After my interview with Charlaine Harris, I found out that there’s another way to write mysteries effectively. I always assumed the author would figure out an intricate plot first, and then start writing. But that’s not necessarily always the case.
In my interview with her, Harris revealed that while she has an idea of where she’s going, she often simply goes back and revises portions of her books as she gets deeper into a novel, to make the foreshadowing and clues and false leads all work.
It’s a simple approach, but one that never quite occurred to me; but it’s quite freeing … one doesn’t necessarily need to be Sherlock Holmes to write a Sherlock Holmes story! Instead, the revision process can weed out undesirable story elements like good water filters after the fact. Cool!
No Comments