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say, at the conclusion of each dead end, something like: "Well, Walters, we don't know anything more
about Lady Randolph's death now than when we started. But at least we can be certain that Lord Biggie
is not the man we want!" It is acceptable to have your protagonist follow up a few bum leads, for this
gives the story a realistic touch; but the majority of tacks he takes must provide some information, no
matter how minimal, that has a bearing on the solution of the case.
Again, I must stress, these rules and requirements of the form will not be all you need to know to write a
salable mystery novel. As important as knowing what pitfalls to avoid is your familiarity with the writers
who have been successful in the genre. Toward that end, you should have read something by each of
these writers: Ross MacDonald (The Goodbye Look, The Underground Man, The Moving Target, The
Zebra-Striped Hearse, The Ivory Grin), Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None, The A.B.C.
Murders, By the Pricking of My Thumbs, Passenger to Frankfurt), Georges Simenon (any of his Maigret
stories), Evan Hunter (Shotgun, Jigsaw, Killer's Choice, all under the pseudonym Ed McBain), John
Dickson Carr (The Problem of the Green Capsule, The Dead Man's Knock, The Man Who Could Not
Shudder), Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, The Lady in the Lake, The Little Sister, The Long
Goodbye), Nicholas Freeling (Death in Amsterdam, The Dresden Green, Strike Out Where Not
Applicable), Harry Kemelman (Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, Saturday the Rabbi Went Hungry, Sunday
the Rabbi Stayed Home), Cornell Woolrich (The Bride Wore Black, The Black Angel, The Black Curtain,
Deadline at Dawn), Colin Watson (Charity Ends at Home, Coffin Scarcely Used, Lonelyheart 4122) and
Dashiell Hammett (all five of his brilliant novels: Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon,
The Glass Key, and The Thin Man). This is, of course, only the barest of lists, and should be
supplemented with as many other mystery writers' work as you can find and can find time to read.
CHAPTER FIVE Gothic-Romance
In my third year as a freelance writer, the science fiction market temporarily dried up, due to editorial
overstocking at several of the houses with the largest monthly science fiction lists. Since I was selling far
more science fiction than anything else, I was caught in the pinch. I was learning the suspense form, but
had not yet had great success with it, and I was several years away from writing the big, serious novels
I'm now concentrating on. I needed new markets, fast. The previous year, I'd dabbled in erotic novels, as
a sideline, but I did not feel like returning to that category and, besides, it was not flourishing as it once
had. What to do?
For a year, an editor friend had been urging me to try a Gothic novel since the form is perennially one of
the most popular in the paperback field. I declined, principally because I didn't think I could write
believably from a woman's viewpoint, but also because I simply did not like Gothic novels. I felt they
were so formulized as to be mirror images of one another, and I didn't see how I could write in a field for
which I had no respect. When the science fiction market remained tight, however, I finally tried my hand
at a Gothic. I finished the book in two weeks, attached a female by-line (half the Gothics published today
are written by men, but the by-line must always be female), and mailed it off. The editor read it, made a
few suggestions, and bought it for $1,500. That's $750 a week; not a fortune, but a pleasant enough
income to make it worth most any genre writer's time.
Three months later, I wrote my second Gothic, again in two weeks, and received a $1,750 advance. My
third Gothic, a few months later, took me one week from first page to last and earned another $1,750
check. Within a single year, taking only five weeks away from my serious work, I made $5,000 from my
Gothics, enough to relieve immediate financial problems and let me get on with my more important
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work.
Herein lies the great advantage of writing category fiction. Financial worries are the most common
causes of writers' blocks. If a writer cannot pay his bills, he usually cannot create. He either has to take a
second job or a part-time job (if he is already a full-time freelancer) until his bills are paid and the tension
relieved or he must set aside his serious work and write something that will turn a fast dollar. Since he
can probably earn more money, more quickly, by writing a Gothic than by working as a clerk, he is
foolish not to take advantage of his talents. I know of writers who say they will not "prostitute" their
talent by writing anything just for money. When they get desperate to meet the bills, they take a job for
five or six months until they're financially solvent again, then launch into full-time freelancing once
more. So far as I can see, they are doing worse than prostituting their talent; they are denying it
altogether for unnecessarily long periods of time. In four weeks of Gothic writing, they could earn more
money than they do in six months of office work, and be back at their serious creation five months
sooner. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]