I was going through my saved emails yesterday and ran across this post to the SMFS list from Kevin Burton Smith back in 2008. Kevin is the editor of The Thrilling Detective web site http://www.thrillingdetective.com (A must read for mystery and PI fans. As a matter of fact, the June issue is up.) Kevin gives us some great advice on how to write a PI story.
"My gripe with the typical P.I. in his office beginning is not that it's not effective (it can be), but it's been done so often and rarely gives us any info we couldn't just as easily pick up later.I understand the appeal. It's a good way to get your footing before plunging into the story, a nice, safe formal starting place.
And yes, even now, some writers can make it work every time. Robert Parker's Spenser's openings are a case in point: often it's just him and a doughnut, having a battle of wits while observing the Boston weather and changing cityscape, waiting for a customer, and they're some of the best in the biz.But too many writers just retread where everyone else has gone before. And usually better.
So, if it doesn't add to the story, or feature some distinctive or fresh bit of business, why bother?Cut to the chase and start with a stakeout or a door being kicked in or whatever, and fill us in on what we need to know as we need to know it.
In fact, in a short story, we don't even need to know everything. Or show everything. Sometimes a brief "telling" is more engaging than a lengthy "showing." (The "show not tell" rule is generally a good one, but don't think there aren't exceptions).
Sometimes formal, linear storytelling can be amazing effective (THE GREAT ESCAPE is still one of my all-time favourite examples of that) but a P.I. mystery or a crime story -- where much is necessarily unknown until the very end -- doesn't have to follow such a strict formal pattern.
And going to the extremes, would PULP FICTION or MEMENTO or even Kubrick's early masterpiece THE KILLING have worked as well told in straight linear fashion?Nope.So don't be afraid to muck around a little. Handled well, a few scenes, told clearly out of sequence, can be amazingly effective.
Fire up your literary DeLoreans. Just make sure you've got enough gas in the tank to make it home..."
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