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"In crime, the shortest distance isn't always a straight line."

Let me show you what I mean, Reader.

Here's a situation.

On a simple weekly shopping trip, three senior citizens get kidnapped.

Their captors demand $300,000 for their return within the next 24 hours.

Okay.

That sounds pretty basic.

They kidnap some people, and obviously the family or whoever is going to come up with $300,000 to get them back.

Maybe $100,000 apiece, right?

Except there's a problem.

The seniors aren't wealthy.

And they're not from wealthy families.

So how could the kidnappers possibly expect to get $300,000 for these people's return?

Why were they targeted?

How do the kidnappers expect to get their money?

And, oh yeah, that's right—

Nobody knows, including you.

And you're the writer.

That's the kind of situation writers can get themselves into when they have a really cool idea and immediately start writing.

• You can see the people.
• You can see the kidnapping.
• You can see the situation.

“This is great. I'm going to start writing the story.”

And then you get a few pages in and suddenly—

Wait a minute.

How do they expect to get paid?

Why did they pick these people?

What's actually going on here?

You can find yourself in a hole pretty quickly.

So before you go any further with this scenario, ask yourself...

Why would somebody kidnap people who don't have access to any big money?

What could the criminal possibly want?

You might think:

“Because they're sick.”

“They're bullies.”

“They're psychos.”

But no.

That's a cop-out.

We're writing a mystery story here.

And the mystery needs to include a good why these particular people were chosen and what the criminal is really after.

When you ask yourself:

• Why this?
• Why that?
• How?
• Where?

Then you begin to truly develop the crime.

In my case, I considered two possibilities and went with this one.

Perhaps one of these three people was connected to something nobody else knew about—and that connection would eventually lead the criminals to the $300,000.

So the kidnapping was meant to open another door to the wealth the criminal actually wanted. The crime doesn't go in a straight line.

And then we get to another thing writers sometimes overlook: the mechanics.

Suppose your character needs to steal a large, heavy object from a dock area. How could one person move that large, heavy, clumsy object from Point A to Point B without being noticed?

• How long would it take?
• What equipment would they need?
• Where could they hide it?
• Where could they hide it?

Suddenly the physical reality of the crime becomes part of the storytelling.

And that's the point.

When you choose the crime, don't stop at: “Wouldn't this be cool?”

Ask:

• Why this crime?
• Why these victims?
• Why this location?
• How does the criminal pull it off?
• What does the criminal actually want?

You don't have to know every detail before you write your first sentence.

But you'd better understand enough of the crime to know whether the story you've imagined can actually happen.

Because sometimes what stops your mystery dead isn't the killer.

It's logistics.

First, write the crime.

Then make sure the damn thing works.

That's the word on the street this time.

Best,

Alex Simmons

PS. If you missed the recent Write the Crime LIVE Workshop, get on the list so you’ll know when I do the next one.
Just CLICK ON THIS LINK and take the case.

Simmons Says. Let's figure out what happens next in your story.