Jazz Era Mystery

     Set at the end of the Roaring Twenties, Rumer Haven's Coattails and Cocktails is a murder mystery in the vein of Agatha Christie with multiple suspects and a red herring or two that keep the reader questioning characters' motives. Actress Lottie Landry's romance with co-star Noble raises objections from her former guardian, Ransom. His wife is suspicious. Undertones and relationships among the characters provide conflict and tension. For a quick entertaining read, I recommend Coattails and Cocktails. See Reading Alley for additional reviews on this book.

Creating Conflict on Multiple Levels

Every plot revolves around conflict, but that conflict shouldn't be black and white. That is too predictable. Someone needs to be hurt by what is going on, and someone also has to benefit. In some situations that is one and the same character. A book I'll always remember from high school was A Separate Peace by John Knowles. What if the person you care about most, the person who is your best friend, is also the person you envy most? Could that driving envy cause you to hurt the person you admire and long to be? How would you live with yourself after that?

Once you create the main conflict of the story, you have to choose a protagonist caught in the middle, one who faces the hardest challenges and toughest choices. There should be both personal and external conflict that drive the plot. As the story continues the challenges should increase in personal cost to the protagonist. This is what keeps the reader's interest captured and compels him to discover how the conflict is resolved.