Use Micro-Tension to Build Reader Anticipation
Tension is key to narrative drive, the element that keeps readers turning pages. If you're writing a mystery novel, you might think that your...
Hide Your Villain Behind the Green Herring
Of course, mystery writers are familiar with the concept of a red herring - a clue that is really a misdirection, distracting the reader...
10 Films That Teach You Everything You Need to Know About...
In a post on The Script Lab, David Young picks out 10 films he believes will teach you everything you need to know about...
Do You Really Really Know Your Villain?
In a post on the SFWA blog, writer Michael Moore (not that one), says that SF writers can create stronger villains by thinking like...
Use Cultural Taboos to Add Depth and Detail to Your Historical...
In a long article for Lit Hub, Aimee Parkison shares how researching cultural taboos, particularly customs that forbid women from participating in certain behaviors,...
Use Character to Get Under Your Readers’ Skins
There's a lot more to horror than simply creating a monster or scheduling a few jump scares. The greatest horror hits your audience in...
Noir and SF: A Complimentary Pairing
Classic examples of SF/mystery mashups include Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and its resulting film adaptation, Bladerunner, as well as...
Paula Hawkins: Mysteries Can Be More Than Black and White
Some of our favorite novels have ambiguous endings, or fail to wrap up events in the tidiest manner. Tana French's debut novel, In the...
Sherlock Holmes: The Perfect Hero for Patische
Patische (n): An artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.
Now that we've got that out of the...
Curtains!: The Link Between Theater and Mystery
Some of our favorite mysteries are set in the theatrical world and murder is frequently a topic of playwrights. What's the connection? In an...
