Murder and Mayhem and .... Thankfulness?

Dear Murder by 4 friends,

Today I am going to talk about the essence of murder and mayhem. These items are the very gut of writing mystery and suspense. But heck, why IS that?

Well, there is nothing more horrible than murder and mayhem, so it makes the most intense reading. I know, in our times of instant movies, news, and everything electronic, it is hard to get a shudder going because we are blasted with murder and mayhem on a regular basis. But nevertheless, it is the essence of what a good mystery/suspense writer should be aiming for.

That shudder, that cold chill, that feeling of horror when someone is killed by no nice means.

How do you know when you are hitting the mark? Here are the descriptive blurbs from three good writers: see if you can figure out what words make you get that "oh yum" feeling of a mystery to be devoured.

electrifying thriller
chilling truth
game of beat the clock
deserted highway
burst of flames
unanswered questions
target
deep-seated fear

Now, the question, my dear writer friends would be : are you writing this? Are your readers seeing electrifying writing? Chilling plots? High stakes? Danger on every page? Or even for the simple mystery, unanswered questions and fear? These are essential!

I hope you have an awesome November. And that brings me to the thankfulness part of this post.

A challenge has been issued. A gauntlet has been thrown down. For the next thirty days, I am going to be compelled to write about what I am thankful for. So get ready. This is a daily challenge, and you will find the results on my Facebook page, so if you haven't friended me there, go do that right now. It's here : Kim Smith, Facebook Page.

In the immortal words of Jim Carrey, alrighty then.

_____________________
Kim Smith, author of the zany Shannon Wallace Mysteries
Get the first two books in the series, Avenging Angel, and Buried Angel, at a 10% discount for a limited time!

To Nano or not to Nano

Why I do not do NanoWriMo anymore
by Kim Smith

Because it is far easier to just sit my butt in the chair and write if I don’t have all the pressure of a contest to turn out a certain word count.

For some people, they need a bit of pressure. It encourages them to “get ‘er done”, or at the very least get ‘er started. I believe that anything that gets a writer going is okay. So, if you are hot on the trail of the next bestselling book, and it is thanks to Nano, then you are okay by me.

But we should all remember that writing is easy if you don’t care much about what you are putting on the page. Most times, writing is something akin to pulling out your own jaw-tooth with a rusty pair of pliers. It just ain’t gonna come out.

Sometimes we have issues that crop up. I have them nearly every day. I cannot write and take care of issues and worry about a contest that requires me to get in 1667 words. It will shut me down and I will NEVER get anything done. But there are a lot of folks who can do it and do so every dang year.

One of those great fall Sundays where I had a belly full of stew and football on the tube and man, that couch was just a ‘callin’ convinced me that Nano is timed all wrong for me.

I don’t need Nano. I write my utmost best in fall and winter. It’s too chilly or bad weather then to do anything outside, so naturally my attention turns inward. And my muse is always waiting.

But if you are a Nano-er and still sitting here reading this post, best hop to it. Your word count is calling. I just penned 300 words for you on this blog and it was pretty darn effortless. If I can do that, you can succeed too. Best of luck, and let us know how it’s going.