There’s a two-part Q&A interview with me up on Chris Well’s Learning Curve blog. Here’s one of the questions…
WHEN CREATING A MYSTERY, DO YOU START WITH THE PUZZLE AND THEN WRAP THE CHARACTERS AROUND IT, OR THE OTHER WAY AROUND?
I
always start with the characters and the obstacles they are facing. I
ask myself what situation can I put these characters in that will
really test who they are? The mystery almost always organically comes
out of that question. If the characters have nothing at stake in the
mystery, if it doesn’t put them in conflict with others and with
themselves, then who is going to care whodunit?
As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously put it, “Action is character.” Good crime writers know this, and most today’s literary writers would do well to write it on a blackboard a hundred times.
I think there should be a Lee Goldberg channel available on DirecTV.
24 hours of Lee.
“All Lee, all the time!”
Can I get an amen?
I also seem to do my best writing in the midnight (and after midnight hours).
But I can always yank pages out of me at any time if I bring my laptop to the local Starbucks.
Great interview and tips!
JR