Mystery vs. Suspense Part 5

Again, I'm looking at Carolyn Wheat's list of 16 differences between mystery and suspense. You can find this list in Wheat's book HOW TO WRITE KILLER FICTION. It's also reprinted in T. Macdonald Skillman's book WRITING THE THRILLER.

Difference number nine: In a mystery, information is withheld. In suspense novels, information is provided.

Mysteries always involve clues. Given all at once, the fun's over. So the good mystery writer withholds the clues and dispenses them one by one over a period of time. Suspects lie. Witnesses flee. Crime labs take time to analyze clues and spit out results. Some clues turn out to be non-clues, or red herrings. Other clues are hidden in plain sight. Eventually, enough clues have been parceled out so the reader and the protagonist can solve the crime.

In suspense, the information is provided to elicit an emotional response. Think of JAWS. The viewer knows the shark is in the water. The viewer knows the young swimmer is clueless about the shark's presence. Providing this information leaves the viewer feeling anxious for the health and well-being of the swimmer.

Another example is the book CARRIE by Stephen King. The reader knows Carrie has the power to avenge her humiliation. We also know that antagonists Chris and Billy are planning to humiliate Carrie at the prom. The information about Carrie's powers, the events leading up to the prom, the prom, and the aftermath are all provided to give the reader a powerful emotional response. That's suspense.

For what it's worth.

-Sonja

Mystery vs. Suspense Part 4

Once again, I'm copying from Carolyn Wheat's list of 16 differences between mystery and suspense. You can find this list in Wheat's book HOW TO WRITE KILLER FICTION. It's also reprinted in T. Macdonald Skillman's book WRITING THE THRILLER. But no matter where you read it from, the list is an excellent resource.

Difference number eight is this: Readers of mysteries are looking for clues. Readers of suspense are expecting surprises.

In a mystery, part of the thrill for the reader is trying to figure out whodunit before the final reveal. Nothing beats the elation of thinking I've solved the crime before the protagonist has. Or the "a-ha" moment when I realize I was cleverly lead astray but have now uncovered the truth. Nothing's worse than getting to the end of a mystery and realizing the author cheated by leaving out a vital clue, and I had absolutely no chance of solving it on my own. The best mystery writers embed all the vital clues into the story so carefully that sometimes they don't look like actual clues. The old hiding-in-plain-sight trick. But no matter how they do it, the reader feels like an amateur detective for that short period of time.

Suspense books might or might not have a mystery involved, but the clues aren't the important part of the journey. It's the surprise. The unexpected. The gibberish-inducing fear. The nervous giggle. The nausea-inspiring, sleep-with-the-light-on-for-three-days terror. The white-knuckled grip on the book and you can't relax enough to put the book down even though it's three a.m. and the kids will demand breakfast at seven. It's the emotional roller coaster you go through every time you pick up a Stephen King or a Michael Crichton or a Robert Ludlum book.

In suspense, it's all in the emotions.

-Sonja

Mystery vs. Suspense Part 3

I'm discussing the differences between mystery and suspense, blatantly stealing content from Carolyn Wheat, as presented in T. Macdonald Skillman's book WRITING THE THRILLER. (Side note: Carolyn Wheat also put her list of 16 differences in her book HOW TO WRITE KILLER FICTION. It's a great resource for anyone's resource library. I just don't have it in front of me at the moment, so I'm copying it out of Skillman's book. Before I get started on today's post, I want to say that I won't be covering all 16 differences in these posts--check out one or both of these books from your local library if you'd like the entire list.)

Number six on Wheat's list is this: The most important action in a mystery takes place offstage. In suspense, the important action happens onstage.

In a mystery, the inciting crime almost never occurs on the pages for the reader to experience first-hand. The crime usually happens before the protagonist steps in to solve it. (Note: In those instances where the reader gets to witness the crime first-hand, we don't know the identity of the killer. That's the puzzle the reader--and the protagonist--are trying to figure out.) In J.D. Robb's mystery NAKED IN DEATH, homicide lieutenant Eve Dallas is called to the scene of the crime. We see it through her eyes: the dead woman shot in her own bed. As the book progresses, we learn (with Dallas) all the details of the crime that took place offstage, before the book began: who, what, where, how, and most importantly, why.

In suspense, the scary stuff happens to the protagonist, and the reader gets to experience all the anticipation, confusion, terror, and nerve-wracking tensions as the protagonist experiences them. In Michael Crichton's book SPHERE, we experience the scientist's terror as they struggle to stay alive in a hostile environment against a powerful and temperamental entity they call Jerry. Our heart races as Beth and Norman try to figure out how to neutralize Jerry and get safely home. (spoiler alert) All our spit dries up when the book ends with Beth's creepy smile.

There will always be overlap in these genres. SPHERE had a mystery to solve. The IN DEATH series almost always puts Lieutenant Eve Dallas in a dangerous situation. But this definition holds: if the main crime took place offstage and there's a puzzle to solve, it's a mystery. If the reader gets to experience the protagonist's emotional state (usually involving terror and dread), it's a suspense.

For what it's worth.

-Sonja

Mystery vs. Suspense Part 2

I'm picking apart the differences between mystery and suspense with the help of T. Macdonald Skillman's book, WRITING THE THRILLER . Today's post will also be aided by Carolyn Wheat, who came up with sixteen differences between the two closely related genres.

Last week I covered the number one difference: mystery is a puzzle, suspense is a nightmare.

Number two, according to Wheat, is this: "Mystery is a power fantasy; we identify with the detective. Suspense is a victim fantasy; we identify with someone at the mercy of others."

This is fairly straight forward, but I'll illustrate it with well-known authors to drive the point home. I'm reading a Harlan Coben mystery right now called BACK SPIN. The protagonist is sports agent Myron Bolitar, who also happens to solve mysteries when they drop in his lap. The book contains elements of suspense--scary things happen to Myron as he's investigating. Bad guys try to beat him up or otherwise scare him off the case. But he sticks with it until he achieves his goal. In this book, the goal is to find the missing teen-ager. I know, for certain, that Myron will survive because there are six more books in this series. The reader identifies with Myron as he follows the clues, interviews people, and talks through the possible scenarios with his friends. We sympathize with Myron as he gains the upper hand and overcomes the bad guys.

Suspense often contain elements of mystery and horror, so it's hard to separate them sometimes, but usually in a suspense, the reader knows whodunit and get to see at least a few scenes from the antagonist's perspective. The bad guy knows that the good guy is closing in, and plans to stop the good guy. Then the reader gets to anticipate the moment when the protagonist walks into the trap.

Or the reader is privvy to some other danger lurking nearby that's unrelated to the antagonist's plans. Sometimes the antagonist has no plan. Think of the movie JAWS. The shark hasn't set out to have bikini-clad girl for lunch. She just showed up at the right time. The viewers know of the danger. The girl does not. The viewers identify with the girl, shouting at the screen, "Get out of the water!"

Consider SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, when the young woman gets dumped into the antagonist's pit. The basket of skin lotion is lowered down to her. She's frightened out of her mind, but she doesn't have a clue (yet) what's in store for her. We do. And we're terrified for her. We feel sympathy for the victim and hope she makes it out okay.

More about mystery and suspense coming next week. Same bat time, same bat channel.

-Sonja

Mystery vs. Suspense Part 1

I checked out a book from the library last week called WRITING THE THRILLER by T. Macdonald Skillman. She started off the book in an interesting place: defining suspense fiction. Suspense (or thriller) fiction is different from a mystery. Sure, some mysteries contains suspense, and some suspense stories contain a mystery. But there are significant differences in the contents, presentation, and overall structure in the two genres. For the next several posts I'd like to explore some of these differences. Today I'll start with the biggest difference.

Skillman says, "The focus of a mystery novel is the puzzle. A crime has been committed. Whodunit? Howdunit? Whydunit?"

As the protagonist (detective, private investigator, amateur) goes about solving the crime, there's usually a strong element of suspense. There are various sorts of danger, both for the protagonist and the other major characters. But Skillman points out that most mysteries today are series books, and in a series, the protagonist rarely dies. Because of this, readers aren't too concerned about the fate of the protagonist. He's bound to live through the book. He might get a good scare, he might get hurt, someone close to him might get hurt, but he's going to make it through to the end of the book alive and ready to take on the next mystery.

Agatha Christie killed off Hercule Poirot, but her publisher refused to release the book until the end of Christie's career. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was force to resurrect Sherlock Holmes after he was killed. But these are exceptions. Fans of Kinsey Milhone, Eve Dallas, and Myron Bolitar expect that the heroes of these books will be solving crimes until the authors themselves are no longer around to write stories. (Rest in peace, Robert Parker ~ We'll all miss Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall.)

If mystery is a puzzle, then suspense is emotional. "It's surprise and confusion and fear and anticipation," says Skillman. "It's danger. Immediate danger. It's worrying about what's going to happen, not about the action taking place at the moment." Skillman goes on to say, "A true suspense novel is a book about characters who find themselves trapped in a series of increasingly frightening incidents that force them to take extraordinary steps to survive."

Mystery engages our mind. Suspense engages our emotions. More on this in the next post. For what it's worth.

-Sonja

I've been publicly critiqued

A group of 14 published mystery/suspense authors run a blog site called The Kill Zone. Last month, they asked readers to submit the first page of their novel for critique by one of the 14. I submitted the first page of my WIP, Cassandra's Curse. Check it out! It's the April 13th post. The reviewer brought up some great points, but the comments left by other authors just tripled the fun for me.

Here's the address: http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/

-Sonja

Weakest Scenes

In my never-ending study of the craft of writing, I came across this tidbit I need to share. I found it in James Scott Bell's book, Revision & Self-Editing. He challenges writers to identify the ten weakest scenes in our current WIP, then follow these instructions:

1. List the scenes in order, making the weakest scene number one, the next weakest number two, and so on.

2. Cut scene number one from the manuscript.

3. Move to scene number two and fix it. Do that by:
a. Identifying the objective in the scene and who holds it
b. Identify the obstacle to that objective
c. Identify the outcome of the scene
d. Intensify the objective, obstacle, and/or outcome somehow (note: he offers ideas on how to do this in the book)

4. Rinse and repeat for the next eight weak scenes.

I'm having a tough time implementing this exercise. How do I identify my weakest scenes? They're all fabulous! Hah. Just kidding. They're aren't all fabulous, but that perfectly illustrates my point: I'm too biased about my work. There are days when ALL the scenes stink. Other days, they're all glorious.

So for identification purposes, I'll need to rely on my critique partners.

Once they've laid it all out for me, on to number 2, cutting the weakest scene. Again, I'm not sure I'll be able to, but I can always save it in another file just in case I figure out a way to fix it or decide I can't live without it.

Since I haven't progressed past number 1 above, I won't be able to comment on how number 3 is going for me, but I challenge YOU, faithful readers/writers, to take this Bell challenge and see how it impacts your WIP. Leave me a comment and let me how it works.

For what it's worth,

-Sonja