Tags « Jean Oram (.com)

Book Review: How to Write a Damn Good Mystery

Posted on May 25th, 2009 jean No comments

Book review: How to Write a Damn Good Mystery: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide from Inspiration to Finished Manuscript
By James N. Frey

Like the title says, this is a ‘step-by-step’ guide.

I don’t actually write mysteries, but some of my stories have a mysterious thread within them. For example, The 15 Date Rule has a bit of a mystery in terms of a theft. In writing this story I had questions such as what is a true red herring? How do you create one? How do you deal with them? How do you create false leads without ticking off your reader–either by making it too obvious or by totally deceiving them? As I read through this book, I came across answers to my questions. I learned what is common practice, what works and what might not.

This book would be excellent for a beginning mystery writer who is looking for a methodical plan to follow or simply some ideas on how and where to start. If you don’t mind putting in a little hard work (brainstorming) on the front end, with Frey’s method, you will create a focused first draft that requires few plot overhauls after completion. Even writers who prefer a ‘seat of their pants’ method will find his methods helpful. Basically, Frey helps writers focus their thoughts in a productive way. He walks through how to create a good hero/heroine, a good murderer, a setting that will add to your story, as well as a step sheet which plots out any major obstacles the hero/heroine will encounter as they work towards reaching their goal (solving the murder). He also discusses different ways the hero/heroine can work towards gathering information–a random gatherer or a methodicial, clue-by-clue gatherer. And naturally, he provides how to wrap up your mystery in an entertaining way (none of that boring, sit down and reguritate everyone’s motives stuff).
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Re-Dream the Dream in Edits

Posted on August 14th, 2008 jean No comments

I’m still working my way through Frey’s book, “How to Write a Damn Good Novel II”.

Today, I read about the ‘deadly mistake’ of the failure to learn how to re-dream the dream. Contrary to your likely assumption that this has something to do with goals or career aspirations in writers, it is actually about editing. Basically, Frey says that if you have a scene that needs editing or rewriting, don’t throw it out and create a new dream. Instead, sit down and re-dream the scene. Perhaps give the characters a new motivation or change up the actions of the scene somehow. Start the scene earlier. Mix it up and see what happens to the current dream. Hopefully it will be better.

For the most part, I have been doing this. However, I have not been doing it consciously. Usually my changing a scene that isn’t working results in me trimming it down–which is good to a point. What I will try to do is to consciously try to mix it up. One of my critique partners is actually pretty good at helping me with this. She drops hints on ways I could change up a scene–honestly the girl should be an editor! Sometimes I pick up her hints and make some changes. Problem is, I am a reluctant changer. Once I have a scene I tend to not want to restructure it very much. I guess, I need to re-dream the dream on a bigger scale than I have been doing.

Look out word processor, I’m re-dreaming the dream! Dear lord, what if I have to re-dream the whole friggin’ book? Yikes!
editing, writing editing, James N. Frey, re-dream the dream, writing

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Welcome to my Website and Blog

I am an aspiring fiction writer (children's, women's and commercial) and a represented nonfiction writer. I am also a member, critiquer and site moderator over on AgentQueryConnect.com. Thanks for stopping by. Feel free to jump in the conversation and leave your thoughts in the comment section.

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