Building a Mystery: Writing For Intrigue (2)

I was introduced to Harlequin through the Intrigue line. I saw a woman in the market pick up three without even reading the back cover and I though, those books must be good. So I picked out one and was sold. I've since branched out to try different lines, but I still love an intrigue/suspense. I think part of the satisfaction is the fast pace, the danger, and how the H/h are forced under pressure to realize how much they mean to each other.

But writing intrigue/suspense is another story (pun intended). I've written several novels (haven't submitted yet) and some have intrigue in the external conflict, but I haven't been able to write the genre. I really admire how the authors do it.

I think that's a great idea for a discussion, Mallory, because... you guys all know that there's an Intrigue Pitch Contest coming up in October, right?

The weeks leading upto that would be a great time to pick our brains and finetune that Intrigue story and pitch idea before you submit it to the editor.

Just saying...

Besides, Intrigue authors love talking about writing Intrigue books.

Julie Miller

Right Julie. Intrigue authors do love talking about writing Intrigues. I'm blogging today on the eHarlequin Intrigue Authors Blog about what inspires me. And what inspires me is body parts.    Nice body parts, like forearms and wrists and bare feet and hands ... Mmmm!

Check out the blog and see what makes me want to write. Yep. I've put up a few pictures over there. 

Here's the url.
http://community.eharlequin.com/content/harlequin-intrigue-group-author-...

Enjoy!

Mallory

I definitely write them together, though I may go back as I'm editing to intensify either the romance and/or the suspense.

That's one of the key elements that makes an Intrigue and Intrigue, I think--that the romance/relationship and suspense/mystery/action/danger are interconnected with each other.  The easiest analogy I've been able to come up with is to say your left hand is the romance and your right hand is the suspense--now put your hands together, lace your fingers together, and that's what an Intrigue should be like.

Another way I think of it is if you can take out the suspense elements and still have a complete romance story, then it's not an Intrigue.  And vice versa, if you can take out the romance and have a complete suspense plot, then it's not an Intrigue. So, it makes sense to me to plot the two elements of the storyline together.

When I'm plotting, I think, too, of how the two main characters must have a personal stake in the suspense part of the story--a woman searching for her child/honoring a parent's wish/concerned for a friend or sibling's safety/having an unwanted (aka stalker) suitor/etc., a man protecting his family/town/woman/child, etc. , and so on.  That suspense conflict must be personalized, so that it helps drive both the suspense AND the romance.

For example.. the heroine has a beloved boss who is a mentor to her--when he begins acting strangely and drops hints to her that something is terribly wrong at the company where they work, and then he turns up murdered--she gets involved in trying to figure out why he was killed because SHE was the one he tried to confide in,so she feels responsible for not picking up all the signs that he needed help sooner.  And when her boss is being made out to be the bad guy, then she gets even more invovled (putting her in the sights of some very dangerous, desperate people) out of a strong sense of loyalty to prove his innocence.  When said mysterious bad guys attack her, looking for evidence her late boss left her, she turns to her next door neighbor--a big bruiser of a man who just happens to be a cop.  When murders he's investigating seem to link to the murder of her boss, he becomes involved professionally, and now they're working together because she may have info he needs to crack the case.  But the danger around her is mounting, so he needs to not just do the good neighbor thing, but step up to protect his witness.  The romance and suspense continue to be interconnected and grow as all that time together investigating and serving as her self-appointed bodyguard lead to tense and tender moments that expose their feelings for each other.  That's a quick rundown (and a teaser of my December Intrigue, BEAUTY AND THE BADGE ) of how I plot an Intrigue.

Does that make sense?

I'm sure Mallory and others will have some answers for you, too.

Julie Miller

Hi ChrissieSue,

The subject indicates the 'age-old' Intrigue question. Which came first, the mystery/suspense or the romance. I agree with Julie 100%. For me they are hopelessly intertwined. Even when I try to write straight romance, a mystery or a suspense plot always shows up. I used to drive my critique group crazy! 

If there is a 'secret' to writing for Intrigue it's that you can't just have a mystery with some love story thrown in, or a romance with a little mystery added. For Intrigues, neither part can exist without the other. The mystery is the reason the hero and heroine are together. And the relationship between the hero and heroine is the reason for the mystery.

Pardon me for using my books as examples, but I know them best. 

In my Black Hills Brotherhood  trilogy, starting in September, three young boys' lives were forever changed when they were saved from certain death on a mountainside in a storm by a hero who died saving them. They grew up vowing to pay back that heroism by rescuing the innocent. Now they're in a battle to save the free world from an internationally infamous terrorist.

In His Best Friend's Baby, (Sep 09) the child of Matt's best friend's widow has been kidnapped--in order to lure Matt into a trap.With literally the fate of the free world at stake, he must save Aimee and her baby before time runs out.

In The Sharpshooter's Secret Son, (Oct 09) the terrorist failed to capture Matt, so he abducts Deke's ex-wife, hoping to use her to trap Deke. When Deke finds out Mindy is pregnant with his child, the urgency doubles. He's got to save her while eluding the terrorists who want to kill him.

In the final book, The Colonel's Widow?, (Nov 09) Irina Castle's husband was assassinated two years ago by, it was assumed, the most infamous terrorist on the planet. But now the terrorist is targeting the people closest to Irina. Then Irina becomes the target, and is hidden away by a mysterious man who turns out to be her dead husband. Irina and Rook must battle their own conflicted feelings as they battle the terrorist who is bent on destroying the free world.

I don't know if  those blurbs make the point, but the idea is that the hero and heroine are in the situation because of their relationship. And without the situation, they may have never fallen in love (or back in love as the case may be.)

I can't tell you exactly how to mix the mystery and the romance successfully, but I can tell you that it's loads of fun, and very satisfying when it all comes together!

Good luck, and please. Ask any other questions. Intrigue authors love talking about writing Intrigues!

Mallory

ChrissieSue--different authors will respond to your question differently, as we all have unique styles of working.

For me, I don't usually go out and say, "I want to write a book about Kansas City cops," and then get online or whatever to specifically research a book.

I tend to work in the opposite direction.  I'm a lifelong learner--love to attend workshops, meet with experts in different fields, read non-fiction books and articles, travel, etc.   As I'm absorbing new information from my life experiences and educational growth, new story ideas get triggered in my imagination.  So, I guess you could say it's the research that gives me story ideas and background, rather than vice versa.

One reason I write so much about Kansas City is because I used to live there, and I still have family in the area, so I visit often.  I've picked up a lot of firsthand knowledge about the city, its people and its history that way.

If a particular question comes up as I'm writing (like the caliber of bullet a certain gun would use, or is it plausible to have a flooded river in a certain area of the country, etc.), I have reference books on hand to look up details (Writer's Digest HOWDUNIT series are my favorites--very user friendly, written by experts, but in layman's terms), or I'll go online to favorite sites (Ask.com is a good place to start) or just Google it.

My two favorite types of research are to a) visit the specific place I want to write about and absorb the history, folklore, famous details, culture, people--then take pix, write notes, or file info away in my brain to pull out later (a previous trip through the 4 Corners area of the US, and reviewing some pix/info from the trip helped me plot my June Intrigue, PULLING THE TRIGGER--re-reading the Legend of Ute Mountain especially gave me some story ideas), or b) make friends and contacts with a variety of experts.  In my other life as a teacher, for example, I work with a program called IMPROV, where we host camps for at-risk teens, and use a variety of theater and communication techniques to help them learn about and deal with or cope with issues important to them.  It's an organization that involves people from several walks of life--teachers, counselors, business people, prison social workers, cops, state police, DEA agents, trauma nurses, nutritionists, etc.  Many of those people have become good friends, and they all enjoy talking about their work and answering my questions when I have them.

Plus, there are people just in regular life who are great information sources.  You may be surprised what interesting things you can learn, just by listening to folks. 

Julie Miller

I read an announcement on the home page from Rae that the Intrigue Pitch Contest has been moved to November so that SRS can do a pitch contest in October.  I asked the ptb to confirm the dates for us as I know some folks here are planning on pitching their stories.

We'll keep you posted.

Julie Miller

Yay! On the move to November. I just started my Intrigue and that gives me plenty of time.

Maybe I shouldn't speak for Wayne, but I feel sure you can ask your 'intriguey' question here. Intrigue folks always love to talk about Intrigue (R) and intrigue. 

So ask away, and maybe someone will have just the answer you need.

Mallory

I'll jump in with a few thoughts on your plot.

The big thing I
see is how is your quadriplegic villain going to kidnap anyone or rig
himself with explosives, etc.?  It's certainly an intriguing motive for
a bad guy--punishing the man he blames by forcing him to commit murder, torturing him by going after his son, but he's going to need to have a
henchman/buddy/associate/gun for hire who helps him commit these
crimes.  Otherwise, it won't be plausible, imo.  And, that henchman would have to have a compelling reason to do the dirty work for him.

Another question I have is how does the heroine come into this?  Is she the hero's estranged wife?  The villain's nurse?  For a romantic suspense, she'd need to be integral to the plot.  Her developing relationship with the hero/or redeveloping relationship is where the "romantic" part of RS comes in--that relationship would be what motivates the hero to rescue her from the villain when he puts her in danger.  They can't start as a happy couple unless you're writing a straight suspense story.  Does that make sense?  The developing relationship is as important as the suspense elements--otherwise, it sounds like it's the villain's story--his journey from hero to invalid to villain--and that could be an interesting story, but not a romance.

Plausibility is all about creating believable motivation.  I would think you'd need to have a really compelling motivation for the hero to risk murdering a helpless man--otherwise, he won't seem terribly heroic.

I can see something like the disabled villain pretending to be hurt worse than he is, laying a guilt trip on the heroine (his divorced wife) to stay with him.  Even if he's paraplegic, he could get around well enough to drive vehicles, build bombs, kidnap someone at gunpoint, etc.  Maybe the heroine had divorced him prior to the war because he was a jerk, abusive, philandering, etc.   The hero may have even rescued her once or twice, and their friendship is deepening into real love, but when the villain sees he's losing what's his to the man he blames for his injuries/survival/shame/etc., then he wants to take and destroy what he cares about.  Of course, that changes your setup.

Just some thoughts.  Maybe working on a clear motivation for the H/h/v will help you get the answers you're looking for to make your story elements more plausible.

Good luck with the story.

Julie Miller

Thanks for moving the thread where I can find it!

My Intrigue is coming along, I got a really good idea in the middle of the night about a character and had to run into the living room and write it down so I wouldn't forget! One of mt teen age daughters was still up playing a computer game and she gave me that crazy mom look. Haha.

I can't read apparently.  Or maybe I'm just blind.

I missed your asking if I had an Intrigue to pitch.  I do.  It isn't finished (2 1/2 chapters to go plus a good old polish), but hopefully I can get it done in time.  I've been at this particular MS for ages now, but unfortunately life doesn't give me much free time.  I work a full-time job which requires me to do alot of independent study, coach all star cheerleading and 2 nights a week, and have a 2 year old.  Lately, I've been too worn out to write.  Some nights I think I'm just tired-stupid. 

Anyways, I do have a plan.  I want to finish the chapters by the end of this month and use Sept and Oct to polish.  I had my first chapter critiqued by a Super author who I became online friends with and she said it was better than most newbies, so who knows.  I'm sure it's gonna take a whole lot of polish though.  And now I have to work out this whole synopsis thing.  I had a blurb prepared just in case, but I think it may be a little longer than your typical logline.  Any advice (or if you would be interested in reading a bit) is always appreciated.

Where is everyone getting the info about this pitch from?  I've been searching the forums, but I can't find anything.

K

Thanks for all the great ideas. And for sharing the bit about your 'unsold' MS's villain. I'm ready to shake things up and make some major changes. This gives me a lot of options to try. 

Regarding your unsold MS. I've often wondered if published authors ever go back to their early 'learning/unsold' MSs and rework them for submission? Or perhaps there are too many new ideas waiting to be written?  

Julie - What exciting news.  25 years, huh.  I think Intrigue is as refreshing now as it was when it was first published.  Off to the site!

Aaack!  I just got a call from my webmistress that says there's a
mistake in the link on my website to enter my Summer Book GiveAway
contest.  She's in the process of fixing the link today.

However,
if you already entered the contest and did NOT receive a confirmation
email from me, thanking you for the entry, then please resend your
entry to sjmiller87@charter.net.

Otherwise, I'm afraid your entry has gone out into cyberspace and is floating around somewhere.

Thanks!  I apologize for the inconvenience.

Julie Miller

kstephenson--Here's the link for info on the Editor Pitches: http://community.eharlequin.com/content/upcoming-editor-pitches .  Although there isn't any activity going on right now,  I'm assuming more info will show up closer to pitch times.  But you can bookmark it as a favourite to get the announcements in a timely manner.

Good luck with your story--sounds like you've got a good, reasonable schedule for finishing and polishing it.  I understand about life being crazy and getting in the way of writing.  I think that's a lesson many published authors have to learn--we might think there's some magic that's going to happen once we sell, and suddenly we'll have all the time in the world to craft our books.  But no, we're still dealing with the real world and fatigue and committments and conflicts, too.    So learning time management now, knowing what all you have to work around, and still being committed to getting that story done by a self-imposed deadline is admirable.  And invaluable!

Julie Miller

 you all haven't seen it yet, there's a forum started with Patricia Rosemoor

 "Suspense & Romance" 

http://community.eharlequin.com/forums/write-stuff/suspense-romance-patricia-rosemoor 

sorry, can't seem to make a link.  

Hi everyone,

I've read several recent Harlequin Intrigue and Silhouette Romantic Suspense books. I've looked at the message threads, the writing guidelines and excerpts from currently available books, but can't decided if my story would fit either of those lines.

Is this the appropriate place to ask? If so, I'd like to post a brief overview and see what you all think.

Thanks in advance!

LibbyBeth 

Julie, 

Thank you so much for the link to the upcoming editor pitches. I appreciate it. I also appreciate that you took the time to answer my question. I know you are a busy lady.

By the way, I love "Baby Jane Doe" and "Beast in the Tower." I lived in the Kansas City area for many years and enjoy reading stories set in a familiar location.

The story I'm working on is also set in Kansas City. I've always read that one should write what one knows, so I based my story loosely on a place I used to work.

Here is a brief overview:

The heroine is the buyer for her family's home accessory store. Her father has decided to expand the business and has hired a second buyer (the hero). The heroine will train the new buyer and help him get the new department set up.

The heroine and hero have issues about the opposite sex. The heroine has a boyfriend who is pressuring her to get married. She's dragging her feet. The hero was dumped by a woman he loved and planned to marry. She and the hero worked for the same company, though in different departments. He vows to avoid relationships with women, especially co-workers. 

The heroine discovers that inventory has disappeared. At first, she thinks she's made mistakes, but soon suspects that someone is stealing from the company. In order to investigate her suspicions, she needs the hero's help. There is too much inventory and too much paperwork for one person to investigate alone. She can't reveal her suspicions to anyone because the thief has to be an employee. Since the hero is new and has no ties to anyone in the company, the heroine has to trust him. They have to work together, so they spend a great deal of time together (and, of course, feel attracted to each other and act on the attraction).

The thief begins to suspect that the heroine and hero have discovered the thefts because of the amount of time she and the hero spend in the warehouses. He will do anything to prevent them from discovering the truth...arranging accidents to put them out of commission for a time and cause them to abandon the investigation. When the accidents fail to dissuade them, the thief decides to kill both the hero and heroine. The thief not only needs the money he makes from selling the stolen merchandise, he also wants to punish the owner for refusing to promote him to the position he wants. 

Of course, the hero and heroine discover the truth, defeat the thief, and reveal their love for each other.

I guess that wasn't so brief.

I think I have both the suspense and the romance. What do you all think?

Thanks so much for your input! I appreciate it greatly!

LibbyBeth 

LibbyBeth--I think Kansas City is a great setting.   And you're right, having some of what you know in a story can give it a real sense of authenticity for the reader.

It sounds like you've got a good setup for a romantic suspense story here.  I like the idea of building from a crime where no one gets hurt to a crime that is intensely personal.  My only caution--and I know it's hard to consolidate an entire story into a few short paragraphs, so maybe I'm misreadng it--is that you have a lot of backstory here.  A lot of setup.  If you ARE targeting Intrigue, just make sure you get to the suspense elements early in your story (first page/pages, certainly the first chapter) and keep the pacing quick and building in intensity.  Filter in the background of the H/h as you go along, and don't try to get this all in at the beginning of your story.  Like I said, you may have it set up that way in your story, but your blurb here doesn't reflect that.  If you are entering the Pitch Contest, you might want to play with writing short, one-page synopses that are more like back cover blurbs (except with the ending resolution included)--focus more on the hooks of your story and what the danger/suspense elements will be, and less on the background.  A writing exercise to try is to try to express your hero--who he is, enough background to get a sense of his inner conflict, etc.--in one sentence.  Do the same for your heroine and villain.

That exercise is great for writing synopses and blurbs, but it also gives you an idea of what we're talking about when we say "tight writing" or "fast paced".

Just some thoughts,

Julie Miller