How to Plot a Mystery Novel: My Story

"Nice characters, interesting setting, great tone, no plot."

That's the story of my novels for years.  So I wrote 5 short stories, and they each contained a tightly written plot.  One of my reviewers said, "How do you pack so much into so little space?  Talent."

Okay, I'll take that.  But how do I pack so much into more space?  It's now or never, I thought.  The book must have a plot.

Here are the steps I took:

1. Write the beginning and the end first.  This advice came from an experienced writer friend who now tells me he doesn't do that anymore.  Ah, well.  It worked for me.  But then there's the middle. 
2. Create a list of characters and how they look.  I did this, but everything changed, including the characters names.  But it got me started.  Next time, I hope to get the characters names and appearance right at least some of the time.
3. Create a chapter map.  I could not do this until I wrote the whole story once, which is a bit of a problem, and not a process I want to repeat with my next book.  But, for this one, it worked.  After this first run through, I renamed the chapter and created a minimalist map that contained chapter title, number, point-of-view, day of the week, time of day and a 1-2 sentence summary.
4. Use the chapter map to find holes in the plot, clues and character actions.  Because I am not experienced at plotting yet, I needed to add details, change character actions, and change or add clues that were missing.  The chapter map saved my sanity.  When I found missing details, I knew what chapter they were or were not in, or I was able to choose a place to put the missing details or even missing chapters.

My novel is with my two editors now, so we'll see how it all went.  I know it's the best I've done in a novel, so I feel good about my process.

Next time, the steps I might take:

1. Try writing software.   I will at least take a serious look at software like Scrivener.  
2. Try a spreadsheet.  The writing software sounds too organized for a dis-organized person like me.  A spreadsheet might be simpler.  Might be.
3. Get over myself.  I spent years thinking I was to0 creative to organize my books or my stories and the the story (a mystery story, no less, with clues, red herrings, suspects, pu-leeze). 
4. Have fun.  The more organized I am before I start, the more phone.
5. Realize writers lie in interviews.  I saw Elmore Leonard in an interview with Charlie Rose in which he gave the following advice:  "Never use 'I said.'"  Except Leonard uses that all the time.  Moral:  Don't believe writers who say the story simply flows out of them.  They are creating an image of themselves to increase sales.  More power to them on that point!

The book is entitle In Gallup, Greed, is #6 in the New Mexico mystery thriller series, and is full of quirky characters, New Mexico charm, and chilling, murderous greed.

Until next time...keep writing...

Tower Lowe