by James Scott Bell
@jamesscottbell
The best selling novelist of all time is Agatha Christie. With estimated sales of between two and four billion, she is miles ahead of #2 (guess who it is…I’ll reveal the answer at the end of this post.*)
Dame Agatha, of course, was the queen of the puzzle mystery—i.e., a corpse and a group of suspects, all of whom have a hidden motive or secret, but only one of whom is the culprit (the notable exception being Murder on the Orient Express).
The intricacies of her plots did not spring forth, fully formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. Indeed, they required meticulous planning in order to do two essential things.
First, Christie insisted that the clues to the murderer’s identity be on the pages, without tipping off the reader. No easy task! Yet she was adamant that the mystery writer “play fair” with the reader, and that once the mystery was solved, the reader could flip back in the pages to see that the clues were actually there.
Second, her plans allowed her to know where best to plant “red herrings.”
So she was a plotter, a planner.
But she was a pantser in the run-up to the plan! Her pre-plotting involved brainstorming, jotting, talking to herself in notebooks, creating characters, asking questions, testing motives and secrets and other pieces of the puzzle. Finally, she took this jumble and put it into outline form to write the book. In her autobiography, Christie describes this period of time:
There is always, of course, that terrible three weeks, or a month which you have to get through when you are trying to get started on a book. There is no agony like it.
In Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks (a comprehensive analysis of 73 handwritten volumes of notes, lists, musings, outlines, and plans for her books) author John Curran writes:
So although it is true that she had no particular method, no tried and true system that she brought with her down the long years of her career, we know this appearance of indiscriminate jotting and plotting is just that—an appearance. And eventually we come to the realization that, in fact, this very randomness is her method; this is how she worked, how she created…
In one of her notebooks, while working on a Poirot mystery called Cat Among the Pigeons, she wrote:
How should all this be approached? In sequence? Or followed up backwards by Hercule Poirot — from disappearance … at school — a possible trivial incident but which is connected with murder? —but murder of whom — and why?
She speculates further on characters (spaces before some question marks are hers):
Who is killed? Girl?
Games mistress?
Maid?
Foreign Mid East ?? who would know girl by sign?
Or a girl who ?
She also used “mundane” activities to allow her subconscious to work. She told an interviewer once that she often got her plots “in the tub, the old-fashioned, rim kind – just sitting there, thinking, undisturbed, and lining the rim with apple cores.”
Eventually, all this “chaos” coalesced into a plot plan, with the author knowing “who done it” from the jump. But because she had so fully considered all the characters, motives, and secrets in her planning, she could easily switch the killer’s ID if she liked.
Her most famous book is probably And Then There Were None. In her autobiography she writes:
I wrote the book after a tremendous amount of planning…It was clear, straightforward, baffling and yet had a perfectly reasonable explanation…the person who was really pleased with it was myself, for I knew better than any critic how difficult it had been.
So there’s a peek into the mind of the world’s bestselling author.
Chaos >> Plan >> Writing
My own process is similar (though I’m a little behind Dame Agatha in sales). I brainstorm, write notes, make mind maps, prod “the boys in the basement,” and type away on what I call a “white-hot document.” The latter is me writing things down as fast as I can—snippets, scene ideas, potential plotlines, possible bad guys, allies, subplots, etc. I come back to this document the next day and highlight the best parts, expand on some things, then do more writing.
I’ll also start laying out my Scrivener cards and signpost scenes, and creating a corkboard of character profiles. In the draft for my next Romeo thriller, I have a sub folder called “Suspects.” I have 11 of them, with headshots I’ve selected online. This makes it easy to look at all of them at once and consider motives and secrets and hidden relationships. I think Agatha Christie would have been proud of me! (Or maybe she would have just patted me on the head and offered me a cookie.)
Finally, I’m ready to write.
So how does this all resonate with you? Are you a chaos-to-plan writer? Or do you prefer writing in the chaos?
For you cozy mystery writers, what is your planning like? Do you need to know who the killer is before you start writing? Do you come up with suspects, secrets, and motives first?
*The #2 best selling novelist of all time is Barbara Cartland, followed by Danielle Steel (source: Wikipedia).
Well this post made me think there may be hope for me yet–seeing that hugely successful Agatha Christie had to go through that process of essentially brainstorming on paper and asking questions before she could get to the work of writing the fully formed ideas.
Whether writing mysteries or other genres I have to spew out ideas on paper first because my brain is going all over the place thinking about a thousand aspects of a particular story. And while I’m new to writing mysteries, I find them even harder. Much easier to read one than write one.
I need to know who the killer is before I start writing but I wouldn’t necessarily say I know everything about the killer before I start writing. I tend to discover angles and aspects about the killer as I go.
Sometimes I have to go through the rat in the maze thing where I run into walls and have to back out and start over. It can be a pain in the neck trying to figure out how to lay out the clues but its so rewarding when you finally do.
Spewing out ideas on paper is a great practice, BK. It frees the hand and the mind, which is why I also do mind maps.
I like the rat in the maze picture.😁
Jim, the great Agatha Christie has been on my mind too. In fact, an upcoming post is about her and, believe it or not, AI.
I’ve written mysteries with a hidden villain and suspense thrillers where the reader knows up front who the villain is. Hands down, puzzle mysteries are MUCH harder.
Before I start writing, I know my characters well but am a pantser in terms of plotting, relying heavily on my subconscious for surprise twists. I wish I was more methodical but when I try to outline in advance, my brain freezes up. My system is messy but so is my brain. Eventually it all pulls together.
That’s the key, Debbie. Pulling it all together, and avoiding brain freeze. My brain happens to like architecture and blue prints before construction.
🏗
Definitely chaos-to-plan over here. The work is too overwhelming without at least a loose architecture–some tent poles. Funny you post this now, because I was just thinking about your book Write Your Novel From the Middle. You talk about the Mirror Moment right at the geographic center of the work. I always look for that Mirror Moment in a book or film and yesterday discovered that in the BritBox series I, Jack Wright, the precise middle of the 6-episode series has a character literally say, “…And then you look in the mirror.” Ha!
I love hearing that, Sarah! People report such things to me all the time. Thanks for sharing.
I’ve read Christie since I was in middle school. And re-read. She’s probably, taken over the course of my reading life (which started at about age 8), my favorite author of all time.
That her mish-mashed process produced such outstanding mysteries is, well, a mystery in itself. 🙂 Sure wish I could’ve met her in the flesh…
She told an interviewer once that she often got her plots “in the tub, the old-fashioned, rim kind – just sitting there, thinking, undisturbed, and lining the rim with apple cores.” Priceless!
With my latest project, I’m keeping notebooks handy and writing (with my actual hand) scene ideas, questions, etc. No one but me could make head nor tails out of these notes. I kinda like that. I’ve never started a project this way, but I’m having fun with it.
Have a good Sunday…
Finding new ways of having fun doing this thing is always beneficial.
Who will someday discover Deb Gorman’s Secret Notebooks?
OMGee!
I hope not…otherwise, white coats are in my future…
🙂
Nice to get a peek into the mind of the incomparable Dame Agatha. I remember reading a quote from her about how she worked on her plots while she did the dishes!
My writing also starts with chaos. I keep a notebook with lots of questions about characters and motives. I don’t necessarily know the identity of the villain up front, but I usually know the clue that will solve the mystery.
My process is sorta similar to Christie’s, but not as organized. Mine is more
Chaos >> Plan a bit >> Write a bit >> Plan some more >> Write some more …
Starting with chaos may be the key to this whole thing. Ray Bradbury used to say every morning he would wake up and step on a landmine. That landmine was him. Later gathered up the pieces to see what was there. A rather grisly metaphor, but I know what he was saying. It’s the way our minds come up with the best imaginings and then give them order. Isn’t that writing in a nutshell? And isn’t that what the machines want to take away from us?
This resonates so much with me, Jim. I’m a chaos-to-plan writer, whose digital novel journals for his first three mysteries were filled with brainstorming, outlining, suspects, clues etc. I also filled up numerous legal pads of notes. My third mystery needs some heavy revision, so after making an initial stab at it following letting it steep, I put it aside for a second time and now need to return to it.
I think the key to the this approach is to brainstorm, question, and experiment in the planning stage with reckless abandon as you pants your novel’s plot.
My cozy mystery plots have been compared by my beta readers and at least one review has being more intricate than a typical cozy, more like a traditional mystery.
I need to know the killer’s identity, their shadow story, as well as the victim, and the web of suspects and their secrets, a few red herrings and clues all before I begin writing. I end up generating too much material, and need to trim in revision. I’d like to refine my planning so that’s less of an issue.
BTW, I began writing a future TKZ post on how I learned to build a mystery last week, but it needs more time, so I went with yesterday’s WoW more on short story posts. You must have read my mind 🙂
I must have read your mind, Dale, because we think so alike on the process. “Reckless abandon” in the planning stages is the perfect way to put it!
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I love this! I’ve always loved reading Agatha Christie books. I plot like I drive in the fog–just as far as I can see…maybe 3-4 chapters, except I know the ending. Maybe not the who of the ending because that can change. I also have to know who is murdered and why, and why is the discovery of the crime now? Why not six months ago or a year in the future?
I’m at the beginning of a new book, and seeing how she did it sparks my imagination.
That’s what I love about reading about other successful writers’ methods. I find a spark, and try it myself. When something works, I add it to my tool belt. I love learning new tricks (maybe it’s the magician in me).
Fascinating, Jim! It’s nice to know I’m not alone in finding parts of the drafting process absolute agony. She’s right. There’s nothing like it.
I’m a planner (as you know). I always know the killer and their reasons for why they kill. Once I plan my milestones, I’ll pants in between and let the story take me wherever. Knowing the milestones helps to get me back on track if the muse gets too far off track.
That’s me, too, Sue. Great minds (and all that)!
I have to be careful with the chaos early on. I can find myself writing thousands of words of notes, holding up and shooting down one idea after another, until I’ve burned the idea to cinders. Figuring out how to keep the brainstorming from turning into rumination run amok is my current challenge. But I do like to have an idea of what I’m doing before I dive into the drafting stage. I can make up a lot of that stuff on the fly, but it’s exhausting. Like juggling while riding a unicycle across a high wire and someone stole my net.
Like juggling while riding a unicycle across a high wire and someone stole my net.
Love it, Rob.