Whydunnit?

I read an article recently that said that a motive in a murder mystery must be strong enough to justify a murder, that nobody would kill somebody for stealing their socks.

As it happens, I had just heard an excerpt from Shostakovitch's Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, in which the precipitating motive for a murder is a woman's appropriation of another woman's stockings. Granted, this is in Siberia and the stockings are warm.

So I would have to add three words to the article's advice: The motive must be strong enough to justify a murder to the murderer.

This means that the setting must be specific enough to affect the motive. The characterizations must be strong enough and deep enough to rationalize extreme reaction. Relationships must be clear enough to urge a violent resolution.

Think of Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." Is there a strong motive for murder? No, there's no motive for the murder -- except in the mind of the murderer.

If you're just starting out writing murder mysteries, you might do well to follow the simpler advice and choose an obviously powerful motive like money, fear of professional damage, love, or immediate self-defense.

But subtler motives are a lot more intriguing, if more difficult to put across.

She took your socks? Yeah, baby, she had it comin'!

Marian Allen, Author Lady
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes

Writing Mary Sue

If you don't know what a Mary Sue is, go read this discussion on fanfiction.net. You still won't know, but you'll be highly entertained.

A Mary Sue is, by general consensus, a female character who irritates people other than the author by drawing all the attention to herself. True Mary Sues are adorable to the other characters and/or to the reader (in the writer's mind, at any rate) because she's perky and perfect or a lovable goof-up who nevertheless saves the day. True Mary Sues exist only in fan fiction -- stories set in established universes like Star Wars, Star Trek, Tolkien's Middle Earth. Hard core fans of those universes resent these upstarts' hogging the limelight and warping the stories/personalities of the official characters.

Some folks claim that, if the official stories and personalities aren't warped, the new character isn't really a Mary Sue.

NOW, as someone points out in the discussion I linked, sometimes the character labeled a Mary Sue fulfills the author's fantasies: She battles bad guys. Or she has a romance (preferably doomed) with an official character. Or she saves an important person's life. And she's the main character of the story, driving the action and solving all the things!

AND, as someone else pointed out in the discussion, and I think this is my point, although I'm never sure, all our characters are pieces of us, living out fantasies of what we would do if we were in various situations. But kind of not.

Because our characters are not us, playing out fantasies. Our characters have their own backstories, their own likes and dislikes, their own childhoods, and they can't all be the same as ours. That's why I have so many prompts asking things like, "What's in your character's wallet?". Sauron doesn't have the same things in his wallet as you do, most likely; why should any of your characters?

It's fun to write #menotme characters who get into and out of scrapes in other people's universes and wrap the narratives around themselves. And there's nothing wrong with doing that, if it pleases you. Just do it on purpose, because you choose to do it, not because you don't know any better. And expect some people to call your character a Mary Sue and sneer at her. Because folks are like that, sometimes.

Me, I've done it. And I've extracted my Mary Sue, changed all the official characters, and given her her own book. ha!

Marian Allen, Author Lady
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes

When Characters Won't Behave

Some writers feel that their characters are autonomous; they speak and act on their own, and the author just follows them around and writes things down.

I'm not one of them.

Yes, your characters have to seem to be autonomous. Your characters have to seem to speak and act spontaneously, out of their own inner realities. But I see myself as more of a director than a biographer.

If I need for a character to say something or do something and the character -- in my imagination, now, they don't actually speak to me; I may be odd, but I'm not a practitioner of alternate sanity .... I lost my place. Oh, yeah: If I need for a character to say something or do something and the character is all like, "I just don't feel that. What's my motivation?" then I'm all like, "Fair enough. Let's talk about that."

See, I don't like pushy characters (with the obvious exception of Bud Blossom), but I don't like sock puppets, either: characters who obviously speak and act at the writer's will. You know the kind where you go, "I can see why the author wanted her to steal the secret code and plans, but I don't understand why she wanted to."

So, when characters don't want to say or do what you want them to, you have choices:

• Give 'em their heads and see where they take you
• Get out the cattle prod and herd 'em back in line
• Sit down with 'em and yak around until you come up with reasons that make sense in their contexts
• Get all evil wit' it and plant false memories so they believe they have motive.

.
By which I actually mean, tweak their backstory. That's one reason I like to leave backstory a bit vague, so I can fill it in as I need it. Also lazy.

CHARACTER: "But I'm not afraid of dogs! I love dogs!"

ME: "You don't love ... um ... red dogs. Yeah, see this dog is red. 'Member when that red dog knocked you down and bit you on the chin when you were two?"

CHARACTER: "...No, I don't."

ME: "Blocked it out. That's how traumatic it was."

CHARACTER: "Oh, yeah. Big red dogs. I always cried when the teacher read a CLIFFORD book."

ME: "Right. Right. So sad. Poor baby. Ready for the scene, now?"

Some writers work out the backstory, characters, and plotlines ahead of time, so they don't run into this sort of thing. Me, that much planning doesn't work for. Neither does just going with the flow. Not a plotter, not a pantser, I call myself a panther. I outline enough to get me through the story, but leave things loosey-goosey enough that, if something more interesting than what I have planned comes along, I can pounce on it like a hungry panther.

Oh, and Bud? It's the cattle prod and the cow dogs for Bud. YES, I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU AGAIN. YOU ALWAYS MANAGE, DON'T YOU?

~sigh~ It isn't easy being me.

Marian Allen, Author Lady
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes

What's in YOUR Character's Wallet?

Or purse, or reticule, or pocket.

You know how the cops on cop shows go through the corpse’s pockets and find Clues? You can do that with your characters. Not just, you know, the dead ones. Or the undead ones, depending on what you write.

This is a great exercise, especially if you’ve been drinking are with a fellow writer who has read your stuff and whose stuff you’ve read; you can tell one another what you think is in the other’s characters’ wallets. You can challenge one another, like, “Okay, what’s in Heathcliff’s wallet?”

I mean, think about what’s in YOUR wallet. Better yet, go through your wallet and SEE what’s in there. Mine has credit card, debit card, driver’s license, rewards cards for hotels and stores, a picture of my mother when she was pregnant with me that was given to me by my husband’s oldest sister who was friends with her back then, the address and phone number of my pal Pat, postage stamps, photos of relatives, a picture of Dennis Kucinich, a photo of a mom and kid I don’t know but found discarded and felt sorry for….

In my purse, now, I have So. Many. Things.

If you’re stuck on a characterization or a plot point, try this exercise, and see if it shakes something loose. It might not bring up anything you want to use, but it might get those juices flowing again, or it might inspire a character twist or depth you hadn’t thought of before.

Marian Allen, Author Lady
Fantasies, mysteries, comedies, recipes