On the Edge of Your Seat: Writing Mystery & Suspense with Richard Santos
July 10 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm CDT
$200Thursday(s) July 10, 17, 24 & 31, 2025 6:30-8:30 pm CDT via Zoom
Nonmember $200 Member $170 Student $140
*EARN CPEs
TWO SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE
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Have you dreamed of writing a mystery that readers could not put down till the mind bending-end? Learn the elements of a thrilling mystery that leaves readers on the edge of their seats.
Over the course of four weeks, participants will discuss the common characteristics of effective mystery/suspense fiction and will set goals for their work in class. We’ll cover inciting incidents and protagonists, review plot points and antagonists, and explore how to create suspense and mystery in writing.
Each session will feature writing exercises and time to receive feedback from the instructor and peers. By the end of the workshop, writers will have a tool box, which will include character notes, an inciting incident, rough plot points, and several pages of writing, for their in-progress mystery or suspense project. This will provide a great starting point for participants to expand on after the workshop.
This class is open to writers of all skill levels 18+. Both short story writers and novelists are welcome!
By the end of the class, students will:
- Learn basic elements of mystery and suspense
- Lay the groundwork for their own suspenseful story
- Walk away with one complete scene
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Richard Z. Santos‘ debut novel, Trust Me, was a finalist for the Writer’s League of Texas Book Awards and was named one of the best debuts of the year by Crime Reads. He’s the editor of the anthology A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories. His fiction has been nominated for The Pushcart, Best of the Net, the International Thriller Writers Awards, and has appeared as a Distinguished Story in Best American Mystery and Suspense. His nonfiction and essays have appeared in Texas Monthly, The Rumpus, Los Angeles Review of Books, Like the Wind, and more. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Austin Noir (Akashic Books), Lone Stars Rising (Harper Wave), Sandra Cisneros: Portraits of a Writer (Texas A&M Press), Untitled Latino Folklore Anthology (Flametree Press), and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. In a previous career, he taught in high schools and before that he worked for political campaigns, consulting firms, and labor unions.
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