Mally Becker is the award-winning author of the Revolutionary War mysteries, including The Turncoat’s Widow, The Counterfeit Wife, and The Paris Mistress. She was an attorney until happily trading in her law license to become a full-time writer. Here she talks about secrets, suspense, stakes, and what all writers can learn from mysteries and crime fiction.
When did you first know you were a writer?
I wrote my first murder mystery in middle school, and my mother—an avid crime fiction reader—bragged about it for months. But I didn’t really think of myself as a writer, not until my second mystery came out. It took that long. Maybe that’s why I’m hyperaware of how and when people claim the word “writer” for themselves.
The adults in my mystery writing workshop arrive each week with new pages, and their creativity constantly astonishes me. I think of them as writers now. That led to one of the most important lessons I’ve learned from them: If you write consistently, you’re a writer. Own the label. Don’t be apologetic about starting when you’re thirty, forty, or seventy-years-old. Don’t think you need to be published to start calling yourself a writer.
What part of writing is the most fun (or most challenging)?
I write crime fiction. Plotting a mystery is both the most fun and most challenging part of the process. I love dreaming up well-disguised clues and the red herrings that send readers down the wrong path. For anyone starting their first mystery, don’t think you need to know every clue the moment you type “Chapter One.” Plant them in your draft as they come to you.
Plotter or pantser?
I admire authors who outline their entire novel before typing a single word. That’s not me. I require some structure, but I also need to discover my story as I write.
In other words, I’m a tentpole planner. I nail down a few major plot points—the poles that hold up my story tent—before I start. But I rarely know how I’ll get from one of those poles to the next until I write the scenes that link them.
Tell us about your process: Where and when do you write? Coffee or Tea? Music or silence? Laptop or pen and paper?
I’ve tried writing in coffee shops, but I get too caught up eavesdropping on nearby conversations. (Are there any writers who don’t eavesdrop?) Most often, I plant myself on our living room couch after lunch and spend the afternoon writing. I need a mug of coffee within reach until 3 p.m., and it helps if Yo-Yo Ma is playing in the background.
I draft novels on my laptop, but I love stationery. Choosing a notebook to hold stray thoughts about the story is part of my ritual for starting a new book.
How do you get UN-stuck or motivate yourself to write?
I need a good deadline to get almost anything done, including writing. My critique group expects me to cough up pages on a regular basis, and so I do (mostly). My publisher expected me to submit three manuscripts on certain dates, and so I did.
Even more important, I am grateful to the writing friends I’ve made through The Writers Circle, writing conferences, and Sisters in Crime. We understand each other’s victories and occasional struggles and cheer each other on.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you ever got?
You may not be able to write every day—and that’s okay—but keep your story “front of mind” daily. On non-writing days, do something small that connects you to the piece you’re crafting: re-read your last few pages; do a bit of research; jot down a note about a character or scene. That will let you slip back into your story more quickly the next time you sit down to write. I promise.
What can all writers learn from reading or writing mysteries?
A lot, in my humble opinion. Here are three elements of the craft of writing that crime fiction handles exceptionally well.
First, read mysteries for insights into keeping the stakes high for your characters. In the best crime fiction, the case doesn’t just matter in the abstract. Something about it directly threatens or challenges the sleuth, whether they’re an amateur, a private investigator, or police detective. Often, they must grapple with a personal trauma or character flaw if they hope to succeed. That emotional struggle engages us as readers.
Second, all stories contain some level of suspense, and mysteries offer a master class in how to build it. Read crime fiction to study the way authors build tension through foreshadowing, withholding information, cliffhanger scene endings, pacing, and more.
Finally, read modern mysteries as a reminder that major secondary characters should be as complex or three-dimensional as your protagonist. Each suspect in a mystery needs a back story. Each had the means, motive and opportunity to commit the crime. Each had reason to hate the victim. And almost all suspects have a secret they’re keeping from the sleuth. Maybe it’s related to the crime. Maybe they were cheating on their partner at the time of the murder and simply don’t want anyone to know. All those details give a story additional depth.
What are you working on now?
I’m writing a historical mystery that takes place in London in 1772 and features fictionalized historical characters, grave robbers, aristocrats, and members of the Royal Society. It’s too early to say much more!
