{"id":422,"date":"2016-06-05T00:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-05T06:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interestingauthors.com\/blog\/?p=422"},"modified":"2017-09-01T15:45:09","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T21:45:09","slug":"dear-agatha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/","title":{"rendered":"Dear Agatha"},"content":{"rendered":"

You will continually find me posting on here about sub plots of movies and television shows. I will continually tell you that some of the best writing today is happening for the screen. Yes we have far too many fake reality shows polluting the air waves, but, it appears to have forced some really great writers to band together doing phenomenal work.<\/p>\n

If you happen to have cable, satellite or live in those token few areas where USA Network is over the air, you may have noticed they tend to run NCIS marathons. I\u2019m not talking about the all day marathons, I\u2019m talking about the mini-binges of 4 +- episodes in an evening. Writers should love this show, especially the older episodes where they continually rip off classic movies, but do it right. They have Tony DiNozzo actually say the movie and describe its plot in just a few lines.<\/p>\n

Recently I watched for the umpteenth time the episode where Bishop writes a letter on NCIS electronic stationary to President Harry Truman<\/a>. This is a mechanism I hope they explore and utilize more often. As a writer you should watch this episode many times, even if it is the only episode of NCIS you ever watch. The mechanism utilized here is powerful. It shows a vulnerability which can be used to pull the audience in. This worked particularly well on the episode because we learn not only does Bishop have that Midwest girl next door image, she has a story teller\u2019s voice. Kind of that Midwest girl next door reading to children thing.<\/p>\n

The lead in for this letter was spot on. Since \u201cshe and Jake hit the skids\u201d and she doesn\u2019t keep a journal (hazard of her security clearance) she didn\u2019t have many people to talk to, so, she wrote a letter to the person who created modern-day NCIS.<\/p>\n

As a vehicle in a story to convey character information, background, or any other chunk of monologue a writer wishes to throw out there, this is phenom. When I was writing Infinite Exposure<\/a> I used email and letters a lot. In truth I did it because that is how the terrorists communicated. I took it a step farther though. That step made ebook conversion a real PITA until the pathetic readers managed to support multiple fonts. I put every character\u2019s letters in a different font. I think I did the same for emails too. I did that so even if you dozed off a bit reading, when you hit that block of text you knew _exactly_ which character wrote it.<\/p>\n

Sending a letter to a dead person isn\u2019t something I\u2019ve tried, but I found that episode stunning for its boldness to do that. I think Fox Mulder or Dana Scully used to do something similar in the X-Files<\/a>. Each of us brings to the table some knowledge or opinion of the dead person being written to. The simple fact the person\u2019s name is used conveys volumes of information to the audience.<\/p>\n

Each of you should consider employing something like this in your writing. It works just as well in a book. If you are writing some grizzled shoot-them-all detective that even Dirty Harry<\/a> would call an A-hole give him or her a vulnerable moment. Set them down at the keyboard, or better yet, an ancient mechanical typewriter they bought for $10 at a garage sale so everyone can \u201chear\u201d the hammers striking as they read.<\/p>\n

Dear Agatha<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n

My current case has me at my wits end. This is truly a situation where beating a confession out of someone isn\u2019t the solution. Since you gave the world Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple I wondered if I could impose on you to hear the facts as we know them and help me puzzle this out . . .<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You will continually find me posting on here about sub plots of movies and television shows. I will continually tell you that some of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,43],"tags":[291,292,231,6],"class_list":["post-422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-stories","tag-agatha-christie","tag-harry-truman","tag-ncis","tag-x-files"],"yoast_head":"\nDear Agatha – Interesting Authors Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear Agatha – Interesting Authors Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You will continually find me posting on here about sub plots of movies and television shows. I will continually tell you that some of the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Interesting Authors Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/interestingauthors\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-05T06:00:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-09-01T21:45:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Roland Hughes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@i_authors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@i_authors\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Roland Hughes\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Roland Hughes\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/201fb4544222c3251b52ed4a386184ee\"},\"headline\":\"Dear Agatha\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-05T06:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-01T21:45:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":643,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Agatha Christie\",\"Harry Truman\",\"NCIS\",\"X-Files\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Fiction\",\"Stories\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dear Agatha – Interesting Authors Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-05T06:00:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-09-01T21:45:09+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/fiction\\\/dear-agatha\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dear Agatha\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Interesting Authors Blog\",\"description\":\"Thoughts and words from some interesting authors\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Interesting Authors\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i2.wp.com\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/iaLogo.jpg?fit=180%2C180&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i2.wp.com\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/10\\\/iaLogo.jpg?fit=180%2C180&ssl=1\",\"width\":180,\"height\":180,\"caption\":\"Interesting Authors\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/interestingauthors\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/i_authors\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/201fb4544222c3251b52ed4a386184ee\",\"name\":\"Roland Hughes\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Roland Hughes\"},\"description\":\"Roland Hughes is the president of Logikal Solutions, a business applications consulting firm specializing in OpenVMS platforms and Qt on Linux. Hughes serves as a lead consultant with over two decades of experience using computers and operating systems. With a degree in Computer Information Systems, the author's experience is focused on systems across a variety of diverse industries including heavy equipment manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, stock exchanges, tax accounting, and hardware value-added resellers, to name a few. Working throughout these industries has strengthened the author's unique skill set and given him a broad perspective on the role and value of technology in industry.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/interestingauthors.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/rolandlogikalsolutions-com\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dear Agatha – Interesting Authors Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dear Agatha – Interesting Authors Blog","og_description":"You will continually find me posting on here about sub plots of movies and television shows. I will continually tell you that some of the […]","og_url":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/","og_site_name":"Interesting Authors Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/interestingauthors\/","article_published_time":"2016-06-05T06:00:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-09-01T21:45:09+00:00","author":"Roland Hughes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@i_authors","twitter_site":"@i_authors","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Roland Hughes","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/"},"author":{"name":"Roland Hughes","@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/201fb4544222c3251b52ed4a386184ee"},"headline":"Dear Agatha","datePublished":"2016-06-05T06:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-01T21:45:09+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/"},"wordCount":643,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Agatha Christie","Harry Truman","NCIS","X-Files"],"articleSection":["Fiction","Stories"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/","url":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/","name":"Dear Agatha – Interesting Authors Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-06-05T06:00:10+00:00","dateModified":"2017-09-01T21:45:09+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/fiction\/dear-agatha\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dear Agatha"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/","name":"Interesting Authors Blog","description":"Thoughts and words from some interesting authors","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Interesting Authors","url":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/iaLogo.jpg?fit=180%2C180&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/iaLogo.jpg?fit=180%2C180&ssl=1","width":180,"height":180,"caption":"Interesting Authors"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/interestingauthors\/","https:\/\/x.com\/i_authors"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/201fb4544222c3251b52ed4a386184ee","name":"Roland Hughes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ae9adac14079d84b909e635d7af986fe4568053af4fd9ff8d4109298c392493e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Roland Hughes"},"description":"Roland Hughes is the president of Logikal Solutions, a business applications consulting firm specializing in OpenVMS platforms and Qt on Linux. Hughes serves as a lead consultant with over two decades of experience using computers and operating systems. With a degree in Computer Information Systems, the author's experience is focused on systems across a variety of diverse industries including heavy equipment manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, stock exchanges, tax accounting, and hardware value-added resellers, to name a few. Working throughout these industries has strengthened the author's unique skill set and given him a broad perspective on the role and value of technology in industry.","sameAs":["http:\/\/interestingauthors.com"],"url":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/author\/rolandlogikalsolutions-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/interestingauthors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}