Tag: character development

Plot-Driven Mystery by Arline Chase


Vacation for Two by Arline ChaseQuestion: Someone in a class I’m taking said my mystery needs to be more plot-driven. How can I tell if she’s right and if she is, how do I fix it?

Answer: Well there are two kinds of mystery. Plot-Driven means it’s all about what happens and the investigating character does not change. Most mysteries used to always be this way. Character-driven mystery is about characters that change and grow over the story, or even over the series.

The plot-driven mystery is all about the puzzle. Sherlock Holmes is always his superior, calculating, self. At least he is until he meets “The Woman.” And even afterward any emotion or resulting change in his personality is never part of a Sherlock Holmes story. Yes, it is important to have a good puzzle for the reader to solve. And your reader might be telling you that the puzzle might be a tad transparent. If that seems reasonable to you, lay some more false trails, leave some false clues to lead the reader to a false conclusion or two. Continue reading “Plot-Driven Mystery by Arline Chase“

On Murdering Your Darlings

Editing process underway?

We writers are known for killing off characters in creative ways. Wood chippers are a favorite method. (Oh, I’m the only one who does that? Uh…never mind. I’ll just…move that thing back into the garage.) Yet the writing adage “murder your darlings” did not originally refer to killing characters but cutting out unnecessary words. While William Faulkner and Elmore Leonard have been credited with it, the original quote is attributed to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, who wrote:

“Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.”
Continue reading “On Murdering Your Darlings”

Character Creation by Arline Chase

Killraven by Arline ChaseI have seen a number of “character planning sheets” some in courses I have taken and others in courses I have taught, but over the years found they all needed a bit of a refocus, to refine motivation as to why the character acts as he or she does.

This is the list of questions I came up with for my own character work sheets.

Who IS Your Character?

Plot should come out of character, evolving naturally from each character’s beliefs and desires. To understand your characters’ feelings, take a look at the events that shaped their lives. Look first at the character’s emotional life, then at world events they may have experienced. Continue reading “Character Creation by Arline Chase”

Building Character

My writing is very character based. Character development is more important to me than any other aspect of writing…commas included. Now, to be fair, this is the way I have always written. I don’t know why. Psychology is far more interesting to me than crazy plot twists or unicorns. My novel, Joe Café, has been described many ways. People ask me what it’s about frequently, and I can never find a good answer. It’s about people. Sure, there’s a plot and murder and sex and fishing and fist-fights, but it’s really just about people. People who happen to do stuff. Interesting stuff.

Continue reading “Building Character”