Rewrite: Day 10. A life in crime.

A writing day.
I have been working on Chapters 4 and 5, cantilevering great blocks of text out of earlier drafts and balancing them delicately on the structures already set upright in the earth. It's like building Stonehenge.
What has this to do with crime?
Nothing.
On my morning constitutional around the grounds of this extensive estate, surrounding my retreat, I was thinking about writing a crime novel. In fact, I had been thinking about it all night in that I went to bed thinking about it and I woke up thinking about it. What makes a good crime novel?
The answer seems obvious. Let's unpack it. This is my take on how a crime novel works, it may not be yours. First there is the investigator, then there is the call. The investigator responds to the call. He goes to the scene, which is the residue of the crime itself. Then he investigates the scene and, if he's lucky, he calls in his colleagues to help. 
This is the Crime Scene Investigation. The investigator and his colleagues look for evidence: fingerprints, bloodstains or whatever it might be.
Of course, it doesn't have to be a 'he'. You can substitute 'she' if you wish.

• The investigator
• The crime
• The call
• The scene
• The investigation
• The evidence

Forget about the crime. That is the sequence. You can apply it to any novel.

• The protagonist
• The precipitating event
• A call or invitation to the protagonist
• The situation that relates to the precipitating event
• The interaction of the protagonist with the situation
• Extant signs gleaned from the situation

Every novel is a Crime Scene Investigation.

Here are two blogs worth reading:
How To Create A Plot Outline In 8 Easy Steps by Glen C. Strathy - 8 steps
How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method by Randy Ingermanson - Snowflake

Ends