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Mystery author Faye Tollison is my guest today. Faye is the author of To Tell the Truth and the soon-to-be-released The Bible Murder.
There are many ways
to lay out your murder, but I have two that I particularly like to use. They
work for me; and as writers, we do tend to like what works.
If you have a murder
scene that moves quickly, it would best serve that scene if you build up the
scenes prior to it slowly, increasing the suspense and the pace as you get closer
and reaching the peak at the moment of murder. The idea is to stretch it out
and keep your reader on edge and then moving the actual murder quickly.
The method I used in
To Tell the Truth was to build up the
scenes prior to the murder scene quickly and then lengthen the actual murder
scene slowly, building the suspense up to the climatic moment. When Ken (the
antagonist) pulled the gun on Anna (the protagonist), I made the scene go
fairly slow to give the reader a sense of the emotion he was feeling. Then when
Anna was trying to get the gun from him, the scene sped up, and it moved
quickly. But when Anna finally got the gun in her hands, I slowed things down
to a very slow pace. Anna needed that time to think about what she was doing. I
had her become somewhat mesmerized by the drop of blood rolling down to his
upper lip as he pleaded with her; and then the drop of blood stopped and just
sat there, not moving any further, building the suspense as the reader waited,
possibly even hoping, for her to pull the trigger. Then things began to move
fast as John (the cop) moved to stop her from shooting Ken and the gun goes
off, Ken falling to his knees and then to the floor.
As you notice, I
wrote the scene in a crescendo of slow, fast, slow, and then fast pacing. This
method will keep your readers interested and wanting more. Tease them, then
back away, and then tease them some more until you reach that moment of murder.
Do not give it to them too fast or too slow but in waves of both.
Whether you are
writing a mystery or a suspense story, suspense is the key to your murder
scene. Even though there are other means of building suspense, pacing still
plays a major part in it.
Faye
M. Tollison
Author
of: To Tell the Truth
Upcoming
books: The Bible Murder
Sarah’s
Secret
Member
of: Sisters in Crime
Writers on the Move
Books in Sync
_______________________
To Tell the Truth
Anna Kacey had faced
many difficult situations in her life and had carried some heavy
responsibilities. When she met Senator Kenneth Levall, her world soared. At
least until it collapsed.
Undercover cop, Detective John Mentz, came
into her life and fell deeply in love with her. He gave her reason to question
her relationship with the senator, who he was investigating for drug
trafficking.
But as strong a woman as Anna was, she had
to dig deep to find the strength to endure what followed: the murder of her sister, the destruction of
her life, and lastly facing a courtroom full of people, a judge, and a jury in
an effort to save the man she really loved. He had confessed to the murder of
the senator in order to protect Anna from being charged with the murder.
It was now time for her to stand up and
tell the truth.
___________________
About Faye
Faye M. Tollison has
been writing since she was a teenager and has loved mysteries for as long as
she can remember. After 27 years in the medical field, she decided to devote
herself to writing her own mystery.
She has written
several articles on writing, which were published in The Quill, a newsletter for the South Carolina Writers Workshop,
and in The Printed Matters, a newsletter for the local
chapter for the SCWW. She also had a short story published in Catfish Stew, an anthology published by the SCWW. As a member of
the SCWW, she wrote numerous critiques, which were also published in the Printed Matters. In May of 2011 Faye
finished and self-published her first novel, which is a romantic suspense. She
is also a member of Sisters In Crime.
Faye lives in the
upstate of South Carolina
9 comments:
Very interesting technique, Faye. I think writers do whatever we can to infuse a scene with suspense. Best of luck with The Bible Murder.
Thanks, Polly. Yes, I think every writer has his/her own techniques, and it's good for young upcoming writers to learn them all in order to come up with their own or use a technique of another writer. I still study styles and techniques of other writers.
:)
Faye
Interesting posting about pacing. I'd forgotten how you paced the scene of the murder (guess I should go back and read the book again - lol). Thanks for having Faye, Ellis.
See you all in the postings - E :)
Elysabeth Eldering
Author of Finally Home, a middle grade/YA paranormal mystery
http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
http://eeldering.weebly.com
Nice post, Faye. Pacing is a hard one to get right. Establishing a rhythm may help me avoid the too-slow parts. I'll have to try it.
Thanks for being here today.
Thanks to all who commented today. I enjoyed being the guest blogger. Be sure to catch an interview of me by Elysabeth Eldering on her blog,
http//:elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
Sorry, I got that website wrong...LOL. It is http://elysabethsstories.blogspot.com
Good post, Faye.
I have never tried pacing but it sounds like an interesting technique to try.
Great post. I think the bottom is to achieve a rhythm so that the scene flows and does not become static. I appreciate the way you've broken it down. I'll try this technique in my WIP. I love the way writers share; we all benefit.
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