#mystery writing

[keepcalmandwritefiction]

The mystery story is really two stories in one: the story of what happened and the story of what appeared to happen.

– Mary Roberts Rinehart

#fiction #fiction writing #mystery writing #mary roberts rinehart #quotes #kcawf original #writeblr

[unchartedthelostlegacy]

Please...encourage me to write my stupid multilevel marketing themed murder mystery story for nanowrimo. It will be a place for my feelings about the bleak winter months and I can put all the angst and family drama and relationship issues into the characters. Please...check on me and remind me that I can still write original stuff. Please I need external accountability. I'm a creature

#writing #writing buddies #nanowrimo #november #mystery writing #who was the real murderer?? loneliness and capitalism. but also (redacted)

[mthollowell-writes]

I am a mystery reader

Or, Why I Read Forensics by Val McDermid

For the past year, I’ve been inhaling mystery novels to learn about the genre. I often engage with intense genre studies when I have an interest in writing within particular story conventions. It’s always fun and I get to learn about an amazing world of books that I don’t normally pick up.

For most of 2023, it’s been mysteries. And, I can confidently say that I’m now a big mystery reader. I’m obsessed with it. I shouldn’t have been surprised. The clues have been there since the beginning.

I’ve always loved stories with mystery elements to them. I wrote a thesis comparing and contrasting TV/movie adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and the original short stories. Most of the podcasts that I enjoy are true crime because I love learning the details of specific cases, and how certain clues or slips led to the apprehension of the perpetrator. But it wasn’t until 2023 that I would’ve classify myself as a “mystery reader.” I can be really thick-headed, if you couldn’t tell.

Horror reader, sure. Detective enthusiast, you betcha! True crime addict, guilty.

There are so many things that makes a mystery, a mystery. They include, but are not limited to:

Your killer and their motives

Your detective and their unique skill set that makes them best suited (or most motivated) to find said killer

The clues, the false leads, and the red herrings

And most importantly, that the killer is caught: unmasked by the detective. If it doesn’t have this particular element, it’s not a true mystery. (Not to discount genre blends which I adore and champion).

Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA, and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid goes into the more technical aspects of solving a crime. There’s an umbrella of fields under forensics from DNA to facial reconstruction to forensic psychology to entomology. All these discipline work to make the sequence of events and the truth of the crime clearer in the context of the courtroom.

I picked up this book because I wanted to learn more about all these disciplines. Its filled with countless case studies throughout the centuries, tracking the development of new techniques and their limitations. Val McDermid, who is a veteran of the genre (I’ve read the whole of her Allie Burns series this year and intend to read more), explains all this in a very approachable way with interviews from professionals in every field she covers.

This is a must read for everyone who wants a comprehensive introduction to forensics for either bulking up their knowledge for their own mystery or they just genuinely find the science fascinating (Hello! I am both).

#mt reads #forensics #val mcdermid #book talk #mystery writing #mystery

[idontknowwhatimdoingokay]

day 15 of nanowrimo

i wrote 1,684 words today

i have a total word count of 28,917 words now

almost 60% of the way done 

#nano 2023 #nanowrimo #writerblr #writers of tumblr #writing progress #national novel writing month #that’s a lot of words #writer community #writing #nanowrimo 2023 #nano update #nano23 #nano #mystery writing #lgbtq writer #disabled writer #writeblr #writer

[duckprintspress]

Planning Using the Three-Act Structure: Mystery Novels

This is the second in a series of posts about the Three-Act structure, written by guest blogger Annabeth Lynch. You can read the first post, Romance Novels, here.

Writing can be a difficult undertaking. Like most anything that’s worth doing, it’ll test your skills and determination. Ernest Hemingway gave my favorite description of being an author:  “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” It’s beneficial to have a game plan to help you move along, even if you're a pantser like me.

Are you ready to bleed? Good. Let’s start with the breakdown of the three-act structure. It basically separates the story into the beginning, the middle, and the end. They’re formally known as the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Resolution. The Setup takes the first quarter up to the first 25% of the full story length, the Confrontation is the middle half from 25% of the total word count to about 75%, and the Resolution makes up the last quarter, from about the 75% point to the end at 100%. This is a Western story composition, a typical structure across genres. I’ve already made a post about this structure in relation to the romance genre here, but though it follows the same rules, the plot points are different. What follows are the basic guidelines for a mystery novel, including the approximate word count at each milestone. Mystery novels are typically 80,000 to 90,000 and we’ll be working based on an expected word count of 90,000.

The Setup

This is where you lay the groundwork for your novel. As always, it should begin with your hook–the situation or goal that lures in your readers. After that, it’s time to begin your world and character building. Here you should establish the baseline for your world, anything that makes it different from the real world, and the reader should also get a feel for your character(s) and their routine. This part sets the tone for the rest of the book.

At the 12% mark (10,800 words in) is the inciting incident. In mystery novels, this will be the crime that will be investigated–the call to action that your amateur or professional sleuth will undoubtedly rise to. Whether they accept it right off the bat or after careful consideration, it shouldn’t take much longer than this point for them to decide to take action.

By 20% of the way in (18,000 words), all important characters should be introduced. As this is a mystery book, they don’t need to be introduced directly–the reader just needs to know they exist. For example, if you don’t want the antagonist to be someone that is actively on the page, that’s fine, but the reader must know that they exist, even if only as a mysterious “someone” committing the crime. Of course, it can also be someone that already has a name and has shown up in the protagonist’s life!

The first major plot point comes around 25% (22,500 words) into the book, at the end of the Setup. This is where the stakes are raised and the case starts to become personal to the protagonist. Whether it’s something small, like the antagonist goading them, or big, like a friend falling victim, it needs to be something that will cause the protagonist to feel closer to the investigation and throw more of themselves into it.

The Confrontation

This act is most of the book and includes almost all of the build-up and a fair amount of the action. This is the meat of the story. Tension and suspense are going to be thick here; now is not the time to skimp on detail. Senses are going to be your best friends during this section; your readers are going to want to feel like they are also solving this crime. Does the protagonist have goosebumps? Is the hair on the back of their neck standing up? The readers want to know it all!

At about 37% (33,300 words) is the first pinch point. This is usually when another person falls victim to the antagonist, but it can also be a good place for a look into the antagonist’s life. Perhaps we see a glimpse of them or get a piece of information about them as a person. Either way, one of the bigger clues should be dropped here, bringing the main character(s) one step closer to solving the mystery.

50% (45,000 words) is the midpoint. This is when your false high or false low comes in. A false high makes it look like the protagonist is going to be victorious and solve the case, but it turns out to have been misleading and they are back to square one. False lows are the opposite, making it seem like there’s no hope of ever catching the criminal just before they make a breakthrough in the case. In addition, this is typically when we discover the antagonist’s reason(s) for committing these heinous crimes and what motivates them.

Around 62% (55,800 words) comes the second pinch point. Here is another chance to get a look at the person committing the crime(s), whether through another victim or because the main character has gained more understanding or insight. This is also a good time for any development in an internal plot or goal for your protagonist, or for character growth that will ultimately help them solve the case.

The second plot point comes into play at 75% (67,500 words), or the end of act two. This raises the stakes of the plot to their peak. This is usually the part where we see the main character recommitting to solving the case (especially if they were discouraged by the false low or the high stakes). It should become clear at this point that the protagonist is going to have to confront (see what I did there?) the antagonist and possibly they should start plotting out how they will go about it. The plan usually doesn’t go as expected, but that’s a problem for the next part.

The Resolution

You’re getting close to the end now! This part is action-packed and, for the most part, fast-paced. Things are going to be falling into place, and setting up for a good ending. This section is comprised of the three C’s: Crisis, Climax, and Conclusion.

The Crisis kicks off at 87% (approximately 78,300 words). Now is when the big questions that have been posed throughout the story are answered. Will the antagonist win and get away with it all? Will the protagonist do what it takes to win? Are they strong enough to face what must be done? This is also when the main character figures out their overarching problems and learns the life lesson that the Setup posed.

The Climax comes quickly after the crisis, at 90% (81,000 words). All the clues should fall into place to reveal the culprit, and the showdown between the protagonist and antagonist finally occurs. Usually, there’s a moment where the main character looks to be beaten by the villain, with no hope to escape. There are many ways this can be solved–cleverness on the part of the protagonist, or rescue by close friends, or even teaming up with potential or past victims. However you go about it, it should be satisfying and connect to the core of the story lesson, goal, and the life issues previously introduced, such as the character embracing themselves or trusting others.

By the end, readers are looking for a view of how life is now that the criminal has been stopped. Conclusions often offer a glimpse of how the main character is doing and, most importantly, whether justice was served or if the antagonist weaseled out of it (which is often the case in multi-book series). This can also be an epilogue if you’re partial to them.

You did it! That’s the whole book!

I hope this is helpful for anyone struggling with the bones of a mystery story. Remember, this is just a general guide and you can modify/edit/reject any parts of this that you don’t like. You make your story interesting and unique! Don’t underestimate the power of your own input. Until next time, happy bleeding!

#duck prints press #original content #guest blogger #annabeth lynch #writing advice #plotting #outlining #fiction writing #mystery writing #mystery novels

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Tfw you're 36,000 words into your whodunit WIP and you realize you finally have to decide whodunit.

#Writing #mystery writing #post o' mine #Writblr #writer problems

[writeouswriter]

Me sobbing @ my brain as I run through the house narrowly avoiding bizarre traps and jump scares: You're writing a normal mystery slasher book, you're writing a normal mystery slasher book

My brain @ me, holding up a note paper on psychic powers, monsters and prophetic dreams, brandishing it like a knife in my direction: Am I though, am I?

#writing #writeblr #i cannot win #horror writing #mystery writing #i just want to write something like scream but then my brain is chanting paranormal elements let's go #everytime i try something else #but they're whole different vibes! #writer things #made some variation of this post before but ahhh #textpost

[vavandeveresfan]

What "Magpie Murders" got wrong.

As much as I love Magpie Murders -- and I do! -- it has two really big flaws.

SPOILERS

The entire reason for the murder is Charles, the founder and owner of Cloverleaf Books, which publishes Alan Conway's Atticus Pund mysteries, is terrified that if the public learns the anagram from the detective's name they'll stop buying the books.

The anagram spells out A STUPID C*NT. Basically calling Pund that.

Now, in the world of this novel, Atticus Pund is as beloved and popular a fictional sleuth as Poirot, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes. His is the bestselling mystery series around the world, and has been for almost 10 years.

If the media revealed that the author of a series that popular had insulted his beloved character like that, I can guarantee people wouldn't stop reading or buying the books.

If anything, the controversy, if there was one at all, would make people buy even more.

A mystery author resenting and hating his popular character so much he kills him off isn't new. Arthur Conan Doyle was so sick of Sherlock he killed him off. But, due to popular demand and the fact his other novels didn't sell well, Doyle brought him back. Most people who read mysteries know this.

Doyle didn't slur Sherlock when he killed him. But then, neither did Alan Conway in his last Atticus Pund novel. Atticus dies with his integrity intact. Conway doesn't write Pund as "a stupid c*nt" in the final novel. Quite the contrary, he's kind, patient, compassionate, and clever, and catches the murderer.

So the only thing that slurs Pund is the anagram derived from his name.

In no fucking way would this cause the public to turn on him. Turn on the author, sure. But then, it's apparently canon that "everyone who read about Atticus Pund loved him. Everyone who met Alan Conway hated him (paraphrasing)." Conway being an asshole was well known.

So Anthony Horotwitz based the novel's entire plot on behavior the public would not have, and a fear the murderer, Charles, shouldn't have had. Charles Clover was certain the discovery of the anagram would ruin his sale of his publishing company and the series' popularity. He was very wrong. If he'd not killed Conway he would have seen the drama of Conway's contempt for his detective would increase sales as people turned on him and embraced Pund.

When I watched the reveal of why Charles killed Conway -- I saw the series before I read the novel -- I was so fucking disappointed, and downright pissed.

#Magpie Murders #murder mysteries #mysteries #detective novels #crime drama #Atticus Pund #Tim McMullan #mystery writing #Anthony Horowitz #British mysteries #BritBox #Masterpiece Mysteries #PBS Mystery

[biscuitsandspices]

Making Mysteries Made Simple

No matter what your preferred writing genre is, there will always be an element of mystery. Who is secretly working for the magical Big Bad, how do we stop the robots, does he actually like me back, how will we escape this prison, where will these wacky hijinks take us, etc. A part of the fun of a story is the not knowing, the mystery of it all.

As someone who enjoys mystery in what I read, naturally, I have always wanted to include it in my writing. But at the beginning, it was very difficult for me! How could I concoct a twist clever enough to keep my readers on the edge of their seats? How do I throw in enough red herrings to distract from the obvious reveal without being annoying? How do I come up with an ingenious puzzle for the audience without falling into -what a fellow zine contributor once described as- “BBC Sherlock levels of bullshit twistery?”

The answer to writing a mystery hit me one day, and it’s so simple it made me feel stupid. So if you’re having trouble coming up with the most brilliant mystery that isn’t so far-fetched that it pisses off the audience, here’s what helped me in my approach to writing mystery into a story:

A mystery is an event happening from the perspective of someone who does not know how or why it happened. 

Sounds obvious, right? But really consider that. It’s up to the writer to figure out the end of the mystery (the reveal of how/why the event happened) first. Even if the reveal of the how/why event does not seem SO exciting to you, that’s just because you know how/why it happened from the start. This helps to avoid unnecessary and -if I may be so bold humhum- STUPID twist endings that just leave the audience wondering why all the build up led to that.

This may not seem like the mind blowing advice you’re looking for, but I promise it’ll help simplify your process if you keep it in perspective!

#mystery #mystery writing #writers on tumblr #writing advice #writing help #writing tips #writing tumblr #writer tips #writing blog #writing tip #writblr #mystery writer #red herring #bbc sherlock #sherlock holmes

[secret-writer-shenanigans]

mystery writing terms u might run into (jk theres only 2):

-red herring: a snippet of information used to distract or misdirect a reader from important information or lead them to draw an incorrect conclusion

-chekov's gun: something seemingly insignificant that later becomes important (ie: if you mention a rifle in the first chapter, it should be fired at some point later in the story)

#writing #author #whodunit #mystery #writer #literature #vocabulary #mystery writing

[writingvideos]

#writing #cozy mystery #writing mystery #mystery writing #cozies #the killzoneblog

[thestevietheme]

No-Sweat Exposition: The Watson Character

At last! The Watson Character Thesis post has arrived.

In today’s Theme, I’ll be talking about the Watson character and how you can use characters’ curiosity to exposit your own stories without breaking a sweat. In my last Theme post, I wrote about how to use practical tactics to set up a compelling mystery for your readers. Something I take for granted in it, though, is…

View On WordPress

#Exposition #Mystery Writing #Writing Advice

[kellshaw]

Thoughts on writing a puzzle mystery novel

I love puzzle mystery stories. Some examples: Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' (the original SAW movie!), and a lot of Japanese mystery fiction such as The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada, The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji. And a lot of visual novels like Dangan Ronpa, Zero Escape and Somnium Files.

(Let me know if you have any good recs.)

Anyway, my second novel is out for beta reading. It's like waiting for a friend to recover from their coma.

Rather than twiddling my thumbs, I'm working on my third book, and while the first two I'd call urban fantasy thrillers, the third is going to be a puzzle mystery. My approach to this after the cut:

My first two books were written by writing something, revising it, revising it again until I gradually moulded in the story into a shape like clay. I didn't plan or outline to start with. I had a vague idea of the themes, an understanding of the characters and a bunch of stuff about the world. It was like a textual Pinterest board of stuff.

My goal for book three is to dig into Lukie and Tamlyn's friendship. Once high school friends; now there's a twenty-year age gap between them since Lukie returned from the dead as an undead, soul-eating revenant. Tamlyn's been forced into the role of Lukie's guardian—she can only feed at his command. And Tamlyn's got lots of personal issues to deal with that haven't surfaced yet in the previous two books. His best friends were murdered in high school, and during his police career, he's repressed a lot of his emotions and personal stuff. So it's about applying pressure on the pair and see how their friendship endures and survives (or will it? Books can change dramatically through the writing process).

And this will be done through the backdrop of a complex mystery, with the pair staying at a haunted hotel. So the theme of friendship, ex-friendships and how much can a friendship bear will be featured heavily.

How do I plan to do this?

Everyone at the hotel is in a pair. Friends or married couples, of different ages and orientations. These relationships are pressured in someway when the plot event starts.

I will separate Lukie and Tamlyn. There's a time facture at the hotel. Tamlyn's stuck at one end, and Lukie's in the other. The two timelines are connected like in Looper—a change in the past end will influence the future end. Tamlyn's solving a murder mystery in the past, while Lukie is dealing with a ghost haunting the hotel in the future and the two time lines are connected.

How will I organise these not one, but two interconnected mysteries?

I realised early on (after writing 30k words) that I will need to, gasp, write an outline.

I'm currently working on Tamlyn's end of the story. He's stuck in the past, and stuck with five couples in the hotel, which they can't leave. There's a murderer on the loose. Each couple has a series of secrets.

This is where years of running mystery tabletop roleplaying games helps. Following on from the Alexandrian's articles on 'Revelation Lists', I've worked out a series of secrets for each couple. Then I made a list of steps for how the detective character will uncover the clue.

Overly dramatic example for a demonstration: (not actually from the book!)

Robert and Martha Smith, a mysterious married couple.

Dramatic Secrets: Robert and Martha pretend outwardly to be a happily married couple. The truth is more sinister. The couple have murdered the real Martha, and the 'new Martha' is Robert's girlfriend, and is using Martha's identity. ['new Martha' needs to use old Martha's identity papers as she's a foreign spy on the run, in trouble.]

The Detective notices at breakfast in the hotel that Martha doesn't know a simple fact about the jam Robert likes, which implies their relationship is new (and yet their paperwork/documentation says they've been married for twenty years).

Martha also is missing some cultural information that her persona should know. (I read somewhere about Russian infiltrators into the US in the 1960s may have had perfect English, but didn't know pop culture stuff like Mickey Mouse.) Perhaps another guest at the hotel is obsessed by a TV show that someone of Martha's age should know about, and yet she's a bit vague when pressed. The other guest is puzzled that she doesn't know these pop culture facts.

Some shocking event causes Martha to act like an intelligence professional (perhaps the sound of a gunshot makes her duck and roll?) rather than a scared businesswoman.

The Detective pulls on the circumstantial information about Martha together and realizes she's the foreign spy that another character spoke about.

The details will get fleshed out with further outlining/writing. Anyway, once I get a list of five revelation lists for each core clue in the book, then I order them like so

Chapter 3

Couple A, Revelation 1, Clue 1

Couple B, Revelation 2, Clue 2

Then I structure the chapters around that, adding pacing and characterisation as we go through. One problem I have with large-cast mystery novels is I often lose track of the characters if they're not distinct enough, so I'm trying to each character a name that sounds different and a quirk so the reader won't go "Quinn? Who's Quinn again?"

And that's my current approach for writing a mystery. I will let you know how it progresses.

Let me know if you have any good tips.

#writeblr #writers of tumblr #writing process #urban fantasy #fantasy #fantasy books #mystery writing

[idontknowwhatimdoingokay]

day 12 of nanowrimo

i wrote 1,760 words today

i have a total of 24,958 words now

almost 50% done

#writeblr #writing #national novel writing month #nano 2023 #nanowrimo #writing progress #writerblr #that’s a lot of words #writer community #writers of tumblr #nano23 #nano update #50000 words #mystery writing #lgbtq story

[ahb-writes]

#writing #mystery novel #agatha christie #cozy mystery #writeblr #fiction writing #novel writing #writing tips #writing advice #solve a murder #tone and mood #mystery writing #mystery fiction

[iwillreblog]

Heads Up 7 Up

tagged by: @imbrisvastatio

tagging: @cielhelm @isabellebissonrouthier, @its-a-writer-thing @sholiofic and anyone else who would like to do it!

My WIP: Bailey said his goodbye and hung up. He was slightly upset because people just couldn`t stay out of his business. Then again, he felt like sometimes he should allow people to get in his business because he grew tired of doing it all by himself. He shook his head and started walking home. Once at home, he made some adjustments to the presentations he intended to give to the police officers and he made sure to send materials to Hinton. After that, he got ready for the ballet practice he had planned in the evening – his customer for that day was a little kid who just needed some extra help with her pirouettes. Nothing to stressful.

(The most boring part😐 )

#Bailey #Bailey&Cole #tag game #open tag #crime fiction #writer #writer problems #mystery writing #police #detective #lgbt