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Tag: annette young

Writing a Murder Mystery? Get Inside the Mind of the Victim

by Annette J Young

A murder mystery story takes many forms. It requires forethought and careful planning to tie all the threads of an in-depth plot together. Each aspect is important. Many people focus on the murderer but what of the victim? You have to understand their importance within the story too. In my own novel, I decided that the victim would die right at the start of the book, my aim was to create impact and drama hooking the reader from the opening pages. Compassion for the victim and for those who were left behind were built into the story so that the reader could share the sense of disbelief and grief.

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Writing a Novel – Stereotypes and Boundaries

When I started writing my novel Who Killed September Falls, I had the image of my two main characters firmly planted in my mind. I knew that I wanted September to be wildly beautiful but flawed within her own personality and she had to have the perfect foil, Arianne Tawnison who was the loyal friend, the side-kick who recognised her role within the friendship but who gave willingly and gained much as a result.

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Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late

With the sad demise of actor/comedian Rik Mayall recently, it got me thinking about how we conduct our lives and play out our dreams. We think that we have all the time in the world to achieve our goals but the harsh reality is that we don’t. Although it’s easy to see that Rik Mayall more than achieved in his 56 years, many of us don’t and we need to question why.

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Writers – Why You Should Sweat the Small Stuff

As a writer, you have to build up a vivid picture for your reader. You might have a definite plan in your mind, but unless you can transfer those thoughts and paint those images with words, capturing them forever within the plot, your reader will not grasp the story as comprehensively as you would like.

I am lucky where I live in that the Pyrenees Mountains

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Want to Publish? Then Publish Something Good

I have been known to rant a bit, but then I believe passionately in writing and those wonderful feelings of satisfaction achieved after writing and publishing something worthwhile. Being an author is not easy. Your best work is often the result of laboured productivity where you have to wrench experiences from deep within and to share them with the world. You put your heart and soul on the line every single time you have something published. Writing is hard work, you face rejection, you feel the brunt of reader feed-back, you are filled with doubts at times about your own skill-set, oh and the road to making a million is a long and trying one.

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Writing the Murder Mystery – The Power of Emotion and Realism

For those who have not read the book, it starts with the murder of September Falls, so the plot unfolds with her best friend Arianne Tawnison desperate to find out more about the senseless killing so that she can come to terms with it. As with any fatal crime, those that are left behind experience their own sense of hell and Arianne could not move on after the death of her childhood friend. There were too many unanswered questions and a killer still on the loose.

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