#6 Pop-Up... Writing Mysteries into the Dark

The Pop-Up Format.

Over the last number of years, topics and fun things had come up that Kris and I wanted to talk about, but we had had no structure to do so. But now we do with these Pop-Ups.

These Pop-Up topics will just appear when something strikes us. No regular order or timing, but we hope to do more than one per month at least. In fact, the first three will all appear in the next two weeks.

Each Pop-Up will consist of from 10 to 15 videos on the topic. Maybe some extra stuff if the topic needs extra. And then one short story assignment.

The Short Story Assignment

Each Pop-Up will also have a short story assignment to a specific topic associated with the Pop-Up. If you decide to write the short story, send it to Dean at [email protected]

Instructions for each will be in the assignment video.

Dean or Kris will read your story and give you feedback as soon as they can.

We will suggest markets if we know of any. Also, if the story fits something either of us are editing at that moment and we like it, we might ask for you to send it back for that project. To send it back or not will be your choice. You are not submitting a story to anything by sending the story to us for feedback. You are just getting us to read it like a first reader. Only we are experienced editors.

Why would we do this? Because, honestly, we love reading short fiction and we would love to see what writers could do with some of these topics at hand.

Pop-Up #6... The Art of Writing Mystery Novels into the Dark

The belief, the myth, is that to write a mystery novel, you must outline ahead, figure out the crime, the solution, and all the details. And that myth scares most writers from trying mystery novels, even though they love to read them. The reality is that mystery novels are better, more gripping, more exiting, and usually more complex when written into the dark.

So Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Kris Nelscott) and I want to help you understand how to write complex, detailed mystery novels without an outline and without fear. Both of us write a lot of mystery novels and Kris under her two mystery names has won many awards, including the Ellery Queen Award numbers of times. Plus she has been nominated for the Edgar Award under both of her names, once the same year. She writers into the dark with her mystery novels.

So this Pop-Up is to help show you to the path to writing complex mystery novels without the stress and fear and time lost in outlining and planning.

And yes, there will be a really fun short story assignment with this one.