Tag: Monday Sparks Writing Prompts

Inspiration for My Cozy Mystery: Weapons Research

Research for mystery writers

My focus on JPC Allen Writes this month is my Thanksgiving mystery, A Threat at the Feast, which releases on Nov. 15. I’m sharing some of the inspiration for my cozy mystery. I always find research inspiring, and while writing my fourth Ra Riley novel, I had to research the weapon used in the murder.

I needed a handgun an average person would buy and carry for protection. So no exotic or complicated guns. I did a google search and found out the Glock 17 is a popular handgun for personal security. My next search was to find out if a Glock 17 could take a silencer.

This is where the research got interesting. A basic Glock 17 is not built to hold a silencer. It’s constructed with a smooth barrel. The gun needs a threaded barrel to screw on the silencer. It also needs a device to keep it from jamming due to the extra wait of the silencer. An owner can buy these two devices, but the average person would not know this unless they did some research.

Research always leads me to better plotting. If you’re a writer and need a reliable source for weapons information, take a look at The Writer’s Guide to Weapons by Benjamin Sobieck. The two great things about this book is that it’s written for writers and the author assumes readers know absolutely nothing about weapons, which makes it perfect for me.

Writers, what kind of research do you enjoy?

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What Crime is This Character Hiding?

My last writing prompt to feature this month’s theme of crime fiction is what crime is this character hiding? I deliberately chose a photo of someone who looks kind and harmless, so my prompt would be a challenge to your imagination.

Does she know about a crime and is afraid to come forward? Is she protecting a criminal because that person is a loved one? Or is the kind expression merely a mask and the character is not what she seems?

Let me know in the comments.

Here are all the tips, prompts, and recs for this month’s theme of mystery a crime fiction.

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What’s the Mystery Behind the Fire?

Mystery writing prompts

I’m reposting this photo prompt because the inspiration it gave me for the beginning of a story is one of my favorites. What’s the mystery behind the fire? Here’s what I wrote six years ago:

*****

Even though me and Jace stood like a football field away, we could still feel the heat of the fire that ate up the caretaker’s building in the Union Cemetery.

Lots of people had come into the cemetery to watch: Father Mihalic, Mrs. Hudson, who worked as a janitor at our school, mean, old Mr. Olsen, Mayor Coleman, some other kids on their way to the middle school.

Jace elbowed me. “Did you see the mayor?”

“I ain’t blind. Nobody can miss him.”

He was closer than anybody to the fire, except the firefighters, walking fast, back and forth, shouting if they were sure Mr. Delaney hadn’t been in the building.

“Mayor Coleman’s acting real upset,” said Jace. “Do you think he’s scared he killed Mr. Delaney when he set fire to the place?”

I tried to remember what we’d seen in the early dawn when we’d left the house because Dad had finally come home. 

I shook my head. “I think he’s scared he didn’t.”

*****

What mystery does the photo inspire for you?

Here are more mystery writing prompts.

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What Mystery Can Happen in This Neighborhood?

Mystery writing prompt

I like mysteries that take place in unusual settings. I chose this street for today’s writing prompt because it looks so ordinary. It’s not in a wealthy neighborhood where wealth, privilege, and keeping up with the Joneses can fuel a mystery. It’s not a poor neighborhood where poverty can lead to crime. It’s an ordinary middle-class street, an older neighborhood in a typical American town. So what mystery can happen in this neighborhood??

One of the most common ways to kickstart a mystery is for a character to break a pattern of behavior. So if old Mrs. Lafferty, who always had kids stop in for cookies after school, says she can’t do that any more, that’s a break in her pattern of behavior. Or Mr. Jesky always worked second shift at a warehouse. Now he rarely leaves his house and has a new car in the drive.

So let me know. What mystery can happen in this neighborhood?

Here are more writing prompts for mysteries.

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Write the Next Line of this Scene

Writing prompts for scenes of novels

Since I’m focusing on writing scenes this month on JPC Allen, my prompt today is to ask you to write the next line of this scenes. I love photos that suggest stories, and this one suggested one as soon as I saw it. Here’s the beginning.

*****

“Sophie?” I stared at the girl hunched over the table in my favorite coffee shop. I should say young woman, if it was Sophie. We’d graduated high school six years ago.

She whipped her head up from using her phone. “Alex,” she said in a kind of yip. “What are you doing here?”

“I moved here about seven months ago.” I gestured at the empty chair in front of her.

She stared at it, like she hadn’t noticed it before, and then jerked a nod.

Taking the seat, I said, “I majored in international finance at OSU and got my first job with here with a software company, What have you been doing? Getting music gigs?”

She gave me a feeble smile. “Band was always my favorite class.” She looked past me, as if peering through the huge wall of windows behind me. Her dark eyes bolted wide open.

“Sophie, is something wrong?”

She hunched back over the table and said …

*****

So let me know how you would write the next line of this scene.

Here are more prompts for writing scenes.

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