  Mystery
This week: Villainous Villainy Edited by: Jeff  
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"Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known."
- Carl Sagan
Random Mystery Trivia of the Week: Dean Koontz, who early in his writing career would sometimes write in excess of eight books a year - in various genres - was convinced by a publisher that he could potentially fall victim to "negative crossover" (alienating established fans while simultaneously failing to pick up any new ones due to writing in different genres). As a result, some earlier writings were written under pseudonyms. In order to keep up with his prolific (and varied) output, his work was published under many names, including Deanna Dwyer, K. R. Dwyer, Aaron Wolfe, David Axton, Brian Coffey, John Hill, Leigh Nichols, Owen West, Richard Paige and Anthony North. Many of these books have been re-published under his real name.
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VILLAINOUS VILLAINY
Most mysteries come in the form of a protagonist battling against a defined antagonist. When it comes to crime novels, detective fiction, and the like, that antagonist is often a person or persons who have some kind of wicked, villainous objective in mind. In the James Bond series, the villain always had some kind of maniacal plan for worldwide domination, destruction, meltdown, etc. In Michael Connelly's work, the antagonist usually has the objective of covering up or getting away with a crime, or continuing criminal ways (serial killings, robbery, etc.). The question with which we, as mystery writers, are often faced is, "What is my villain's objective? Is it devious enough, frightening enough, smart enough, lucrative enough?"
While memorable villains come in all shapes and sizes, a memorable villain in mysteries is often only as good as his evil plot (or the level of mystery he generates for the protagonist). What that means for the writer is that considerable time needs to be spent deciding exactly what the villain's objective is, and how the villain intends to go about accomplishing that objective. That doesn't necessarily mean that every villain has to have some convoluted, complex master plan... but there should be something to the plan that makes it stand out as particularly interesting or engaging.
As much as I hate to say this because it sounds awful to say, a lot of times, mystery writers need more than "just murder." With all the sensationalist news out there, and even other mystery stories out there, the villain's plan has become more important than ever. Because killing a spouse over infidelity, or a family member over an inheritance, or a coworker over discovering illicit activity, have all been done time and time again. And while they certainly can be done again, they become dependent upon execution because - if we're going to experience a story that we've heard before - we at least want to hear it told well.  But there is another option, and that's to come up with a villain and a villainous plot that is original, compelling, and unique.
In order to come up with an appropriate evil plot, consider the story you're trying to tell. If it's gritty detective fiction, the villain probably isn't going to be a mustache-twisting ego-maniacal supervillain with a death ray pointed at the moon. Similarly, an over-the-top Jason Bourne-style adventure mystery probably won't be easily satisfied by solving the mystery of who's been stealing your neighbor's morning paper (although that might be fun to try). 
The key to coming up with a wicked plan befitting your devious antagonist is to push yourself beyond the obvious choice. Instead of going with the first (or second, or third) idea that comes to mind, challenge yourself to think of something else. Push yourself to throw out the first half-dozen ideas you come up with, and then focusing on the really tough ideas that you have to work through and sort out as the ones that come easily fall by the wayside. It's a similar technique to those that advocate for a "vomit draft" of a story as a first pass... where you get the bad version out on paper as quickly as possible, so that you can discard it and start figuring out a better way of telling the story.
Let's take a fairly simple and straightforward crime. Murder. Let's say the victim is a husband and a father. It's no fun if the guy is a goody-two shoes (not to mention it limits the number of people who want him dead), so let's say the guy is a philanderer, he's embezzling money from his employer, and he's planning on running away with his mistress. What are the obvious choices? The wife found out about the affair and killed her husband. The guy's boss or coworker found out about the embezzlement and accidentally killed him in self-defense. His kid(s) found out he was planning on running off with the mistress and killed him. The mistress killed him because he was becoming obsessed with her and she didn't want to run away with him. There... we got the obvious choices out of the way. The ones that came immediately to mind the minute I asked myself why a lying, cheating husband and employee would be killed. We're now free to start pushing ourselves to think of something more outside the box.
Maybe it really was the coworker, but it was someone who found out about the embezzlement and wanted in. When the guy wouldn't cut the coworker in, he ended up dead. Maybe the guy has a long history of settling down with someone, thinking he's happy, and then gets a little restless, starts dating someone else, runs off and abandons his family. Maybe his current family finds out about it... or a kid from a past relationship tracks him down. And maybe, just maybe, the mistress was conning him all along, always planning on murdering him after seducing him to the point of getting access to all his finances.
Okay, maybe these aren't the best examples... but you can see how, when you discard the obvious, you start to think more outside the box. There's always a danger of going just a little too far and becoming ridiculous or over the top... but chances are if you keep at it, by discarding the early and easy motives... and stopping before you get too out there, you can find a better, more satisfying motive for your villain. You can find that villainous plot that affords you a great, compelling mystery... and isn't something that a reader is going to figure out on page fifty.
Until next time,
- Jeff
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This week, I would encourage you to check out the following mystery items:
There, the stars decorate the sky / The wind is whispering those words, goodbye / This is life, this is life, the world will say / But the tear still leaks from moon's cold eye.
Mrs. Robinson lay in the hospital bed, eyeing the three nurses surrounding her, in what looked like blue dressing gowns. Connected to wires her heart beating, faster than cheaters ran. She let out a horrified scream, as she tried to push Jacqui out.
As the soft glow lit the room, Jack had his eyes closed and after a minute or two in silence slowly peered out from underneath his covers at the far wall. Looking back at him were the children, no longer playing but stood staring, some pointing, directly at him. Their faces twisted masks of horror and malevolence, sneering and mocking. Every night Jack would face the leering faces in the dimness. As he stared back at them his heart beat faster, as usual his only comfort the dim light in the corner of the room. Then it began to flicker. His breathing stopped and he let out a scream.
They're always watching me... Waiting for me to slip up... constantly watching... waiting, always waiting... wherever I go, everywhere I go, this way and that. They want to catch me, catch me red handed. But they don't realise I know, they don't realise I'm onto them. I won't conform, no one can make me conform, no I'll never be the puppet they want me to be.
If you looked hard you could just read The Great Mysterio painted across the side of the ancient van parked outside the town hall. A short man in a stained dinner jacket emerged and carried a box into the hall to set up for the 7 o'clock charity magic show. He remembered to feed his single prize possession - a fluffy white rabbit which he pulled from a Top Hat as the show high light.
Lying on the table with her arms stretched out above her head like an ironic symbol of victory, she awoke from her pain-induced slumber just as a sharp stab of pain pierced the back of her head mercilessly. She had no idea where she was-all she remembered was the closing of a hand around hers arm as a large, bald headed brute of a man dragged her into a side street with overpowering strength.
The resonating footsteps of a large grey wolfhound filled the space as it trotted cautiously along side the girl over the golden mosaic floor of the temple lobby. He was alert, focused on the task at hand, as he scanned the echoing space for signs of any other life.
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Of all the mysteries you've read or watched, what's been your favorite villainous plot/motive?
In response to my last newsletter on logic and plausibility (the question was to name one of the worst offenses to logic or plausibility in a published work or released movie):
writes: "I totally agree, which is why I take exception to James Patterson. My experience as a court reporter tells me that his main detective characters don't really behave that way. Even the CSI and forensic TV shows don't depict the characters I've met in a criminal courtroom. Thanks."
I totally agree... there's a fine line between taking dramatic license, and flat out getting something completely wrong.
Steev the Friction Wizurd  writes: "Probably the most common offense to logic and plausibility in the hard-boiled mysteries I read is the ability of the hero to recover quickly from injury. I've seen good guys get beaten to a pulp, be unconscious for hours, and then get up and go right back to work. In real life, a toothache can ruin your ability to concentrate on your job, but in fiction you can have the broken ribs in your chest taped up, the bullet hole in your arm hastily bandaged, and you still have plenty of energy and motivation to just keep on going. Riiiiight...  "
Very true. It's the one thing I both love and hate about Clive Cussler's novels. Sure, they're exciting and action-packed, but at the same time you're wondering how the protagonist can possibly endure that kind of physical hardship (like surfing down the side of a pyramid on a mattress) and then continue to function at superhumanly high levels of physicality. 
cookie_writer writes: " Hi SoCalScribe, I really enjoyed your NL on logic and plausibility and totally agree. I do not have an answer to your question but, my friend's partner is a law enforcement officer and one thing we have learned is; never watch a crime mystery show when he or his mates are around. They let you know just how the detail is flawed in the programme and you always miss who done it. The comments of "That would never happen" or "That's not right" drive you insane. We enjoy it because we are not experts and it seems logical and plausible to us. I think that logic and plausibility are important part of any mystery, as you do not want to be left disappointed and wondering what was the point to that. Thanks for a great read."
You're very welcome, and thank you for the kind comments! I'm glad you enjoyed the newsletter... and you're definitely right; whether it's cops with mysteries, or another professional featured in another genre, it can be hard to experience material with experts in the field, because they're very quick to point out inconsistencies. 
Steev the Friction Wizurd writes: "Jiro Akagawa apparently has not been translated into English. Are you aware of any translations?"
I actually did a few searches while I was researching the last newsletter... unfortunately, I wasn't able to find any English translations of his work. Japanese versions are available on Amazon, but that doesn't do us any good if we aren't fluent in Japanese.
Juliet Capulet writes: "One of the worst outcomes to a good plot that I've seen so far has got to be from the TV series "Life on Mars". To destroy my excited sense of working the plot out, by "revealing" that all this happened on a spaceship during a dream sequencing - on Mars to boot (!!!!) was just CRUEL."
Ugh, the dreaded "and then I woke up" ending. I can't think of a more contrived ending. 
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Mystery: April 13, 2011 Issue [#4342]
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