Category Archives: Writing

The Murder Room

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 I’ve been a fan of Sherlock Holmes through his many permutations, from Basil Rathbone to Robert Downey Jr., from Arthur Conan Doyle to Laurie R. King’s novels of the wife of Sherlock Holmes, so when I caught this title on an NPR interview this morning I stopped to listen:   The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases, by Michael Capuzzo.

Capuzzo writes about the Vidocq Society, a group of 82 full members (and 150 associates), all experts in the field of crime solving, who meet once a month over lunch in Philidelphia to discuss and work on solving cold cases. 

Why 82?  Because that is how many years their namesake, the French detective, Eugene Francois Vidocq (1775-1857) lived.  Vidocq was a a former criminal, “a kind of Willie Sutton,” who made a deal with the police to help them fight crime.  In the process, he founded the first private detective agency, and inspired the stories of Conan Doyle and others.

According to Capuzzo, the Vidocq Society had an initial academic focus, the way people still put forth new theories on the identity of Jack the Ripper, but after a New York Times interview, they decided to turn their talents to working on cases where resolution is possible.  Members of various police departments as well as friends and family of victims are invited to the lunch meetings, and acccording to Capuzzo, the considerable talents of these sleuths has resulted in closing some old cases (he did not say how many in the interview).

Anyway, the story is worth a listen and the book looks to be an interestingread for those with mystery and CSI type interests. 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129210703

 

A Twenty-Five Word Short Story Contest

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How about a contest that is free to enter and offers prizes for your cleverest twenty-five words?  I received this announcement recently for the Gotham Writer’s Workshop, “Hint Fiction Writing Contest.”

http://www.writingclasses.com/ContestPages/hintfiction.php?utm_content=12455257?utm_campaign=Early%20Enrollment%20Offer%20-%20Save%20$30?utm_source=streamsend?utm_medium=email

As they define it, “hint fiction” is a complete story of no more than twenty-five words that hints “at a larger chain of events.” The word limit does not include the title. Here is an example given in the announcement:

Corrections & Clarifications

It was Fredrick Miller, not his murdered son Matthew, who was executed Monday night at Henshaw Prison.

The deadline for entries is October 11, one entry per person. It’s anything but easy, of course, but the interesting thing is, one can begin with almost any image or phrase that comes to mind, and create something complete from it in one sitting – who knows, perhaps the seed of something larger. After reading the announcement, the phrase, “ends of the earth” popped to mind and I sat down with a cup of coffee and a pencil and came up with a credible first draft. Beats crosswords any day IMO.

One caution: last fall I entered a “first hundred and fifty word” contest from these folks (you would already know if I’d won) and I continue to get periodic announcements from them. I’m sure there is a way to opt out, but I haven’t looked for it, since additional interesting tidbits like this come along, and there is a delete key for the rest.

LATE BREAKING NEWS:

While we’re at it, this arrived in my inbox this morning, an announcement for a more traditional (5000 word) short story contest from Writer’s Digest:

http://www.writersdigest.com/popularfictionawards

For those who delight in short fiction, why not?

Biff, Pow, Bam; how not to begin a story.

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The books I most enjoy reading have one or two things in common:  characters I enjoy so much I’d rather hang out with them than do anything else and/or such a compelling plot that I resent anything – like fatigue at 2:00am – that forces me to put the book down.

At writer’s conferences, critique groups, and blogs or newsletters devoted to the craft of writing, a common piece of advice emphasizes the effort to construct a thrilling plot: “Throw out the first three chapters of your story and begin in the middle of the action or conflict.”

Here’s a refreshing take that advances the primacy of character, the factor that seems central to the few special books I read again and again.

It’s probably the most over-repeated and cliche advice—so much so that writers have come to hate hearing it: Start with action.

I’ve critiqued hundreds, maybe thousands, of first pages, and this advice is most to blame for story beginnings that leave the reader in a quivering mass of Why-the-Hell-Do-I-Care-About-This?

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2010/03/11/TheBiggestBadAdviceAboutStoryOpenings.aspx

And then what happened?

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What, if anything, do our favorite stories and novels  have in common?  Are there any traits shared by, Lord of the Rings, The DaVinci Code, The Wind in the Willows, Along Came A Spider, A Christmas Carol, Little Women, and Harry Potter?

Some have memorable characters, people we’d rather spend our time with than do most anything else.  We’d follow them anywhere;  Frodo and Gandalf, Ratty and Mole, Harry and Hermione.  Sometimes the plot carries us away, and we put the book down grudgingly at 2:30 am on a work night, only because the alternative is falling asleep in the chair.

In his introduction to the just-published collection of stories, called Stories, co-editor Neil Gaiman gives another answer to the question of what makes a story memorable.  When someone asked him what quote he’d inscribe, if he could, in a public library chidren’s area, he thought about it and said:

I’m not sure I’d put a quote up, if…I had a library wall to deface.  I think I’d just remind people of the power of stories, of why they exist in the first place.  I’d put up the four words that anyone telling a story wants to hear.  The ones that show that it’s working, and that pages will be turned:

“…and then what happened?”


And then what happened? I think of all my favorite stories share this characteristic.  How does an author or storyteller bring it about?  By discipline and magic, no doubt – words that give no hint on how to evoke this special quality.  But as I thought about Gaiman’s four words, I remembered a simple exercise from basic art classes that I think is very relevant.

Draw four dots on a sheet of paper in the shape of a rectangle.   Now draw three  on another sheet of paper.

*          *                                                 *          *

*          *                                                 *

Which is the more interesting figure, the more dynamic?   Why?