Paul Whybrow
Full Member
I was sitting here last night, writing a synopsis for my third Cornish Detective story, mulling over ways to show how unusual my protagonist is when I heard a television commercial for the crime drama series Tin Star.
The voice over narrator quoted a snippet from a newspaper review, which excitedly declared "You've not seen anything like this before."
Feeling somewhat jaded at this point of the creative process of selling my own stories, I thought "Only about a thousand times before. Angry lawman, with a drinking problem, takes on mighty baddies, incurring the mistrust of his family and townsfolk, as he seeks revenge for the death of his son."
Don't get me wrong, I've been enjoying Tin Star, even though it does have one glaring illogicality. See below. *
I glanced back down at my synopsis, then opening a folder containing a biography of my MC Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kettle, I wondered what it was about him that's different from other coppers—and, how I could use that to promote my novels.
I think that readers remember unusual incidents in stories and strong characters with eccentric ways, more than they do well-crafted plots, great dialogue and even the author's name!
There's only so much originality in the world, there's nothing new under the sun, so no doubt my protagonist shares characteristics with other fictional sleuths. All the same, I deliberately went against the grain by making him left-wing, with green beliefs, an interest in art, music and wild gardening and wild swimming. He's a motorcyclist who doesn't ride a respectable BMW tourer, but rather, a Big Bear chopper. He drinks little alcohol, doesn't smoke or gamble, and, up until the fifth story was celibate. Many, too many detectives are womanising gamblers who neglect their health and are frequently whacked out of their gourds on booze and drugs. My protagonist is weird rather than wrecked.
I've also attempted to make my antagonists unusual, if not unique. In the last story, an opium-smoking art dealer, who dresses like a Victorian dandy and who embalms his victims before turning them into statues by encasing them in concrete sounds like he's escaped from Hammer horror film, but that was partly the intention.
Characters with unusual traits have to stay true to themselves. Their logic is different from the reader's, but people are voyeurs and a story is a peep show into another world. They like weird, so why not serve up a few illicit thrills that revolt, delight and stimulate? Especially, if you've devised something that's so unusual, most of your legions of adoring fans
haven't heard of it before. Plot twists, unexpected surprises and wrong-footing the reader arouse their interest. Shock value generates word of mouth publicity...the best marketing tool available—and, it's free!
Have you come up with anything in your stories, that readers won't have seen before?
When reading a book, have you ever come across anything that took your breath away?
The last book that wrong-footed me was Patrick De Witt's French Exit whose plot takes off in such strange, unpredictable directions that I felt dizzy.
* I wrote about plot holes in an old thread and Tin Star has a great one.
For those not familiar with the story, a police chief's infant son is mistakenly shot to death by a gunman who approaches the family car at a petrol station. The killer is wearing a mask, but there's no disguising his diminutive stature...in fact, it's repeatedly referred to.
What makes no sense whatsoever, is that although the gunman works for a troublesome oil company, standing out as the shortest man among the burly workers and the biker gang assisting the underhand dealings, the police chief and his officers don't put two and two together to identify him. He's the littlest guy around—it's obvious he's the gunman. Also, to add to the circumstantial evidence, he's a creepy short-arse, always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I accept that there's a suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy any fictional story, but not a suspension of my intelligence. If I'm reading or watching something, wondering all the time "Why don't they?", "How come he hasn't?," etc, then I lose respect for the writer.
The voice over narrator quoted a snippet from a newspaper review, which excitedly declared "You've not seen anything like this before."
Feeling somewhat jaded at this point of the creative process of selling my own stories, I thought "Only about a thousand times before. Angry lawman, with a drinking problem, takes on mighty baddies, incurring the mistrust of his family and townsfolk, as he seeks revenge for the death of his son."
Don't get me wrong, I've been enjoying Tin Star, even though it does have one glaring illogicality. See below. *
I glanced back down at my synopsis, then opening a folder containing a biography of my MC Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kettle, I wondered what it was about him that's different from other coppers—and, how I could use that to promote my novels.
I think that readers remember unusual incidents in stories and strong characters with eccentric ways, more than they do well-crafted plots, great dialogue and even the author's name!
There's only so much originality in the world, there's nothing new under the sun, so no doubt my protagonist shares characteristics with other fictional sleuths. All the same, I deliberately went against the grain by making him left-wing, with green beliefs, an interest in art, music and wild gardening and wild swimming. He's a motorcyclist who doesn't ride a respectable BMW tourer, but rather, a Big Bear chopper. He drinks little alcohol, doesn't smoke or gamble, and, up until the fifth story was celibate. Many, too many detectives are womanising gamblers who neglect their health and are frequently whacked out of their gourds on booze and drugs. My protagonist is weird rather than wrecked.
I've also attempted to make my antagonists unusual, if not unique. In the last story, an opium-smoking art dealer, who dresses like a Victorian dandy and who embalms his victims before turning them into statues by encasing them in concrete sounds like he's escaped from Hammer horror film, but that was partly the intention.
Characters with unusual traits have to stay true to themselves. Their logic is different from the reader's, but people are voyeurs and a story is a peep show into another world. They like weird, so why not serve up a few illicit thrills that revolt, delight and stimulate? Especially, if you've devised something that's so unusual, most of your legions of adoring fans
haven't heard of it before. Plot twists, unexpected surprises and wrong-footing the reader arouse their interest. Shock value generates word of mouth publicity...the best marketing tool available—and, it's free!Have you come up with anything in your stories, that readers won't have seen before?
When reading a book, have you ever come across anything that took your breath away?
The last book that wrong-footed me was Patrick De Witt's French Exit whose plot takes off in such strange, unpredictable directions that I felt dizzy.
* I wrote about plot holes in an old thread and Tin Star has a great one.
For those not familiar with the story, a police chief's infant son is mistakenly shot to death by a gunman who approaches the family car at a petrol station. The killer is wearing a mask, but there's no disguising his diminutive stature...in fact, it's repeatedly referred to.
What makes no sense whatsoever, is that although the gunman works for a troublesome oil company, standing out as the shortest man among the burly workers and the biker gang assisting the underhand dealings, the police chief and his officers don't put two and two together to identify him. He's the littlest guy around—it's obvious he's the gunman. Also, to add to the circumstantial evidence, he's a creepy short-arse, always in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I accept that there's a suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy any fictional story, but not a suspension of my intelligence. If I'm reading or watching something, wondering all the time "Why don't they?", "How come he hasn't?," etc, then I lose respect for the writer.
