Learning From the Masters

Marilyn:

Taking writing courses is fun and often insightful, but there's nothing like learning from the masters in your genre. While I write cozies and would never write anything as gritty as Harlan Coben's novels, I was wowed by the opening line of his book, GONE FOR GOOD. "Three days before her death, my mother told me-- these weren't her last words, but they were pretty close--that my brother still alive." The story was up and running, and never paused until the last page.

K D:

I read that one also, and I remember the beginning! A true page-turner.

You know, at this stage of my writing career, I have a hard time with taking writing courses. I just feel I have to read and write and read and write. I give myself my own assignments, based on my favorite authors.

One time I was having difficulties with the beginning of a book, and I decided to take out one of my favorite thrillers, Ken Follett's EYE OF THE NEEDLE. I mapped out his first chapter, including the first murder. I listed each paragraph as description, dialog, or action. I listed the point of view: Follett has two points of view in the first chapter. I made a special note of the beginning of the murder. I went through it paragraph by paragraph and made a list.

And then I tried to duplicate the first chapter. Of course, I had my own cast of characters, and my own victim, but I tried to duplicate Follett's pacing. If he wrote two paragraphs of description, I wrote two paragraphs of description. If he had dialog, I had dialog. If he switched viewpoint characters, I switched characters. And so forth.

It worked pretty darn well. My first chapter moved along like greased lightening, and it was shockingly easy to write. But I couldn't go much further. After all, Follett was writing a different book, and when I tried to do the same with a second chapter, I bogged down completely. Still, the project taught me something about how to set a scene while pushing the action ahead. I have since learned that I was following the most intricately constructed of Follett's books, and I would have been totally doomed if I had tried to follow it too far.

Kind of an odd way to spend my time, perhaps. What do you think, Marilyn? Have you done something similar?

Marilyn:

No, I've never tried that, but my feeling is use whatever gets your creative juices flowing. I get inspiration from reading books with great plotting and pacing, P. G. Wodehouse's novels do that for me. They're hilarious and without any trace of murder and mayhem, but the twists and turns of his plots urge me to think outside the box when I'm writing my mysteries.

K D:

I'm having a similar experience reading the MAISIE DOBBS mysteries by Jaqueline Winspear. I've read two of them, own the next two, and look forward to reading even more. The books are a wild mix of careful historical research, psychology, forensic science and even paranormal elements. When I read them, I always get inspired to reach out a little further with my own books.

I guess there are a lot of ways to learn from the masters!

Size Matters?

K D Fortune asked:

How long should a book be? Well, how long should a dog's legs be? One answer is "long enough to touch the ground." Or in other words, it depends on the kind of dog. Or the kind of book.

Kaye George commented:

Hm, I'm trying to picture legs on a book. But a great question to ask.

K D:

We aspiring mystery writers are often told to size our mysteries at about 70,000 words, while thrillers should come in at 90,000 to 100,000 words. Why these numbers? Is it intrinsic to the type of book or is it customary or...is it even the case? Are actual mysteries really short and thrillers longer?

I pulled a couple of paperbacks out of my library, and sat down to count the words. Luckily, all the paperbacks had about the same number of words per page, so I just counted the pages and multiplied.

The two thrillers were longer:

Ken Follett, Eye of the Needle, 105K words

Lee Child, Persuader, 133K words

But the mysteries weren't all short:

Cleo Coyle, French Pressed, 75K words

Louise Penny, A Rule Against Murder, 105K words

Kaye replied:

But those books aren't first novels. They're by established authors. Once you've gotten a few books under your belt (or on the shelf), you're given more leeway.

Could it be that the limits/guidelines are meant for first-time authors? Even though the lengths of some thrillers and mysteries don't fall within the guidelines, I think it's still a good idea for unpublished authors to stick pretty close to them.

K. D. answered, still doing calculations:

The mysteries tend to run shorter than the thrillers, but some mysteries are as long as thrillers, and some thrillers are seriously long. What is going on?

Maybe having several viewpoint characters adds to the length? Most thrillers have several viewpoint characters. Ken Follett and Louise Penny have many viewpoint characters in books of 105K words (though Louise Penny's book is a mystery). But Lee Child sticks to first person throughout the book, and comes in with the biggest word count, while Cleo Coyle sticks close to first person and has the shortest book.

Kaye:

OK, but I think there's more to it than the number of viewpoint characters. Thrillers often flit around in exotic locales and mysteries, especially at the cozy end, take place in little towns with a limited cast of characters. Even though thrillers contain a lot of action, well maybe mostly action sometimes, they need to give the reader a sense of a place they've never been. Mysteries are meant to evoke a comfortable setting, one the reader is perhaps very familiar with. Thrillers can get global and involve shadowy organizations, corrupt governments, secret societies, casts of many.

K D commented:

You are at least partially right here. A thriller rarely takes place next door. Ken Follett's Eye of the Needle visits a huge number of places, all over the map during WWII. Each scene requires a descriptive passage. He describes a lonely Scottish island. Then he's right there with Rommel in the desert. Next, we stop in at British High Command. All that description makes a book longer.

But Lee Child and Louise Penny stick mostly to one location, and have long books. Cleo Coyle has her protagonists dashing around to all sorts of places in New York City, and has the shortest book of all. I don't think scene-setting is the complete explanation for the length of the books.

Kaye commented:

Maybe it's something else about the books they wrote? Something you can't count?

K D answered:

What a concept! Something you can't count? Not possible!

Kaye replied:

Think about it, okay?

Kaye and K D finally agree:

Unpublished authors should probably stick to the guidelines, to make life easier for themselves and their agents.

For published authors, since all the books are enjoyable, does size matter?