Give Your Story Reader Room to Imagine
Allowing your reader to imagine character details in the theater of the mind develops connections with your story.
How to Introduce Your Detective to Devoted Mystery Readers
Without an immediate connection with your sleuth, a reader is not motivated to follow them solving the puzzle in the rest of your novel.
What to Write in Your Author Newsletter Before Your Book is Finished
Ideas for how to talk to your reader fans when your first book isn’t finished. Share your writer self.
First-Time Writer Mistakes to Avoid So Readers Love Your Story
How to create a great protagonist, smooth dialogue, keep readers engaged, and trim info-dump to write a novel readers love.
Keep Time in Your Mystery
Don’t overlook time elements in your story. From time of day in a scene to the timeline of the entire story. Tips to keep time in your mystery.
The Chapter Writing Adventure
As you build your mystery chapter-by-chapter be prepared for characters arrive with unexpected actions. Evaluate these actions in relation to the chapter and to the story vision. Trust the process.
Know Your Mystery Ending Requirements
Readers and Tropes Drive Mystery Endings Readers have expectations about mysteries. In order to give readers a satisfying mystery, your mystery needs certain elements. A baffling crime, usually a murder. An investigator committed to solving the crime. A concealed killer. The killer’s cover-up. Discovery process and elimination of suspects. Evaluation of clues, sorting the true…
Character Context
Character context defines their role in the story. Use context as your primary guideline as you create a character background.
Keep Your Mystery Reader Guessing
Tips on using characters, twists, and clues to keep your mystery reader guessing until the end.
How to Start Your Mystery Novel
How To Start the First Chapter of Your Mystery Writing a mystery is a long run to the finish. Your first chapter brings the reader into the world of the story and introduces your sleuth. As a writer, you are in for a marathon of writing. You’ll introduce suspects, plant clues and red herrings and misdirect your sleuth and your reader. When a reader starts your mystery, they feel they have an unspoken agreement with you to give them a good puzzle and an intriguing and sympathet […]