Article #13
A Guessing Game

The reader should be kept guessing as to the outcome of the story until the end in any novel but especially in a mystery. Richard Martinstern in Writer's Handbook suggested that Agatha Christie was alleged to have said that putting together a mystery novel was somewhat like putting together a salad: every now and again the ingredients come out in just the proper proportions.

Okay, I agree that the writer should always have some leeway in improving the manuscript and be somewhat flexible how the manuscript will finish up, but I do believe in less flexibility than perhaps other writers. Why? Because I write best with some rather "flexible" guidelines. I am more comfortable if I know, more or less, that my "salad" will turn out pretty much the same each time. When I suggest that I want it to turn out the same, I mean, a darn good story - not formula writing like some writers get caught up in even if their formula seems to be working for them. Maybe less flexibility than more could be called discipline.

My best work comes from a developing forty to fifty-page-working-outline that frequently takes me longer to research, edit and complete than the actual manuscript. Sometimes the outline can take me as long as a year to write and then rewrite several times until I'm satisfied with the end product. I usually figure about eight to ten pages of manuscript for each page of the working outline. While I sometimes deviate from the outline by changing the storyline some and moving my characters around, I must confess that a working outline is an indispensable tool for this writer and most of the authors I've gotten published over the years as their literary agent.

Sometimes the plot changes somewhat to accommodate an exciting new twist to the story, but basically I must have a beginning, a middle and an end to my storyline. The main character has got to have some kind of goal, and, there should be tension between the characters especially because the antagonist is trying to prevent the main character from reaching that goal. Our protagonist should be put in some kind of jeopardy in attempting to attain the goal, so that we can maintain a high level of excitement and reader interest as the story unfolds.

It's always beneficial to gently move the reader down one road and then develop a whole new set of facts that throws him/ her off in another direction. This is true in not only mystery novels but also any good commercial fiction. We want the reader to turn the pages just as fast as they can because of the suspense and excitement of the plot. While we can frequently point the reader in the wrong direction, a good writer should never deliberately misrepresent the reader audience, i.e. make a statement that the writer knows is untrue or even contrived to complete a situation or solve a problem. Sometimes a contrived ending to a situation is referred to a "deus ex machina" or divine intervention. Readers scoff at this amateurish approach taken by writers to get out of a messy situation.

Character development is important, of course, but books are like movies in some ways. A weak screen play with outstanding well-known actors leaves you only with a weak film with some big-name stars.

While strong, three-dimensional characters are important to fulfill the ends of the story, a good strong plot is an absolute necessity for most writers. There are, however, others who would obviously disagree with me.

And, the plot should always keep the reader guessing at the outcome.