Workshop 1B: Plotting the Mystery with Sam Wiebe

How do you structure a mystery novel? How many suspects do you include? To outline, or not? This workshop will discuss story structure, applying it to mystery and detective fiction, though the concepts will be applicable to any genre of fiction.

About the facilitator

Sam Wiebe is the award-winning author of the Wakeland novels, one of the most authentic and acclaimed detective series in Canada, including Invisible Dead (“the definitive Vancouver crime novel”), Cut You Down (“successfully brings Raymond Chandler into the 21st century”) and Hell and Gone (“the best crime writer in Canada”). Wiebe’s other books include Never Going Back, Last of the Independents, and the Vancouver Noir anthology, which he edited. Wiebe’s work has won the Crime Writers of Canada award and the Kobo Emerging Writers prize, and been shortlisted for the Edgar, Hammett, Shamus, and City of Vancouver book prizes. His original film/tv projects have been optioned, and his short stories have appeared in ThugLit, Spinetingler, and subTerrain, as well as anthologies by Houghton-Mifflin and Image Comics. Wiebe is a former VPL Writer in Residence.