Under the hood: in case you have to explain the Chet and Bernie mysteries to a friend. Will it work for enemies, too? Let me know!
If the Chet and Bernie series works, it’s for one reason: Chet is not a talking dog. He’s as canine as I can make him. He doesn’t know anything a dog wouldn’t know, although of course he’s accumulated lots of special and even unusual knowledge from his law enforcement background. So: he narrates but does not talk. Everything the reader learns about the story comes from him, which for one thing means entering a world where the senses of smell and hearing are just as or at times more important than the visual sense.
The plotting of a traditional mystery novel has similarities to the solving of real crimes. A chain of clues is constructed and a logical conclusion is drawn. Well, Chet can’t do any of that. And even if he could he might sniff a Cheeto behind a fridge at a key moment and miss something important. Yes, dear reader, he’s an unreliable narrator! As though I’d gotten an MFA in creative writing. Which I did not! Instead I just wrote. But the introduction of an unreliable narrator into the strict mystery format blew up the whole thing, and all sorts of fun began to happen. What’s fun for the writer isn’t necessarily fun for the reader, of course. That’s where self-discipline comes in.
4 Comments on “More Blather From Me”
I will admit, the unreliable part is what hooked me. I don’t like talking dogs, in print or on film. But a narrator is genius. We are invited into the mind of the dog, silent but informative. As for accuracy, consider the source, but don’t lay blame.
SQUIRREL?!!
Mom remembers what hooked her in the first chapter of Dog On It. Bernie is coming home inebriated and Chet thumps his tail…just once. More an acknowledgment of Bernie’s late arrival with a touch of disapproval thrown in.
Big Tiny: Yes! The single tail thump hooked me too.