Exploring Genre - Crime Mystery

by Donna Fletcher Crow

The Mystery of Writing Mysteries—

Or Why Would an Author Kill Her Characters?

Saint Cuthbert made me do it.

I started out as a romance writer. I wrote wonderful, dreamy stories, historical or contemporary, set in lush locations that I loved researching and then living in in my mind. (Settings have always been one of the most important story elements to me.) I published several books and even won a few awards. Then one day I realized I couldn’t read another romance.

If you can’t read them, you can’t write them. So I concentrated on my lifetime love of English history and wrote a number of historical novels, including my Arthurian epic Glastonbury, The Novel of Christian England, still my best-known work.

Then I met Saint Cuthbert. Not in any mystical sense, but the way I meet most of my characters: researching another project. At Durham Cathedral I heard the story of this soldier-turned-monk who transformed the north of England by his holiness. I knew I wanted to tell his story. But what could I do with a character whose claim to fame was his sanctity?

My greatest challenge in writing had always been plotting. My family knew my struggles so well that when my writing flagged, my young daughter would say, “Mama, you don’t have enough conflict.” I seldom did. I had once mentioned my struggle to an editor who advised, “You need to read thrillers.” He promptly sent me a box of mystery novels he edited. I was hooked.

My love of history took me back to the Golden Age. I devoured Dorothy L. Sayers, Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham and, of course, Agatha Christie. I saw that mystery writing incorporated not only the rich backgrounds and alive characters that I loved, but also kept me involved with that all-important strong story question that must be developed early in the story and solved at the end.

That was it—what I needed for Saint Cuthbert was a story question strong enough to keep the pages turning. I needed to involve my reader with strong characters in interesting settings so they would care enough about what was happening to be willing to read about an ancient saint whose beliefs are still valid for our day and can transform our world as they did his own.

The Monastery Murders were born. I had understood the story question idea from the early days of my writing—I had some great teachers, especially Lee Roddy. But I had never applied the story question principle with blood before. Let’s face it—nothing keeps the pages turning like a dead body.

In this third permutation of my writing career I author three mystery series: The Lord Danvers Investigates, Victorian true-crime mysteries; The Elizabeth and Richard Literary Suspense series; and The Monastery Murders. In each of these I try to develop the rich backgrounds, vital characters and historical elements that have always driven my writing, but now I also concentrate on keeping the story question moving forward to what I hope will be a satisfyingly surprising conclusion.

Once I plant my story question—which may or may not be an explicit query followed by a question mark, but must raise a question in the reader’s mind—I then develop my chapters by focusing on small elements of the over-arching question. A clue or red herring leads my sleuths (in my books, all amateurs) to explorations, evaluations and then a new question to be explored in the next chapter. This is a mystery-writing application of the classic scene and sequel structure which I discovered many years ago in the classic Techniques of the Selling Writer by Dwight V. Swain. I highly recommend it—there’s nothing better for understanding the bones of fiction writing.

This question and answer method, which I first applied to A Very Private Grave, Saint Cuthbert’s story,  has carried me through the writing of  fourteen more mystery novels. I’ve never been bored for a minute—and I hope my readers haven’t either.

Donna Fletcher Crow is passionate about English history and loves telling the stories of the men and women who have shaped the world we live in. She is the author of some 50 books--all available on her website along with pictures from her research trips--something else she is passionate about. Her newest release is A Lethal Spectre, Lord Danvers Investigates 

Genre Trends

by Jeanette O'Hagan

Over the last year (2017), our CWD/ACW posts have explored different genres. We have just scratched the surface and will be looking at more genres in the coming months.  However, last year Ian Acheson suggested we look at current genre trends for 2017.

Why Worry about Genre Trends?

What difference does this make? Some genres tend to be more popular. Romance is generally big, and also thrillers, mystery and crime as well as science fiction and fantasy and children’s picture books. In non-fiction, cookbooks, self-help, biographies might be popular. In recent years, there have growing trends for Young Adult and Graphic Novels. On the other hand, literary fiction may have a more limited, perhaps refined audience whereas poetry – once the Queen of literature – is often hard to sell.

And different sub-genres – Amish or paranormal romance or dystopias or Nordic noir or solar punk - may be all the rage -- often on the back of a popular block buster (Twilight, Hunger Games, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) or ongoing trend (like Amish). Or, perhaps the once favourite genre is already passé.

Of course, trending could mean either what readers buying/reading OR what agents and publishers looking for/accepting. It stands to reason that what readers want and what agents and publishers are looking for are the same thing – but not always. For instance, publishers may choose more literary titles or have particular biases and interests. And there are often big differences between what sells from the big publishing houses compared to the big sellers for Indie authors.

 Knowing which genres are trending may help in choosing or refining our target audience and the genre we write in.  Writing to a popular genre or sub-genre can make a difference to how many readers and royalties we garner. If you have more than one potential project, knowing the trends may help choose which to write next. Or maybe we can tweak what we are already writing to appeal to a specific audience. 

Even so, there is often a niche audience for most sub-genres, even obscure ones. Besides, a trend may be on its way out of a saturated market by the time it takes to write our book and get it published. And predictions are just that – predictions – at best educated guesses based on current trends, at worst just plain wrong.

Besides, there may be good reasons why you don’t want to write a particular genre or sub-genre, no matter how hot it currently is. It’s better to write what you are passionate about, than to slog out a book in a genre you hate because it sells (readers will notice). 

So, what are the trends?

In General

In A D Hurley’s 2017 report on Amazon sells, Romance took 66% of books, with 87% of the top 100 selling slots. Other top-selling genres go to Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Non-Fiction, Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, Children’s, and Literary Fiction, respectively. Whereas, for the Big 5 publishers literary fiction heads the list, then 2. Mystery/Suspense/Thriller, 3. Children’s, 4. Non-Fiction, 5. Science Fiction/Fantasy and 6. Romance.  Small press publishers might have their own preferences and specialities.

Within the broader categories, some subgenres are trending.  Hurley reports (2017) ‘LGBT books have seen a 200% increase, comic books and graphic novels — an 119% bump, and Teen and YA novels are on a 63% rise.’ 

Dena of Batch of Books suggests that YA & Children’s books with diversity (people of colour, disability, woman and LGBT), unique or strong woman characters, humour and ‘love, hope and dreams’ will do well in 2018  Other pundits suggest an increase in mystery books. While some suggest, in contrast to the pessimistic dystopian books, the optimist Solar Punk is making its mark.

Other areas that is growing, according to Lauren Wise, are novellas, anthologies, and co-authoring and book bundles. In part as marketing strategies for authors, but also because shorter fiction is easier to publish as an e-book, and readers often have less time and appreciate shorter reads.

Some of these trends provides a challenge for Christian authors, but also an opportunity.

Christian Books

Non-fiction (Bibles, devotionals, Christian living and biographies) probably dominate the Christian market. How do genre trends translate into Christian Fiction?

USA

Traditionally, in the USA, Christian fiction has been driven by romance, historical and biblical fiction – with a strong emphasis on Amish and bonnet fiction. 

For 2018, Publisher Weekly reports that some suggest Amish is waning, while others feel it is still going strong and that there may be a trend toward romantic suspense. Speculative fiction and mystery have struggled with CBA though there has been a trend for cross-over and edgier fiction with small press – such as Gilead’s acquisition of Enclave and expansive publishing model -- and a move to more realistic fiction that addresses difficult issues with some publishers.  (See also this.)

Australasia

The Australian and New Zealand markets are much smaller, especially in Christian fiction and non-fiction with limited publication opportunities and difficulty competing with big titles from across the Pacific.

Christian readers downunder often favour more realistic, maybe edgier, fiction than the America market. Once again, romance is a major player, though Rhiza Press publishes a range of genres, and Stone Table Books is actively looking for speculative fiction. Perhaps mystery and (non-romantic) thrillers are underrepresented.

The Future

Whatever the trends, God holds the future. And while it’s in some ways harder than it was a few decades ago, there are different opportunities as well. Part of our challenge is to respond the heart cries of the world with the grace and hope of the gospel - whether explicitly or implicitly. 

So over to you – What trends would you predict for 2018? What’s your favourite genre or sub-genre to write or to read? And what’s the strangest genre you’ve come across?

ACW/CWD Cross post.

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Jeanette started spinning tales in the world of Nardva at the age of eight or nine. She enjoys writing secondary world fiction, poetry, blogging and editing. Her Nardvan stories span continents, time and cultures. They involve a mixture of courtly intrigue, adventure, romance and/or shapeshifters and magic users. She has published numerous short stories, poems, two novellas and her debut novel, Akrad's Children. Find her on Facebook or at her webpages Jeanette O'Hagan Writes or Jenny's Thread.