Writers Digest MYSTERY & THRILLER virtual conference features REDS

HALLIE EPHRON: Last week I shared my delight at being invited to teach mystery writing this spring in Paris for WICE (Where Internationals Connect In English) -- an English-speaking community based in Paris that provides all kinds of classes and volunteer opportunities. 

I had my fingers crossed that that my class would get enough registrants to be viable, and it has! There are still a few more spots... and the offerings include writing master classes in novel, short fiction, creative nonfiction, memoir, and screenwriting. 

For folks who are tethered more to home base, I'll be teaching a virtual class on mystery writing at Writers Digest's Mystery and Thriller Virtual Conference (March 20-22.) 

DRUM ROLL: So will Hank! Making it a Jungle Red twofer!

Also featured are friends of Jungle Red agent/author Paula Munier, author Sharon Short, and one of my favorite literary agents, Michelle Richter of FUSE Literary.

I'll be teaching:
Crafting a page turner: hooking readers and keeping them reading

• How to structure a plot and build a character web that gives a story forward momentum
• Finding “Page One” and "5 tent poles" of plot
• Opening with a question, building suspense to strategic turning points, writing action, and pausing with a hook. Crafting a climactic ending.
• Building a head of steam: attending to turning points, secrets, stakes, and time pressure

Hank will be teaching: The Secrets of the Three-Act Structure: Nailing the Beginning, the Middle, and the End. Something at which she excels.

The only downside of this is that we can't meet you in the bar, always my favorite part of a writing conference. 

The upside: it's very affordable, and you can show up in your PJs and no one will be the wiser. 

If you're tempted by a 3-day VIRTUAL class in mystery writing, Here's the link for registration:
https://writersdigestuniversity.mykajabi.com/offers/ZmSUHKx7/checkout

What We're Writing Week: Imposter Syndrome by Jenn McKinlay

Howdy! I'm currently writing a book that is due in September even though I haven't received the contract for it and I can't tell you anything about it since it isn't legally locked down (that pesky contract thing) yet. Shortest blog post ever, am I right?

I'm sure there are authors out there clutching their pearls and wondering why I would write a book when I haven't signed the contract yet but the truth is I do this all the time. Last year, I wrote two books before I received the contract (pandemic issues). But I'm a speedy writer and I figure if the worst case scenario happens and the offer blows up, meaning the publisher changes their mind, I will have a completed book to shop elsewhere or publish on my own, so I don't consider it a big deal. But it is a little weird. I can admit that. 

I am also writing a lot of blog posts and interviews to promote my upcoming August 10 release WAIT FOR IT. 

It has been the recipient of a very lovely starred review from Booklist, which reads in part: 

I have to be honest, that sort of high praise gives me an itchy case of Imposter Syndrome, like, was it a fluke? Did I just get lucky with this book? Can I keep it up in the next book? I think being a writer is 75% self doubt and 25% ignoring said doubt and writing anyway. At least it is for me.

So, what can I share with you? How about a snippet from today's work in progress for Writer's Digest? It's called Say What? Five tips for Writing Authentic Dialogue. Here's tip number one:

1. Listen to people. I am the worst dining companion in the world because I will spend the entire meal listening to the conversations of the diners around me rather than converse with those who are with me. So rude, I know. Then I report back to my tablemates, who generally roll their eyes unless it’s something really good like an argument or a breakup. 

It's so important to listen to people talking in real life, not on television (scripted) or online (edited) but actual people living their daily lives. People do not speak like robots. If your dialogue reads like a conversation between C3PO and a Stepford wife, I am out and your book has probably taken flight and is tongue-kissing a wall somewhere. In real conversations, there are starts and stops, ums and ahs, interruptions, swears, and slang. All of those traits need to lightly season your characters’ dialogue and give it a rhythm or cadence that engages the reader as if they're listening to a real conversation. So, listen, listen, listen. 

Of course, writing think pieces about writing for other authors also gives me a scorching case of, you guessed it, Imposter Syndrome. This is ridiculous given that I have fifty books under my belt but there it is. Even after all of those books, every manuscript is a new challenge, a new K2 to climb, and I never feel fully prepared and yet somehow, by putting one word after another, I finish the book aaaaaand I still feel like a fraud. I think the condition might be chronic. LOL.

Sure, no pressure.

So, how about you, Reds and Readers, do you ever suffer from Imposter Syndrome? When? Why? How do you manage it?

Do You Trust Your Spouse?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  How many lives has Jessica Strawser changed? As editor in chief of Writers Digest, she's encouraged authors to work hard and be authentic and do their best. And as a result, readers get the benefits of the books that result!

And now she's taking her own advice--and hitting it out of the ball park with novels of her own.

So now-- take a look at that person sitting across the breakfast table from you. Or across the table of your best friend. How--reliable is that spouse?  

It may be a disturbing question. But it sure makes for a great novel.

(And we're giving a copy of ALMOST MISSED YOU to one lucky commenter!) 

Why Bad Husbands Make for Good Suspense

  by Jessica Strawser

On the page as in life, there’s just something irresistible—from the outside, of course—about a marriage gone completely off the rails. The best suspense writers are skilled at tapping into our worst fears, and (death and public speaking aside) this one drives deep: It’s that horrifying idea that you might have missed some crucial undesirable something about the person you’ve chosen to spend the rest of your life with.

The person who shares your bank account, your address, your bed … maybe even your children.

My own 2017 novel, Almost Missed You, features a husband who makes some choices we’ll refer to as … questionable. Finn packs up and leaves his unsuspecting wife in the middle of a family vacation, and kidnaps their 3-year-old in the process. No note, no apology, no trace of where he’s gone.

The story that follows takes us, in alternate turns, back to when they met—through tangled years of fate, missed connections, and all that seemed meant to be—and forward to how she might find him now. And while I won’t hint at what happens, I will say this: The “bad” husband of my making isn’t all bad. I have a soft spot for the guy, I confess. I can’t even call him bad without using quotation marks!

Of course, not everybody feels the same about poor Finn, and that’s what’s great about fiction—just as we don’t all dole out forgiveness in equal measure in real life, in novels we’re bound to meet characters whose merits (or lack thereof) are ripe for debate. One reviewer wrote passionately about how badly she wanted to punch Finn in the face—so eloquently I had no doubt she’d do it if presented with the chance! Her visceral response, in my view, means I did my job: In her mind, he’d become real.

You’re probably thinking by now of Gone Girl—the quintessential battle of the bad spouses. Some think, not without grounds, that the book’s success spawned a rash of domestic suspense novels, but it’s also true that fraught marriages are nothing new on the shelf. And they don’t have to go so far as to involve psychotic murder setups to be compelling.

Shades of gray, after all, can be more interesting than black and white. I prefer them in my fiction and in my closet. And I’m not alone. My favorite trade review of Almost Missed You came from Booklist, which called it:

“Perfect for readers looking for something new after all of the ‘Girl’ thrillers … Gritty, witty, and a worthy addition to the recent slate of domestic dramas.”

Here are six others that have kept me good company, ranked on a sliding scale from it’s complicated to get out while the gettin’s good.

• The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty: This one is a few years old now, but I feel compelled to mention it because these days so many people cite Big Little Lies as their favorite Moriarty book. This is mine. Her titular husband is in the same camp as Almost Missed You’s Finn—well meaning, to a point. The end is especially unforgettable in the way that the readers come to know more than the characters ever will. 

• The Blackbird Season by Katie Moretti: Alicia’s husband is a popular teacher and coach, perhaps a bit too well liked by his female students in particular … you can guess where this is going. Alicia and the other characters come to think they can, too—but jumping to conclusions can be just as dangerous as looking the other way.

• It’s Always the Husband by Michele Campbell: The title says it all—or does it? Revealed almost entirely in flashbacks, this story’s largely unlikeable victim casts shades of doubt over every plot turn, turning friends into frenemies and bonds into betrayals.

• The Good Widow by Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke: Imagine: Your husband was having an affair, which you learned only when he and his mistress met an untimely end. You allow yourself to be convinced that recreating their final days might somehow be healing. What could possibly go wrong?

• The Marriage Lie by Kimberly Belle: The abrupt end to a perfect relationship—when a husband goes down with a plane he wasn’t supposed to be on—is the beginning of this psychological thrill ride with twists to spare.

• Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris: At the far end of the spectrum, if you prefer your bad husbands really, unequivocally, sickeningly bad, I’m not sure you’ll find one much worse than this creep.

My TBR pile wants to know: What’s your favorite book featuring a suspiciously secretive spouse, or a marriage in turmoil? And what was it about the suspense that hooked you and wouldn’t let go?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Whoa. Behind Closed Doors was so creepy! Truly disturbing. And I just read an excerpt of The Marriage Pact. Which seems interesting. (My new book TRUST ME, is about husbands, too. Just saying.)

And I will confess: there’s an arc of NOT THAT I COULD TELL on my nightstand. Lucky me. :-) 

So—marriage books?   Girl on the Train? Anna Karenina?   The other day someone mentioned Blood and Money.  (And do you think the spouses of the authors begin to get suspicious?)

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Jessica Strawser  is editor-at-large of Writer’s Digest, where she served as editorial director for nearly a decade. Her debut novel, Almost Missed You, was named to Barnes & Noble’s Best New Fiction shortlist upon its March 2017 release and will be new in paperback Feb. 6, 2018. Her second, Not That I Could Tell, is forthcoming in March. Connect with her on Twitter @jessicastrawser and on Facebook @jessicastrawserauthor.

Hallie revises her #mysterywriting book

HALLIE EPHRON: To kick of What We're Writing Week, I'm thrilled to report that a new edition of WRITING & SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL is coming out from Writers Digest Books in January 2017. The original edition was nominated for Edgar and Anthony awards. I updated it with new insights and advice, supported by fresh examples and exercises.

I'm even more than thrilled to report that the fabulous Sara Paretsky has written the foreword.
Writing the revision, I was reminded how much easier it is to tell people how to do something than to actually do it yourself. The revision went down smooth as silk, while the new novel that I was working on at the same time (YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR - pub date June 2017) skittered and jolted and juddered along, circling back on itself endlessly before reaching the finish line.

I finished both, but the novel required many more pints of blood.

Here's a little taste from the new introduction.

WRITING & SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL

REVISED & EXPANDED

INTRODUCTION

“In order to become even sort of good at it, you have to be willing to be bad at it for a long time”—David Owen in The New Yorker 

I came across the above quote as I was getting ready to revise the 2005 edition of this book. The “it” that Mr. Owen is talking about is playing bridge, but he might as well have been talking about writing a crime novel, another game with a steep learning curve. Almost everyone’s first efforts stink.

This discovery was particularly painful for me. I’d always gotten straight As in English, and I’d read a million crime novels, so it was easy to underestimate the task at hand. How hard could it be? After all, I wasn’t trying to write great literature, just a gripping page-turner. I hoped my characters would be nearly as vibrant as Ruth Rendell’s, my dialogue almost as snappy as Elmore Leonard’s, and my plots twisty like Agatha Christie’s. I was not prepared for the reality. The aforementioned stink.

Learning my craft was a long hard slog. It took me about six years to write a mystery novel that I felt was good enough to send to potential agents, and I have two manuscripts and a ton of short stories—all of them unpublished and unpublishable—in the drawer to show for it.

Writing a mystery novel is not for the faint of heart. Juggler, conjurer, and herder of cats—those are all in the job description. Be prepared to keep three or four intertwined plots spinning. Get ready to master the art of misdirection so readers will ogle the red herrings you’ve sprinkled throughout the story while ignoring the clues in plain sight. Don’t be surprised when you find yourself trying to corral characters who refuse to do what you want them to.

And it gets even more complicated. There is no recipe for success. Ask for advice from ten successful writers and they’ll swear by ten different approaches. That’s because, just like you, every one of them has a unique assortment of strengths and weaknesses. Maybe your dialogue sings but your descriptions are pallid. Maybe you have a grand time coming up with plot twists and writing slam-bang action scenes but your characters tend to be flat, without emotional insight. Maybe you write complex, interesting female characters but your men are cardboard cutouts. Your first draft will reflect whatever strengths and weaknesses you bring to the table.

I’m often asked: Can anyone learn to write a saleable mystery novel? My answer is no. A few are so naturally talented that they can turn out a masterpiece while barely breaking a sweat. At the other extreme are writers who, even after decades of striving, still churn out work that’s destined to circle the drain. But most of us fall in between, and no one can tell at the outset who will succeed and who will fail.

Aspiring writers don’t necessarily fail because they lack raw talent. Often they lack the stamina and patience needed to complete a first draft. Or they’re too thin-skinned to hear criticism and haven’t got the resilience to revise, revise, revise. Or they fold after the first few rejections and never reach the finish line.

This book presents a writing process that capitalizes on your strengths and shores up your weaknesses. Throughout, you’ll find a range of strategies that have worked for successful mystery writers, along with invitations to try them and see what works for you.

There is no guarantee of success, so persevering is up to you. Only one thing is certain: If you never finish a first draft, you’ll never know if you can get to “good enough.”

So here’s my first piece of sage advice to anyone about to embark on writing a mystery novel: Just hold your nose and write.

Today's question: What have you gotten better at over the years, and what's your sage advice to up-and-comers trying to learn it?

Pressing PAUSE, taking time out for a writing retreat

HALLIE EPHRON: Every once in a while I have to pinch myself. It still surprises myself the great places I've ended up going and the great people I've gotten to know because (now) I'm a writer!

So here I am this weekend teaching at an intimate (20 attendees) Writers Digest weekend retreat in gorgeous Scituate Massachusetts.  Working with me is the talented literary agent and author Paula Munier and Writers Digest Books publisher Phil Sexton.

Tough life: we're here in a lovely inn on Scituate Harbour.

There's some of us getting ready to talk about opening pages and synopses. This retreat started on Thursday and it will end midday Sunday, and I'm so impressed by the writers, their writing, and how deeply they are engaged in thinking about each other's work. And that the writers here have been revising (with no one holding a gun to their heads!)

Every time I teach, especially when it's intensive and involves people reworking their manuscripts, I learn something or hear something special. Here are some of the takeaways for me so far for this weekend:

- One writer, talking about how much she realizes she has yet to do on her manuscript and yet feeling energized: It's not perfect but I'm getting over it.

- Epiphany about memoir writing and why it's so hard to make an ordinary life story compelling: In a memoir you do NOT have to relate exactly what happened (it's okay to lie and make things up), but you do must write the emotional truth about what happened.

- Our common frames of reference are not books but TV shows and movies. Total Recall. Rocky. True Detective. The Wizard of Oz. CSI. Scandal. The Good Wife.  These are just a few of the ones that came up when talking about the plots.

   - Surprising to find that the weakest aspect of many manuscripts is setting! Not enough of a sense of the specifics of the places where scenes are set.

- It always impresses me: how deeply felt and personal works of fiction are for the author, and what a huge leap of faith it is to show it to others and open oneself up for criticism.

- Greatest pleasure: hearing that a foursome of writers who'd never before met were going to start a writing group, connecting halfway across the country. That's why you come to workshops, to find writers with whom you trust to share the pains and pleasures of making the writing better.

Ending with a quick pitch for a terrific upcoming writers' conference, great big and beautiful and in Portland Oregon... really strong on fiction writing and also a terrific screenwriting/pitching component. Willamette Writers in August! I'll be teaching 3 workshops ...

 

Have you been to a writing retreat or writing conference? Did or didn't it help you make that big leap forward in your writing?