I’ve talked here before about my deep love for the genre of Cyberpunk. From the classics like Neuromancer and Snow Crash all the way to more modern works like Altered Carbon and Cyberpunk 2077, the stories and worlds these writers craft have been a constant joy in my life.
Which, considering how depressing they tend to be, is a statement.
Anyway, the reason I bring it up is because my eight novel was originally going to be a cyberpunk heist novels. While not all cyberpunk works are heists or murder-mysteries, most are (and all of my favourites are!). But I ran into the trouble that I’m not as smart as my protagonists… I couldn’t figure out a believable and interesting way to make the heist work.
Usually what I do in these circumstances is I dive deep into what other people have done, and then cobble together a solution from the best pieces of other works. The car chase from The Italian Job with the secret rooms from The Da Vinci Code and the emp pulse from Oceans 11 or whatever.
But for whatever reason, I just couldn’t come up with a believable second half to the story. I’ve put it on the back burner for now, I think I’ll revisit it for Novel 10 (Novel 9 is the one I’m working on now, and it’s a sequel).
But the reason I’m bringing all that up now is because Novel 9 is a mystery novel, and I realized that I’m not having any of the same issues!… at least not yet. The pieces are falling into place nicely, the mystery (as a rough sketch) feels satisfying…
All I have to do now is actually write it, and hope that it feels as good in the rough draft as it does in the outline! We’ll see!
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!