Read Like A Writer

There are two ways to learn how to write fiction: by reading it and by writing it. Yes, you can learn lots about writing stories in workshops, in writing classes and writing groups, at writers' conferences. You can learn technique and process by reading the dozens of books like this one on fiction writing and by reading articles in writers' magazines. But the best teachers of fiction are the great works of fiction themselves. You can learn more about the structure of a short story by reading Anton Chekhov's 'Heartache' than you can in a semester of Creative Writing 101. If you read like a writer, that is, which means you have to read everything twice, at least. When you read a story or novel the first time, just let it happen. Enjoy the journey. When you've finished, you know where the story took you, and now you can go back and reread, and this time notice how the writer reached that destination. Notice the choices he made at each chapter, each sentence, each word. (Every word is a choice.) You see now how the transitions work, how a character gets across a room. All this time you're learning. You loved the central character in the story, and now you can see how the writer presented the character and rendered her worthy of your love and attention. The first reading is creative—you collaborate with the writer in making the story. The second reading is critical.

John Dufresne, from his book, The Lie That Tells A Truth: A Guide to Writing Fiction

Friday, June 2, 2023

The Technique of the Mystery Story by Carolyn Wells (PDF)

The Technique of the Mystery Story

by Carolyn Wells

(eText)

Do you love mystery stories, such as the Sherlock Holmes stories and those of Edgar Allan Poe and Agatha Christie? Do you ever yearn to be a good writer of mysteries, or just like to read them and know about how they're written? Carolyn Wells was a prolific author of mystery novels. In this detailed book, she teaches the history, types, principles, devices, plots, and structures of mystery writings. She gives advice to would-be authors of this genre, including ghost and riddle stories as well as detective and crime mysteries. This is virtually a crash course in creative writing of the mystery story. But also very interesting for readers of crime and mystery, not just writers.

AUTHOR OF "THE CLUE," "A CHAIN OF EVIDENCE," "THE MAXWELL MYSTERY," ETC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

CHAPTER I—THE ETERNAL CURIOUS

1. The Inquisition into the Curious is Universal
2. Early Riddles
3. The Passion for Solving Mysteries

CHAPTER II—THE LITERATURE OF MYSTERY

1. The Rightful Place of the Mystery Story in Fiction
2. The Mystery Story Considered as Art
3. The Claims of Antagonists and Protagonists

CHAPTER III—THE HISTORY OF MYSTERY

1. Ancient Mystery Tales

CHAPTER IV—GHOST STORIES

1. A Working Classification
2. The Ghost Story
3. Famous Ghost Stories
4. The Humorous Ghost Story

CHAPTER V—RIDDLE STORIES

1. Some Notable Riddle Stories
2. The Nature of the Riddle Story and Its Types

CHAPTER VI—DETECTIVE STORIES

1. What Is a Detective Story
2. Rise of the Detective Story
3. The Detective—Fictive and Real
4. Fiction versus Fact
5. The Interest of the Detective Story
6. A Summing Up

CHAPTER VII—THE DETECTIVE

1. The Real Detective and His Work
2. Fictive Detective Material
3. The Transcendent Detective
4. Pioneer Detectives of Fiction
5. Recent Detectives of Fiction
6. The Scientific Detective of Fiction
7. The New Psychology in Detective Stories
8. Other Types

CHAPTER VIII—DEDUCTION

1. Ratiocination in Early Detective Stories
2. Deduction Used in Every-day Life
3. The Analytical Element in the Detective Story
4. Poe's Detective—The Prototype
5. The Detective in the Novel

CHAPTER IX—APPLIED PRINCIPLES

1. The Detectives of Poe, Doyle, and Gaboriau
2. Individuality of these Detectives
3. The Real Sherlock Holmes

CHAPTER X—THE RATIONALE OF RATIOCINATION

1. Sherlock Holmes' Method
2. Lecoq's Method
3. Other Methods
4. Holmes' Method Evaluated
5. The Inductive and the Deductive Methods
6. Two Striking Examples

CHAPTER XI—CLOSE OBSERVATION

1. The Search for Clues
2. The Bizarre in Crime
3. The Value of the Trivial
4. The Tricks of Imitation

CHAPTER XII—OTHER DETECTIVES OF FICTION

1. Some Original Traits
2. Two Unique Detectives

CHAPTER XIII—PORTRAITS

1. Some Early Detective Portraits
2. Some More Modern Portraits
3. Some Less Known Portraits
4. Idiosyncrasies of Fictional Detectives
5. Favorite Phrases of Detectives

CHAPTER XIV—DEVIOUS DEVICES

1. Snow and Rain
2. Some Particularly Hackneyed Devices
3. Devices Which Are Not Plausible

CHAPTER XV—FOOTPRINTS AND FINGERPRINTS

1. The Omnipresence of Footprints
2. Other Miraculous Discoveries
3. Remarkable Deductions from Footprints
4. Fingerprints and Teeth-marks

CHAPTER XVI—MORE DEVICES

1. Tabulated Clues
2. Worn-out Devices
3. The Use of Disguise
4. Other "Properties"

CHAPTER XVII—FAKE DEVICES

1. The "Trace" Fallacy
2. The Destruction of Evidence
3. False Hypotheses
4. Errors of Fact and of Inference
5. The Use of Illustrative Plans
6. The Locked and Barred Room

CHAPTER XV—MURDER IN GENERAL

1. Murder Considered in the Abstract
2. Murder as a Fine Art
3. The Murder Theme
4. The Robbery Theme
5. The Mysterious Disappearance

CHAPTER XIX—PERSONS IN THE STORY

1. The Victim
2. The Criminal
3. Faulty Portrayal of the Criminal
4. The Secondary Detective
5. The Suspects
6. The Heroine and the Element of Romance
7. The Police 8. The Supernumeraries

CHAPTER XX—THE HANDLING OF THE CRIME

CHAPTER XXI—THE MOTIVE

CHAPTER XXII—EVIDENCE

1. The Coroner
2. The Inquest
3. The Witnesses
4. Presentation of the Evidence
5. Circumstantial Evidence
6. Deductions from Evidence
7. Deductions from Clues
8. Evidence by Applied Psychology
9. Direct Observation
10. Exactness of Detail
11. Theories of Evidence

CHAPTER XXIII—STRUCTURE

1. Length
2. The Short-Story and the Novel
3. Singleness of Plot in the Detective Story
4. The Question of Length
5. The Narrator in the Detective Story
6. The Setting

CHAPTER XXIV—PLOTS

1. The Plot is the Story
2. Constructing the Plot
3. Maintaining Suspense
4. Planning the Story
5. The Question of Humor
6. Some Unique Devices

CHAPTER XXV—FURTHER ADVICES

1. The Use of Coincidences
2. The Use of Melodrama
3. Dullness
4. Unique Plots and their Solubility
5. Women as Writers of Detective Stories

CHAPTER XXVI—FINAL ADVICES

1. General Qualities of the Detective Story
2. Correctness
3. Names
4. Titles

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