Today I was presented with an interesting question from a very very new writer. She wants to write a mystery book, but has very little idea of what she wants in her book other than a couple of key ideas. She doesn’t have any plot line outlined. She does have some idea of the character she wants to have and knows that the character had adventures in her past and had a troubled youth, because of an abusive parent. Other than that not much else has been created. So she asked me how she can start on writing her book.

Since there is so much that has not yet been determined from her point of view on her book, I thought it would be important to find out what she likes to read. Because authors like to write what they like to read, I want to see what her preferred genre was. I discovered she likes mystery and that she wants her main female character to solve some mystery. As to what the mystery is going to be about, that has not yet determined. So for baby step one, I thought it was important for her to discover why she likes mysteries.

So I gave her a couple of assignments that I think will help her to define what she likes about mysteries and in turn might want to insert into her own fiction. I suggested the following:

One: Come up with your three favorite mystery books.

Two: For each of these three mystery books determined for your favorite character is. Determine why you like this character. I would like you to give some traits about the character. In our conversation, I talked about the traits of Sherlock Holmes.

Three: From each of these three books I would you like you to select three scenes that are your favorite scenes. It might be a scene where the character has to face the villain. It could be an action scene where the character is doing something very dangerous. Maybe it is where the character makes an important discovery. It might be a scene that is an emotional moment in the character’s life. I gave an example of the scene where Sherlock Holmes returns from the dead and faces Watson. I like the scene where Watson passes out from surprise of facing a friend he thought was dead. To me that depicted their friendship well.

Four: Think about your book and come up with the big mystery that your character must face? We discussed some possibilities.

In our conversation, she’d already determined that she wanted her character to solve a mystery involving her family or home life.

I am having this new author answer these questions for the following reasons: First of all I think this new author. What are the elements of mystery books that she likes to read about. Does she like the process of elimination of clues that will help the reader discover the mystery? Does she like the sense of danger that is present in the mystery or maybe the action that often happens in mysteries? Does she value certain traits of a character that makes a mystery so entertaining?

With her answering the questions of her three favorite books and determining why she likes the characters and what the favorite scenes are of those mysteries, I hope this will help her determine what she likes. As she understands what she likes and why she likes it, she might have a better grasp of what to put in her own story. That way she can write a story that will be satisfying to her as a reader, and she performs the task of being a writer.

I think the series of questions will be a good path of self-discovery. I hope they will be of use to her. Usually I devote writing and storytelling and creativity topics to my Wednesday blog of Rock Soup, but as this conversation took place today. I thought it would be a good useful topic for my Goulash blog, which of course is a catchall of everything.

If you were to give advice to a brand-new author who wants to write a book, but here she does not yet have any plot or where to start, what would be the advice that you would want to give that author. I gave the advice I gave, because I didn’t want this new author to feel too intimidated by the task of writing a book?

Please give your advice to a brand-new author in the comment section of this blog. If you would prefer, tell why you like the genre you like to read. Thanks.