You Be the Detective: Who is the Victim?

There is a body. Unidentified.
But there are various items that belonged to the victim.
You are a police psychological profiler.
Your job is to collect ten items (for example pen, lipstick, mobile phone, bandaid, scrap of paper, a business card from a cafe) and place them in an evidence bag.
Write a character assessement on what you've learned (or guessed) about the victim.
Your task is not to solve the crime. But to work out what kind of person the victim was, where they might have been or what their interests might have been.

Click here for more mystery writing hints.

Mystery Story Starters

The beginning of a story needs to be a 'hook'.
Something that grabs the reader and won't let them go until the end of the story.
For some writers this is the hardest part.
Here are some suggestions for story starters:

• I didn’t see the blood at first.
• Then I wished I hadn’t.
• A shiver across the back of my neck was the first sign of trouble.
• I froze. Someone was in the house. I couldn’t see them. But I knew it.
• What have I done?
• I wish I had never come here.
• If I hadn’t decided to clean out my wardrobe, I wouldn’t have been kneeling on the floor. And if I hadn’t been kneeling on the floor, I wouldn’t have been hidden when he arrived.
• ‘No, stop. Please don’t!’
• ‘I trusted you.’
• I know what you did.
• How can I ever get out of this one?
• I knew she was lying.
• Every year on the first of April I take out my shoe box.
• I wish I hadn’t seen her. But it’s too late now.
• How can you tell if someone’s guilty?
• I never thought I was squeamish. That was until today.
• The photo was gone.
• He thinks I’m an idiot. But he has no idea what I’ve done.
• I never dreamed I’d have to investigate this sort of thing. But no one else will do it.
• No one believes me. I have to make someone listen.
• Should I tell or not?
• Dead. Dead. Dead.
• I saw it in his eyes. Before he moved, I knew what he was going to do.
• I was trapped!
• It started with a wrong number.
• I heard that he said something just before he died. I have to find out what it was.
• It was locked. Firmly. Solidly. What could I do now?
• At first I thought it was a prank call. Some kid with nothing to do. Then I realised it could be true. Probably was true.
• It was the smell that first attracted my attention.
• I had no idea there was a secret room in our house. Not until I heard the noise.
• I began to wonder about her when I realised there were no photos of her. Not a single one.
• I knew I shouldn’t take it. But I did. And I’ll be sorry for the rest of my life. It was only a little thing. But it caused so much trouble.
• Victim. It was just a word in the dictionary. Until today.
• Some secrets can kill.

For more story starters, click here

My Word: How do I Choose?

Hi

I have been busy editing the second book in the 'Raven Lucas' series and an interesting dilemma popped up.
A word.
Not just any word.
It had to be the correct word.
Okay, maybe I'm slightly neurotic. But hey, that's a good thing when you're editing, isn't it?
Isn't it?
This is the sentence that caused the dilemma:
'Raven felt sick. Her thoughts careered all over the place, remembering every scary scene she'd ever watched on TV, never dreaming she'd be in a situation like this.'
My editor suggested that I might really mean 'careened' rather than 'careered'.
There is only one letter difference between the words. Did it really matter?
I began an investigation that took over an hour and involved checking dictionaries, a thesaurus and discussing the words at length with my writer husband David.
Yes, I had heard the word 'careen'.
But what, exactly, did that and 'career' mean and therefore imply within the text?
I checked the meanings.
'Careen': to rush carelessly, to serve.
The implication of rapidity that most often accompanies the use of careen as a verb of motion may have arisen naturally through the extension of the nautical sense of the verb to apply to the motion of automobiles, which generally careen, that is, lurch or tip over, only when driven at high speed.
Okay, my character Raven is thinking hard and fast. But was she tilting over, lurching? Did that suggest uncertainty or fallibility in her thoughts?
I checked 'career':
Apart from the obvious 'profession or occupation' there was another meaning.
2. A path or course, as of the sun through the heavens.
3. Speed: "My hasting days fly on with full career" (John Milton).
To move or run at full speed; rush.
[French carrière, from Old French, racecourse, from Old Provençal carriera, street, from Medieval Latin (via) carrria, (road) for carts, feminine of carrrius, from Latin carrus, a Gallic type of wagon; see kers- in Indo-European roots.]
Wow. That was interesting. The root meanings of a racecourse, a carriage, a street.
I decided on leaving 'careered'.
1. It suited the meaning of the scene better. Raven's thoughts were rapid but not 'tilting' or crashing.
2. The word 'careered' is sometimes heard on the TV news and should be more familiar to most of us.
3. My readers will be aged 10 and older. They would probably be more familiar with 'career' than 'careen'. Careened sounded more old-fashioned.
So, in the end, it came down to the exact meaning, including original roots of the word; the sense of the scene in the story and what was really happening there and the possibly familiarity to the readership.
All this over one word.
Yet it was important to me.
I learned so much about the meanings by pursuing one word.
Language is fascinating.
If the story as a whole matters, then choosing one correct word matters.
If you can do that without disappearing into your own neurosis.
Now, onto the next page ...

Happy Writing
Christine Harris

The Problem of Names

Hi

My husband, David Harris, also a writer came back from a school visit yesterday with a wonderful story about names.

Apparently finding names for new babies is as difficult as finding them for story characters.

Sometime told David, 'I am glad you mentioned your grandson's name was Finn because we are going through the alphabet for grandchildren's names and we had to skip "F" and go straight to "G" because we couldn't think of anything we liked beginning with "F". Now we have.'

Bet that turns up in a story somewhere.

Cheers,
Christine Harris

Who Was The Youngest Published Writer In the World?

Hi

Writers come in all shapes and sizes.
And ages.
I found this link to a quirky page called 'The Wee Web' about child writers.

How old was the youngest writer ever published?

Click here to find out.

cheers,
Christine Harris
(who is feeling much older after reading the above webpage!)

What is the Future of Book Publishing?

Hi
There has been much discussion lately about ebooks, digital this and that and the predicted demise of the printed book. Discussion is a good thing.
A few headaches, groans and two e-book readers and two Android PC tablets later, I am beginning to understand some of the difficulties and joys of digitalisation.
The Guardian has a great books section for adults and younger readers.
This includes podcasts on a variety of topics.
Last night I listened to a podcast which consisted of a series of interviews done at the Book Tomorrow conference in Milan. I can highly recommend it as good thinking material.
There were some ideas presented that I hadn't considered before, such as -
What will happen to the relationship between writer and reader if there are no longer occasions such as book signings?
Will we still have the same archival material if we simply delete emails and no longer keep paper copies? (mind you, it's good for trees)
And the one comment that made me smile knowingly. Someone expressed the view that they were disappointed that there weren't more authors present. The audience was mostly publishers and editors.
I can answer that one. They couldn't afford it.
Authors don't have a budget like employees of publishing houses.
Besides, the authors were probably home writing.
Or getting headaches trying to work out their new electronic devices and wishing they were writing.

Happy writing (and reading),
Christine

World Press Photo Exhibition

Hi
Check out the amazing World Press Photos winners gallery 2011.

What caught my attention, apart from the photos themselves, was learning that the judges of this photographic competition looked at photos for one second to narrow them down to a shortlist of 200.

First impressions do count.
A good photo, painting or story will resonate.
Resonance is ' The ability to evoke or suggest images, memories, and emotions'.
Isn't that what we want for our written stories too?

One writer I know works out an emotional plot as well as an action plot when planning a book. As readers, we need to feel something about the characters, their predicaments, hopes, failures, dangers and dreams.
If facts alone were enough, we could all publish lists.
But we want more.
We want stories.
We want to be involved.

First impressions count with manuscripts too.
It helps to make it easy for a busy editor to read our story.
Keep it neat, preferably typed on a computer.
Large enough font that the editor won't go blind or give up on our story.
Wide enough margins for them to write notes and to allow for photocopying (your story might make it to an acquisitions meeting and multiple copies will be needed).
Clear identification on title page of author name and contact details, story title, word count and date.

Usually, submissions include a brief letter, short resume, an overview of the book and about three chapters.
It's important to use our proverbial 'second' of time wisely.
At first glance our story should start with confidence. Make something happen straight away (do we really care that it is 23 degrees and that the sky is blue with four fluffy clouds?).
Words like 'quirky ... gripping ... mysterious ...' come to mind.

And there is a good idea for a writing warm-up. Write a list of adjectives to describe the kind of feeling/atmosphere you would like to have in your first chapters.
Then do it.

Happy writing,
Christine Harris