One night at the Thursday Night Writers' Group my partner, Elisabeth, and I host, one member, Erik, proposed that we each write a Sherlock Holmes story. We all muttered weak assent, but only Erik wrote something.
I resisted writing my story for a couple of reasons. One was that I was not a practiced hand at writing short fiction. I prefer long-form, novel length. Another was that even though I'm a bit of a Sherlockian, I didn't believe I understood Victorian England (or Victorian anywhere, for that matter) well enough to write a credible story. But it did get me thinking.
I knew from the advice of David Farland, through his email newsletter and a book of his that I read on "resonance" in storytelling, that successful fiction needs to do two opposing things. It must resonate with the reader and be a good example of its genre, yet it must also be original and not just another repeat of something in its genre.
Another influence on my thinking was the old advice, "Write what you know." My interpretation of that advice was to write about that which I could communicate credibly in senses and emotions.
A lot of ideas for a protagonist bounced around in my head, and I threw out many of them as already-been-done and not-what-I-know, such as cops, lawyers, private investigators, mystery writers, psychics, and caterers. The super-intelligent, hyper-observant, uber-competent, ultra-logical detective has also been overdone. I decided that I wanted an unlikely detective, a reluctant detective.
One idea that flashed before me was the Oracle of Delphi, the all-knowing, high-on-toxic-fumes dispenser of cryptic answers to questions. The punchline of an old joke also popped into my head: "I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid."
That's when it came to me. The voices hallucinated by schizophrenics are merely their own thoughts. What about a schizophrenic woman who solves problems by listening to the voices she hears and picking out the ones that speak the truth?
So, one place to start when writing your first mystery is to decide who the detective is. And that includes coming up with a name.
Authors vary in how much meaning they place in names. I like my main characters to have meaningful names. I decided quickly to call her Evelyn Malsage. The choice of Evelyn was arbitrary; I simply liked the name. But Malsage was deliberately ironic; ir means "unwise."
As for "write what you know," I feel qualified to write Evelyn's character. In my late forties, which is later than typical, I had my first psychotic break and ended up with a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder (that means I have a mood disorder, bipolarism, and have psychotic episodes unrelated to my moods). I could model Evelyn after myself, but I had to make her sicker than I've been to keep her interesting; my condition is well controlled by medication to the point of being boring. I also wanted to write a character who was sicker than I was, and who had a more tragic life than mine, as a reminder to myself to be grateful for the life I had.
So there you are. One way to start on your first murder mystery is to draw on your experience to come up with a sleuth, one who is memorable yet not like all the others—a character that you personally can understand.
