 Mystery: July 26, 2017 Issue [#8413] |
  Mystery
This week: Long-Term Impact Edited by: Jeff  
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"Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle; they read it to get to the end.
The first page sells that book, and the last page sells your next book."
-- Mickey Spillane
Trivia of the Week: In addition to being an early contributor to the development of thrillers as a genre (as well as writing procedurals and psychological mysteries), award-winning author Ruth Rendell (three Daggers from the Crime Writers' Association AND three Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America!) was also very politically active. So much so that she was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), and then as a life peer with the title Baroness Rendell of Babergh, which allowed her to sit in the House of Lords for the Labour Party.
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LONG-TERM IMPACT
There are a lot of benefits to an author writing the same character over and over again. With a series, for example, there little need to spend a lot of time and energy on exposition, since the author and the audience are (presumably) already familiar with the basics of who the character is and what they do. One of the challenges, however, can be managing the long-term impact your characters have on the world around them.
Let's take James Bond, for example. In just the four Daniel Craig films, James Bond has: (1) blown up an African embassy in Madagascar, (2) damages a building in Venice which sinks into the Grand Canal, (3) has a shoot-out at the Austrian opera, (4) destroys a hotel in Chile, (5) MI-6 headquarters is destroyed, (6) chases someone through the London Underground, (7) chases someone with a helicopter through Mexico City on the Day of the Dead, (8) destroy a compound in the Sahara Desert, and (9) destroys MI-6 headquarters (again), and (10) confronts a villain in a crashed helicopter on Westminster Bridge.
If you add in the Pierce Brosnan movies, you can also add situations like Bond escaping from the Russian military archives by driving a tank through the streets of Saint Petersburg, causes an international incident between the Chinese and British navies, and destroys an ice palace in Iceland.
While each of these is, for the most part, intended to be a standalone movie, doesn't it make you wonder how James Bond isn't one of the most famous faces in the world? He's an elite agent working for one of the world's most clandestine services and yet any one of these events, especially with the prevalence of cell phones, would involve at least someone snapping a picture or video of him saving the day and having it go viral all around the world.
If you're reading an ongoing series, pay attention to how the author handles the character's relation to the world in case after case.
If you're writing an ongoing series, put some thought into how you want to handle the character's relation to the world in case after case.
Sure, you can write standalone stories that have absolutely nothing to do with one another. But isn't it more realistic, and a tad more intriguing, for the character's actions to have a long-term impact on themselves and the world around them?
If your character is a Los Angeles homicide detective assigned to solve the murder of a famous actress... that's a career-making assignment. It's the kind of thing that draws the attention of the higher-ups in her department, as well as the attention of other agencies and organizations. The detective that solved the A-list celebrity murder might find that people recognize her when she's in line at Starbucks. Other cops and colleagues will probably regard her differently now that she's been interviewed by the news organizations and had her name in the paper.
Even if your character is a private and secretive one (a hitman, thief, etc.), word of their exploits will eventually get around. They may not know the identity of the individual, but suddenly they put together that the guy who pulled off the nearly-impossible head of state hit in Pyongyang is also probably the guy who pulled off the nearly-impossible elimination of a double agent inside the CIA.
Reputations are built through accomplishments, and in most mystery and thriller stories, the protagonist accomplishes something significant (otherwise what's the point of reading the book?  ). Those significant accomplishment eventually build a resume, and that resume has the power to change the character's world. Over the years and assignments, maybe a small-town California sheriff solves enough high profile crimes to get requested by the LAPD. And maybe the experience of working for the LAPD draws the attention of the FBI. And before you know it, the work for the FBI draws the attention of the Attorney General who personally requests the assistance of that once-small-time sheriff on a matter of national importance.
Again, there's nothing wrong with an episodic-style story where your detective character solves a similar crime every time. Or where your elite secret agent character saves the world, and then does it all over again the next time. But there's something to be said for taking the long-term impact of your character's efforts and accomplishments into consideration. Even if you're not writing a strictly serialized piece where each narrative is interwoven, it might be worth considering the long-term impact of your characters simply as a source of potentially new ideas that can organically arise from their circumstances. The small-town sheriff doesn't have to stop being a small-town sheriff; maybe one or two stories are about him testing the waters on a larger stage before ultimately deciding that he likes it right where he is.
The long-term impact of your characters is a powerful story development tool. If you write characters who do things of local, national, or international importance, it might be worth considering if the things they do feed into any kind of larger narrative.
Until next time,
Jeff
If you're interested in checking out my work:
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"New & Noteworthy Things" |
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EXCERPT: She got up that morning with the sun beaming in her face. She could smell the aroma of fresh coffee brewing as she watched specks of dust dance in the golden sun rays. She laid in bed for a while before finally deciding to start her day. Walking to her closet she begins to look around; allowing her hand to casually brush against the fabric of each article. She sits, staring into her closet pondering what to wear, she knows the sun is warm today, the weather, gorgeous; but she also knows other things lie ahead for her today.
EXCERPT: It appeared not so much a room as a cubicle separated from the dining area by a lattice and a woven string curtain. A bare wooden desk sat inside, coupled with a chair borrowed from the dining table set. No leatherbound books or paperbacks lined the shelves, but instead an assortment of decorative memorabilia, stationery, and worktools. Not quite the writer’s den Detective Kurosawa expected, and more like some storage shed one would find at the back of a garage.
EXCERPT: The cries got louder as the days went by. It now had been two days since the crying had started. The crying wasn’t human; it was the sound of ten cats, all crying at once. These cries were coming from Bidi’s house right next door. Bidi is a crazy cat lady. She’s actually pretty nice but she defiantly looks like a crazy cat lady, with her long moomoo’s she wears all the time. No matter the weather. She lived next door since two months before I was born, about sixteen years ago. Her house is very messy on the outside, but the inside is very clean and taken care of. She loves her cats and has always taken amazing care of them. But the house is still really creepy from the outside.
EXCERPT: Brenda Burton was always one of the first to know. When you’re the only bartender in the only bar in town, it can’t be helped. She meant to leave the cramped town of Burtonsville once she graduated from Smith College, but couldn’t find a job with a degree in psychology. Bartending paid well and she had college loans to pay-off. Besides, the degree helped with the tips, so it wasn’t a complete waste. She could empathize with just about anyone.
EXCERPT: I like to weave a historical mystery with a current one. In this particular case, that narrative structure prevails for the first two sections. The final section, The Laundress's Tale recasts the entire story, in a briefer form, and slightly alters both the ending and the reader's understanding of some of the characters. This is the first story in The Inquiry Group series.
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Feedback from my last newsletter about fictional nations ("Mystery Newsletter (June 28, 2017)" ):
Quick-Quill  writes: "In one great story I started, a devout Muslim in a USA cell, comes against a Christian he can't ignore. He comes to respect the man and then has to make a choice. Allow the terrorist plan to unfold and everyone dies, or attempt to save his new friend? The rest was a twist of characters and incidents. I didn't need to know a lot, I thought. I found the introduction I had between the two characters wouldn't happen in real life. I gave up on the story. "
Religion can be even more difficult than politics! And it can be really, really difficult to stay involved in a story if you don't buy the basic premise of how the characters or story are introduced and set up.
Elizabeth  writes: "Well said. I think it's important to consider the ramifications of what we write, and try to avoid stereotypes that are dangerous or hurtful. The first fictional nation that came to my mind was Wakanda, also from the Marvel universe. Wakanda is a fictional north African nation, and Black Panther's country of origin."
Wakanda is one of my favorites! I'm a bit partial to the Marvel properties, considering my day job.
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