The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery

Like Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, Sara Paretsky and Thomas Harris, you, too, can learn the trade secrets of quality detective fiction.

It's true.  Just one year from now, you can deliver a completed mystery novel to a publisher--by writing only on weekends.  Authors Robert J.  Ray and Jack Remick guide you through the entire mystery-writing process, from creating a killer to polishing off the final draft.  Each weekend you'll focus on a specific task--learning the basics of novel-writing, the special demands of mystery-writing, and the secrets professionals use to create stories one scene at a time, building to a shivery, satisfying climax.  Using Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library as a model for the classical mystery tale and Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park for the hard-boiled mystery, this unique step-by-step program gives you all the information you need to reach your ultimate goal: a finished book in just 52 weeks!  

Let two successful masters of the genre show you how...

Discover:

Why you must create your killer first

The tricks to writing dialogue that does it all--moves your plot, involves your reader, and makes your style sizzle

How to "bury" information (and corpses) for your reader to find

Why you should NOT build your book around chapters

Special techniques for clearing writer's block

Plus: examples from Sue Grafton, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Cornwell, Thomas Harris, Raymond Chandler, and more.

Robert J. Ray unlocks the mystery of writing a mystery in this practical, useful guide. Through the use of developmental writing exercises and examples from famous writers of the genre, he divides the writing process into fifty-two weekend work sessions, each beginning with the definition of the task and its purpose, and leading into the exercises that will become the basis of the mystery.

From assembling the elements through character, scene, and plotting, to drafting and editing, and finally marketing the novel to a publisher, "The Weekend Novelist Writes A Mystery" provides all the elements to complete a mystery novel in just fifty-two weekends.

Developmental writing exercises and examples offer 52 weekend work sessions, each beginning with the definition of the task and its purpose, augmented with a writing sample from a famous mystery writer, and leading into the exercises that will become the basis of a novel.

Robert J.  Ray is the author of the writing guide The Weekend Novelist and eight Matt Murdock mysteries, includingMurdock Cracks Ice.  He has taught college literature, writing, and tennis.  He lives in Seattle.

Jack Remick, a writer and teacher, writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.  He has been teaching for twenty years.