How to Write a Damn Good Mystery: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide from Inspiration to Finished Manuscript

This was one of the worst writing guides I have ever purchased. The real mystery is why it received so many great reviews on this site. Are you all Friends of Frey?

I bought the book thinking that the previous review ("A great guide, but some "facts" are actually opinions," February 14, 2004) was a great kickoff, eager to hear more from Frey himself. For example, the idea of flying through a quick first draft, writing it almost as a screenplay and blocking out the actions in all caps, intrigued me. Frey rolls around to this idea towards the end of the book and admits it wasn't even his own idea but one he'd lifted off a half-ploughed writer at a conference. Having finished the book, I can say I got as much from the review above as I did from the book itself.

Frey treats his own method as THE WAY to write, gives no alternatives, and makes no acknowledgement that there are a number of ways that writers approach their work. Worse, he states that thick, well-rounded characters are preferable, but then peoples his own examples with the thinnest of trope characters. He even advocates these `archetypes' (which read more like stereotypes) as a good way to start framing your characterization, a process I think is completely backwards, and tends to leave writers in the shallow waters where they began to kick about. The examples he gives throughout tend to be uninteresting and lack consistency; when he gives an example of a poor writing sample he does not remedy the ill by making that same sample better or good or `damn good,' he just skips to a new example completely, which tends not to be `damn good' itself.

Most annoying, Frey kicks off nearly every chapter or salient point with a blatant stump for one of his other published books on writing. I finished the book frustrated I had purchased what amounted to a paper-thin infomercial for books I now have no desire at all to purchase.

Skip this silly book completely and invest in Orson Scott Card's excellent "Characters & Viewpoint" or Carolyn Wheat's "How to Write Killer Fiction."

If you're interested in writing mysteries, this is a good place to begin. A lot goes into the writing of a mystery, so it's important to put some forethought into the process. I concur with the reviewer who asserted that some of Frey's "facts" are actually opinions. Frey is very much a "planner," so if you're a blank pager, you may feel put off by Frey's perspective. Let's face it -- There is NOT exclusively one way to write a novel, and that includes mystery novels. Different writers have different ways of approaching the page -- and different ways of approaching story. Thus, keep in mind that "Frey's Way" is not "The Only Way."

One element that I disliked about Frey's book is that he seems to have a bias against "literary fiction," and that bias definitely comes through in the book (although he doesn't address this often). However, if you're willing to overlook that element and take whatever helpful advice Frey does impart on his readers, the book is definitely worth reading.

That said, even with the annoyances of Frey's clear grudge against the literary, I would still recommend this book for those who are interested in writing mysteries. He does dwell on some important, and generally crucial, points to consider: character development and character "biographies," knowing your culprit and your hero/detective/sleuth, and the "plot behind the plot." Overall, I'd say that the exercises he recommends are helpful. His perspective also provides a nice balance for those of us who are not necessarily "planners" in our writing; thus, he addresses many issues that we may be wise to address either before the start of a novel, or at least at the story's outset. Keep in mind, however: There are numerous ways to go about the writing process. Writing is not a formula; it's a creative process. Hopefully. We all have unique ways of approaching that process, and creativity is about uniqueness--in thought, in word, and in action. Read this book, but keep in mind the old adage: To each his (or her) own.

I'm not a mystery writer -- I don't like reading mysteries nor do I like watching them -- but I believe this book offers excellent advice for all fiction writers who want to write suspenseful prose. Frey dispenses helpful guidance on creating believable plot lines, developing credible characters, and working with outlines. Even experienced writers will find many of his tips insightful. The book is very well organized and throughout, Frey backs up his points with numerous examples.

Despite its drawbacks, How to _Write a Damn Good Mystery: A Practical Step-by-Step Guide from Inspiration to Finished Manuscript_ is the best book I have yet read on writing a mystery. For a step-by-step guide to mystery writing, I found it more flexible, more readable and less stuffy than _The Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery_. _How to Write a Damn Good Mystery_ offers excellent guidance for character creation, but I would recommend _Getting Into Character: Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn From Actors_ by Brandilyn Collins, which goes into character creation in greater depth, as supplemental reading.

I highly recommend _How to Write a Damn Good Mystery : A Practical Step-by-Step Guide from Inspiration to Finished Manuscript_ with two caveats:

1. The author often offers his opinion as fact.
2. The book sometimes reads like an advertisement for the author's other how-to-write-fiction books.

Jim Frey mentions his other how-to-write-fiction books about twenty times during the course of this 267 page book. At an average of one plug every thirteen pages, that doesn't sound too bad. But, Frey tends to begin chapters by talking about his other books, which quickly becomes repetitious and grated on my nerves because I thought it unnecessary: Don't tell me what you said in another book, just tell me again in this book. I can only recall one place where he mentioned a fiction book he wrote. This may be because all the mystery novels he has written are now out of print.

Jim Frey uses his ten years of teaching experience to justify some of his opinions, which he presents as facts. Jim's mystery novels are all out of print and he appears to be making a living putting on writing workshops and writing how-to-write-fiction books. This makes me a little wary due to the old truism, "Those who can do; those who can't teach."

One of Frey's opinions, presented as a fact, is that you must have a plan before you begin writing fiction. Read interviews of your favorite writers and you will notice that they all have different writing habits and approach their work in different ways. For instance in one interview, Elmore Leonard said: "I have no idea where it's going. I have no idea how it will end. I just start it. Sometimes, Chapter 1 will become Chapter 2 or 3; one time it became Chapter 10. I don't plot the whole book out. I'd rather not know what's going to happen myself." Dean Koontz, in _Writing Bestselling Fiction_, also suggests that beginning writers start with an outline, but admits that is not the way he writes. Elmore Leonard and Dean Koontz are best-selling authors, whose books are still in print. They and many other authors I have read recognize that the creative process can be different for each writer. It drove me nuts every time that Jim Frey presented his experience a fact or as the only way to perform a particular writing task.

Frey also offered examples that showed how his method fits in with those presented by other authors. One I can think of is what he calls a "mini-scene" which Swain and Bickman call a sequel. I gravitate toward the practical and examples and Frey offers the ultimate example by walking you step-by-step through creating the characters and plot in write-along mystery, Murder in Montana. He also goes into how to actually write a scene and revise it through the final draft. This example is great and I wish he spent more time "where the rubber meets the road," with the actual writing process.

_How to Write a Damn Good Mystery_ is easy to read, and offers good sound advice (if you take the author's opinions as just that) presented in logical, step-by-step approach. Here's what I took away from Frey's book in the order he recommends:

1. Start with creating the murderer using concepts from Lajos Egri's _The Art of Dramatic Writing_: creating the physiology, sociology, and psychology of the character and giving the character a ruling passion.

2. Creation of the murder and what Frey calls the "plot behind the plot": the plot line of the murder from the murderer's perspective. Write a journal in the voice of the character [I find this very practical as this type of writing is very close to fiction writing].

3. Create the detective, then 2-3 false suspects, and the other characters who will people the novel. Create journals in the voice of each of these characters.

4. Create what Frey calls a stepsheet, which is a plot outline for the entire novel that also shows what happened outside the scenes to appear in the book.

5. Speed write a first draft, writing important dialogue, but summarizing action in all-caps [the way action is summarized in a screenplay]. The idea is to get through the first draft in a few days.

6. Polished prose is actually prose that has been rewritten many times: rewrite the story 15-20 times, then polish the prose, bettering bits of it hear and there 30-40 times more.

7. Learn how to write good prose by typing 2-3 pages a day, verbatim, from a novel of a highly accomplished author. Then try to write a page in the same style.

I found a lot to like in this book. I will be reading it again, but I'll skip over the parts that grate, and concentrate on the golden nuggets. On a scale of one to ten, I'd give _How to Write a Damn Good Mystery : A Practical Step-by-Step Guide from Inspiration to Finished Manuscript_ a solid eight.

Too many people sit down in front of a computer and decide to write a novel without knowing how. Ignoring the craft of writing has put too much boring and dull material in the bookstores. Frey's book is the nuts & bolts of building complicated well-orchestrated characters plus creating a step sheet for an exciting story full of conflict and drama. His chapters on plotting theory and the villain's plot behind the plot are positively brilliant. There comes a time in every writer's career that they have to decide--Am I going to write schlock or a damn good novel. James N. Frey makes the choice easy.