See Through Bad Guys - What I Learned from Nancy Drew

PLEASE NOTE: No, I don't hate Nancy Drew. In fact, she's one of my favorite childhood heroines. That said, the Nancy Drew books are an excellent example of writing that could use improvement. If we want to be good writers, we have to read a lot and face up to when we or others (even our icons) are less than excellent. For a detailed explanation of my feelings on this writing series, go here.

SPOILER ALERT! In this article I'll discuss some of the villains in The Secret of Red Gate Farm and The Mystery at Lilac Inn.

In a Nancy Drew Mystery, it's almost always obvious - often to Nancy as well - who the bad guys are. They're the ones with bad attitudes and they often appear as (in the words of Carson Drew, Nancy's father) "tough customers."

They're also, often the only characters who get much of a description at all. (I'll discuss that in a later article in this series.)

For instance, here is one of the bad guys in The Secret of Red Gate Farm:

He was tall and wiry, with hostile penetrating eyes and harsh features. His suit was bold in pattern and color, and his necktie was gaudy.

And another:

...she would not have forgotten such a cruel face. His steel-gray eyes bored straight into her.

Once again, the Mystery at Lilac Inn is the one book that breaks the mold. Since the main villain is impersonating Nancy, she can't be portrayed as ugly. However the moment Nancy learns her name, she also finds out the woman was in prison. At which point the reader says, "Bingo, that's your bad guy."

Beyond that exception, the crooks in these stories are depicted as coarse, slothful, wearing too much makeup, miserly, cruel, obnoxious in their dealings with others. In some of the older books there are also definite issues of racism, which appear to have been edited out, or alt least lightened in later editions. Invariably, however, in some way a Nancy Drew bad guy will appear as a lowlife from the first moment we meet them. Figuring out that they're the fishy ones is a no-brainer.

In your own writing, remember that all the villains don't need to be irritating, ugly, or otherwise slimy. Some of the best bad guys are the ones who appear charming or innocuous until they're revealed.

Even if your story isn't a mystery, remember that most of your villains are "normal people" except that they're in opposition to your protagonist. Give your antagonists dreams, wishes, and strengths as well as flaws. Fill your stories with characters that don't fit a set mold. Your readers will thank you for being unpredictable.

The What I Learned from Nancy Drew Writing Series:
Intro to What I Learned from Nancy Drew
Part 1: Contrived Beginnings
Part 2: Lack of Red Herrings
Part 3: See Through Bad Guys
Part 4: Undescribed Characters
Part 5: Too Many Characters at Once
Part 6: Adverb Abuse 
Part 7: Unnecessary Scenes

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
Nancy Drew Games

Tathea - What I'm Reading

I adore the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt detective series, and having just begun reading the William Monk mysteries, I was thrilled to find Tathea, the first "fantasy" novel by Anne Perry.

The book begins with Ta-Thea, empress of Shinabar in the middle of coup. Her husband the Isarch and her small child have been murdered, and she escapes her would be murderers and  the palace with the help of a member of the guard.

Arriving in the Lost Lands, the home of her mother's people, she seeks to understand the meaning of life and the loss of her child. She finds an ancient hermit who warns her that her journey will cost her greatly, but she is determined to go.

From there, she sets off on a spirit journey with the Mariner, Ishrafeli. When she returns from these adventures she finds herself in possession of the Book of Truth.

Seeking to bring the word and love of God back to her people, she finds herself constantly challenged by Asmodeus and his minions.

As a non-Christian, I had some challenges with the fact that the book is a thinly-veiled Christian parable. Yet, I feel that in most part, it conveys the underlying message of Christianity in a better and clearer way than the Bible itself (on the occasions I've tried to slog through that book).

The character of Tathea herself is powerful and compelling. She endures hardship after hardship with an indefatigueable courage and grace. Though her falls from and rises to power are a rollercoaster, she clings to her faith even through pain and highest cost.

Fleeing through the desert, near the beginning of the book, she comes upon a woman who is mourning at her husband's grave. "You must have loved him very much," Tathea says. The woman replies that no, she didn't even like him much. She goes on to say:

    "Because he had life," she answered. "He had a chance to be brave and to seek the truth, to honor and defend it. He had time in which he could have faced fear and overcome it; to know himself without deceit, excuse or self-pity; to bear pain without bitterness. He had days in  which to laugh, to see beauty, to fill his heart with gratitude. He could have been kind and brave and generous...Above all, there were people he could have loved and learned to forgive. He is gone, and who is there in the world that is poorer?...Now all his chances are finished. Of course I weep for him!"

This scene sets the tone of story's message, and the trials, triumphs, sacrifices and betrayals that Tathea faces through her dark journey of the soul.

There are some messages in Tathea that I can't agree with, such as when Isadorus leaves his beloved mistress so that he will not break troth with a loveless marriage. With others, I agree, such as Tathea herself refusing to consummate a union with the man she loves because she loves his wife Eleni also, and knows he loves her as well.

Above all, the message is that mankind is given Choice, and has the ability to rise or fall on his own actions.

The writing is so clear as to be almost liquid. Soaring and gliding through light and shadow with an agility that seems near effortless. Much of the first half of the book reminded me of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, though I can't say exactly why.

This is not to say that it's an easy read. The book is long - over 500 pages - and it took me several weeks to read, as at certain points I needed to put it down and give myself a break. It is a book that will make you think, and examine your own beliefs and your own faults, triumphs and failures, whether or not you agree with every precept.

Tathea is a book that you may love or you may hate, or very possibly some of both. It is not a book that you will forget soon.

Lack of Red Herrings - What I Learned from Nancy Drew

PLEASE NOTE: No, I don't hate Nancy Drew. In fact, she's one of my favorite childhood heroines. That said, the Nancy Drew books are an excellent example of writing that could use improvement. If we want to be good writers, we have to read a lot and face up to when we or others (even our icons) are less than excellent. For a detailed explanation of my feelings on this writing series, go here.

SPOILER ALERT! I'll be discussing the plots of The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery and The Mystery at Lilac Inn.

One of the joys of reading a mystery is trying to outgess the author. "Red herrings" are the intentional planting of information which casts suspicion on non-guilty parties and keeps the reader guessing, hopefully until the last minute.

Incidentally, for you history buffs, the phrase "red herring" seems to originally comes from the practice of using a kipper to distract tracking dogs from a scent that the handlers didn't want them to follow. It was coined into print by journalist William Cobbett in 1807. Of course that may be a red herring in itself.


Back to Nancy Drew, in these stories there are no red herrings. If anything happens in the story you can absolutely bet that its related to the plot. By the time I was two or three chapters into The Hidden Staircase, I was positive that the threatening visit by Nathan Gombet was directly related to the haunting of the Turnbull sisters' house.

In The Bungalow Mystery, the plot involves Laura Pendleton, a young girl who is orphaned, and who dislikes her new guardians. Just before Nancy goes to meet with Laura, we're introduced to an unpleasant woman, and we know instantly that this is going to be Mrs. Aborn, the guardian's wife. Soon thereafter, the woman asks Laura to give her the jewels that Laura inherited and its  obvious that the guardians are running some sort of a scam and possibly not who they say they are.

Of the six books I'm discussing, only the Mystery at Lilac Inn breaks this mold, throwing some suspicion on a character who isn't the central villain of the plot. Of course despite the fact that this person isn't the jewel thief, they are blackmailing one of the other characters.

Granted, throwing in a few leads which don't pan out or adding a few other mildly suspicious characters who turn out not to be the culprits would lengthen the books, but it would have gone a long way toward keeping the reader guessing.

An example from a modern mystery, in A is for Alibi, by Sue Grafton, we're introduced to a raft of characters who at one time or another fall under detective Kinsey Millhone's suspicion. Every one of them acts shady at some point, and some of them actually are.

In your own stories, especially if you're writing a mystery, try to include a few other characters who are acting suspicious. Remember that everyone has their own secrets, whether they're the murderer or not, and sometimes they don't want their personal business discussed.






The What I Learned from Nancy Drew Writing Series:
Intro to What I Learned from Nancy Drew
Part 1: Contrived Beginnings
Part 2: Lack of Red Herrings
Part 3: See Through Bad Guys
Part 4: Undescribed Characters
Part 5: Too Many Characters at Once
Part 6: Adverb Abuse 
Part 7: Unnecessary Scenes

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
Nancy Drew Games

Contrived Beginnings - What I Learned from Nancy Drew

PLEASE NOTE: No, I don't hate Nancy Drew. In fact, she's one of my favorite childhood heroines. That said, the Nancy Drew books are an excellent example of writing that could use improvement. If we want to be good writers, we have to read a lot and face up to when we or others (even our icons) are less than excellent. For a detailed explanation of my feelings on this writing series, go here.

--

The Secret of the Old Clock starts with Nancy on the road, when she notices a moving van drive by and a small child who is nearly run over by it and whom Nancy rescues. She takes the girl  home and meets the girl's guardians. Within moments the two ladies tell Nancy everything about themselves, including the fact that they are horribly poor, cannot afford to raise the child (their deceased niece's daughter) or provide an education for her. They then introduce the main mystery of the plot - the missing will in which their friend Mr. Crowley  has allegedly left them an enormous amount of money.

Additionally, we learn that the ladies have just been robbed by the moving van fellows, who took a lot more than just the few pieces of furniture they bought - the ladies' silver service. Oh, and their phone is out of order, which means that rather than calling the police, Nancy has to drive off, looking for the moving van.
Here's the question: would you babble and spill the beans to this extent to a perfect stranger?

While some folks might, the average person would be loathe to discuss their entire financial outlook with someone they just met.

Nor are we given any indication other than their "say so" that the ladies are financially stressed. They haven't even bothered trying to sell the silver that the thieves took.  The fact that their phone is out of order might be some indication - perhaps they can't pay their bills - except for the fact that the very next day, Nancy calls them and the phone is in perfect working order.

So how could this scene have been better written?

1) Nancy could have come back to them the next day after chasing the thieves and THEN heard the whole story about the will. After all, having chased the thieves, she's now a proven friend. At this point the ladies could say that they'd been thinking of selling the silver but were putting it off until the will was read, since they expected to come into money.

2) Or, if the author insisted on having all the information come out in the same scene, they could have discovered the missing silver BEFORE their "tell all" about their financial situation, with similar results as above.

3) Adding in some description that suggests the women are financially troubled would help. We could have been shown threadbare furniture, a pile of bills (after all, Nancy IS nosy enough to read other people's mail) or other indications of poverty.

I'm told that later editions of the Secret of the Old Clock have Helen Corning introducing Nancy to the mystery. I haven't read that version, so I can't say if it works better, though I suspect it does - at least it gives folks a reason to talk to Nancy.

But never mind Nancy. How does your story begin?

The What I Learned from Nancy Drew Writing Series:
Intro to What I Learned from Nancy Drew
Part 1: Contrived Beginnings
Part 2: Lack of Red Herrings
Part 3: See Through Bad Guys
Part 4: Undescribed Characters
Part 5: Too Many Characters at Once
Part 6: Adverb Abuse 
Part 7: Unnecessary Scenes

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
Nancy Drew Games

What I Learned from Nancy Drew: Intro

A few days ago, in a bout of nostalgia, I decided to revisit a childhood friend. Its been over 35 years since I cracked open a Nancy Drew mystery.

Despite everything I'm about to say, I'm a great fan of the series. As a kid I wanted to be just like Nancy. She is an iconic heroine of the American girl, and her adventures are a fun read. Begun only 8 years after women achieved the right to vote, Nancy is smart, fiesty and an awesome role-model for young girls.

The writing however (at least the first few books) is rather bad. As a writer, I think it's important to read as much as possible.  And sometimes you can learn more from a badly written book than a well crafted tale.
So in the next few articles I'll discuss some of the facets of this particularly fine example of amateurish writing.

My apologies to "Carolyn Keene" and her ghostwriters. Nancy Drew was the brainchild of writer/editor Edward Stratemeyer who created the Hardy Boys and the Bobsey Twins among others.  The first ghostwriter hired to write Nancy Drew was Mildred A. Wirt Benson, who wrote 23 of the first 30 books. The craft of writing has no doubt grown over the past 80 years since the first Nancy Drew mystery was published.

Surrounded as we are by excellent tutorials on good writing, its easy for us to hone our art.


Despite the fact that the writing itself isn't the best, these books are also a prime example of how a fun and fascinating character doing interesting things will not only sell, but endure in our hearts.

But we want to be good writers, right? Therefore lets take a look at some common mistakes as illustrated by Nancy Drew.

Part 1: Contrived Beginnings
Part 2: Lack of Red Herrings
Part 3: See Through Bad Guys
Part 4: Undescribed Characters
Part 5: Too Many Characters at Once
Part 6: Adverb Abuse 
Part 7: Unnecessary Scenes

Incidentally, as the series was revised several times (and according to what I've read, whole plots were sometimes changed) not all editions of the books may have the same faults. The books I refer to in this series are:
The Secret of the Old Clock - 1930 Edition
The Hidden Staircase - reprint of the 1930 Edition
The Bungalow Mystery - 1988 Edition
The Mystery at Lilac Inn  -  1961 Edition
The Secret of Red Gate Farm -  1961 Edition
Nancy's Mysterious Letter - 1968 Edition
Readers of the series may notice I skipped over a few of the books. That's because my local library didn't have them in stock at the moment.

For anyone who wants to read the history of Nancy Drew, here's an excellent website.

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories
Nancy Drew Games

Anticipate the Disaster - Saving Your Work

I hope you'll never be faced with the situation I was. At 9pm on Halloween night, my home burst into flames. I managed to  get the dog out - and that was about it. My laptop, our other two computers, three or four boxes of notes and writing  constituting 30 years of work, study and writing were among the casualties.

We lost every single thing we owned, and I ended up barefoot in the cold mud. Despite the fact that we had no insurance, all our tools and equipment can eventually be replaced. The two things I couldn't replace were my cat and my writing. (Wonderful note - since I began writing this, Squeaky DID return!)

So little wonder that I'm now encouraging you to do everything you can to back up your writing in the event of an emergency. I was fortunate that I had followed at least a few of the suggestions that I will give you, so that even though not all of my writing has been saved, and some of the latest versions will have to be rewritten, I didn't lose everything, after all.

Safety Deposit Boxes

If you're able to afford one (I assume the bank charges a fee) this is perhaps the most secure way of saving your writing. The hassle here is that you'll need to write your stuff to disk on a regular basis and then truck over to your bank to leave a disk there.

Online Hard Drive Space

About a year and a half ago I reformatted my computer. Being paranoid about losing my writing, I found a website that lets you upload to them, and managed to put a small chunk of my writing - the stuff that was most important to me - there.

My newest work wasn't saved, but at least that gave me a basis to start from, once again.

The most challenging part of this, is that when you lose your computer, you also lose your bookmarks. I didn't remember what site I'd used. I got lucky. I did a Google search for "free hard drive" or something like that, and the second site I went to was the right one. Fortunately I was able to guess the login and password.

Not all of these sites are free, and not every one has a lot of space available, but do some searching and you should be able to find one or two that suit your budget and your space needs. I highly recommend keeping an extra copy of the URL and the login and password in your car, at a parents house or somewhere else where you can find it in an emergency.

Keep Disks in Your Car


Back up your writing to disk or flash drive and keep a copy in your vehicle. It's unlikely that your car AND your house are going to burn down or otherwise be destroyed at the same time - unless you store your car inside an attatched garage.

The Buddy System

My mom is a writer and she and I often send our work back and forth to each other. Thanks to this, she had somewhat recent copies of the most important novel I was working on. Not the very latest, but close.

Make an arrangement with a good friend or writing buddy to have them store copies of your writing on their computer. This way if something happens to your data, you can backup from what they have of yours. If they write, or have other important data they need kept safe, you can do the same for them.

Be sure this is someone you trust absolutely and whom you know how to contact if you lose your data. I had another friend that I'd given a copy of my story to read. She had the absolute newest. However just before we moved, her husband ended up screwing us over on a car he'd sold us. Meanwhile I lost her email address and phone number in the fire, and I didn't recall her street address. So I have no way to contact her, and even if I do, there's a chance she won't cooperate.

Be Disciplined

None of these backup methods will work if you don't do it on a regular basis. If I'd kept up with uploading to FreeDrive.com, I'd still have my story intact. I'm not sure that my mom even HAD the last version of my story, and even if I did, it wasn't her job to save every single file, since I'd never told her to keep them as backups.

I hope you never run into the total loss of your writing files, but if you do, maybe these tips will keep your info safe. Much luck!

Squeaky Returns!

My beloved kitty has come home after 6 weeks wandering the Colorado wilderness. You can read the whole story here. Meanwhile, I've got a new computer and I'll be getting this blog up and going again. Thanks so much for your prayers and good energy!