I read an excerpt from the book Death of a Dancing Master. One technique M.E. Kemp uses to create mystery in her stories is by creating dim settings. " The next section of the room flickered with candles in wall sconces. The candles illuminated wall hangings of bewigged ladies and gentlemen lounging in country gardens. Two gilded armchairs were placed against the wall." (page 1). These types of settings create an intensity in the piece. Another thing I noticed in M.E. Kemp's writing, is that she often uses the characters' thoughts instead of the narrative to show the situation. " There seemed to be a limb sticking out behind the foils. Could Perkney be hiding there? Foolish man – hide from his sins he could not. Hide from the eye of God? Yea, even unto the belly of the whale did not the Lord spy out the sins of Jonah? And he, Jacob Joyliffe, servant of the Lord, was only come to offer Redemption to this sinner. He felt a moment’s pang that he had failed to make clear his mission; that was a sorry fault of his own. He’d been swept away by the spate of angry words from the dancing master; he’d answered in kind. Yet his mission was to reason with the man, not to argue with him." (page 2). This puts the reader in the character's shoes, and makes it seem more real to the reader. This adds to the mystery of the story, because you only see what the character sees, instead of knowing what happens before the character. This style of writing tells you a lot about the characters, because you see their perspective throughout the entire piece. You learn that Jacob Joyliffe is very observant and very moral, because he wants to apologize.
Two Questions:
1) When writing mystery, how do you use language to recreate the scene so that the reader fully understands what is going on for the people involved?
2) Do you think that narrative is more effective in telling stories, or a character's perspective would be more effective for telling the story?
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