Writing a Mystery

I'm writing a mystery for NaNoWriMo. Which means I probably won't win this time around. Getting my 50,000 words done by 11/30, that is.

That's okay. I've "won" twice before and both of those manuscripts are still sitting on my computer.

This time around I want a workable first draft.

And, since I've never written a mystery before, the learning curve is steep.

I've read mysteries, of course, but writing one is a whole 'nother matter.

But guess what? It's proving quite fun. I'm doing reserach on crime scenes, detective work, evidence collection, how to write red herrings, that sort of thing, and it's really fascinating stuff. And I'm having a lot of fun putting together my cast of sleuth, love interest, murderer, victim, supsects, etc.

Hmm, actually, my novel is not really a hard-core mystery. It's more a romantic mystery as the emphasis is on the heroine-sleuth and her love interest, but there are dead bodies, and innocent suspects and guilty suspects and sex and religion and politics and more sex and, well, I'm having a ball writing it!

CourtTV will start a new season of Murder by the Book on Monday. It's a show where top-selling mystery writers give their takes on true-life crimes.

I should say that I still love paranormals, fantasy and sci-fi and the ideas for my next two novels are along those lines. But I wanted to give a go at writing a mystery and, so far, it's been fun.

Ciao!