In a post on the Killzone blog, PJ Parrish shares four mistakes he made that doomed his mystery novel. “So pay attention, crime dogs. Don’t let any of these mistakes happen to you.”
Parrish’s mistakes included:
- Introducing Too Many Characters Too Soon. “Don’t flood your stage in the opening moments of act 1,” Parrish says. “It confuses the reader, makes them feel stupid, like they need a family tree. Give your reader a couple characters to digest at most.”
- Nothing Happens. “Get your characters UP AND DOING in the opening moments,” Parrish writes. “The thinking, remembering, musing, pondering, reflecting…save it for later.”
- Larding In Backstory. Reveal your backstory when it’s necessary, not in the opening paragraphs.
- Don’t Take The Weapon Out Of Your Hero’s Hand. In the first draft of Thicker Than Water, the detective solves the mystery but is unable to bring the culprit in a cold-case murder to justice. In the second draft, the detective has the evidence to bring charges, but the ending still felt lifeless. In the end, Parrish let her detective beat the crap out of the villain, providing an emotional catharsis for the 300 pages of build-up. “Never let your hero fall into passivity,” Parrish writes. “You don’t have to do what we did, but always look for opportunities in your plot to make your protag sound clever, find a special clue, make a vital connection or, literally use the weapon.”
