PLANNING A MYSTERY by Sarah Wisseman
I am like most writers: the blank computer screen scares me.
So I use whatever physical and visual aids I can think of to get going—and keep
going—on a new book. Over the garage, in my writing-and-painting room (also
used as a guest room, exercise room, sewing room, and a place for staring out
the four windows at Illinois weather), I draw timelines and plotlines on the
washable surface my husband put up for visiting kids to color. Downstairs, at small
desk where I park my laptop at night, there is a bulletin board with maps,
photos of what my characters might look like (cut out of magazines and clothes
catalogues), location pictures, character lists. Here’s what the most recent
board for Umber Rome (not yet
published) looks like:
I set up a notebook in a three-ring binder with tabs,
printing out character bios and setting notes as they are created. I draw maps
of major buildings in the story, such as the painting conservation laboratory
in Siena, Italy used in Burnt Siena (June
2015). I add lists of Italian phrases I know I will have trouble spelling, and
Italian first and last names that I might use for new characters.
Then there is the plot construction. I like Randy
Ingermanson’s “Snowflake Method,” http://www.advancedfictionwriting.com/articles/snowflake-method/,
although I don’t use it exclusively. The idea is to start with the simplest and
shortest description of the book (think elevator pitch) and write that down.
Then make it more complicated and expand to a paragraph with “three disasters
and an ending.” When it grows to two or three pages, it may eventually become
the synopsis I send out to agents and publishers to sell the book. Of course,
it will be rewritten many times before that happens.
On the computer, I set up a folder for the new book and have
at list three files that are constantly being modified: the manuscript, the
working outline, and the character list. The outline contains that first
paragraph describing the book, some general ideas of where the book is going,
and a brief description of each scene. I also use a separate Excel file for an
abbreviated scene list (when, where, point-of-view character, what happens) to
help me “see” the book in three acts and decide where the high action scenes
must go.
All this helps me work more efficiently, especially when
daily life gets in the way of daily writing.
What’s next? Tear down the current
bulletin board and put up a new one for Indigo
Florence, book 3 in the Flora Garibaldi Art History Mysteries.
Burnt
Siena:
A young conservator working in Siena, Italy, discovers that her employers, a
family firm of painting restorers, are smuggling antiquities and forging Greek
sculpture.
Archaeologist Sarah Wisseman has published two Lisa Donahue
archaeological mysteries set in Boston (Bound
for Eternity and The Fall of Augustus),
two in the Middle East (The Dead Sea
Codex and The House of the Sphinx),
and one stand-alone historical mystery (The
Bootlegger’s Nephew) set in Prohibition-era Illinois. Her new series stars
Flora Garibaldi (a paintings conservator) and is set in Italy. Burnt Siena was released in June 2015
(Five Star/Cengage).
Website: www.sarahwisseman.com
Comments
And continued success.