Mystery Monday 1 – Basic Mystery Tropes Readers Want
Basic Mystery Tropes and How to Start Writing a Mystery
Links to Today’s Episode
The One Important First Step to Write a Killer Mystery Have a question? Post it here in Comments.
Zara
Zara

The Counterintuitive Show Clues make up small details in your mystery that point the detective and the reader toward the villain. Detective, crime writer and mystery writing adviser, and Murder.con host Lee Lofland says, Tiny clues are often the ones that bring a case to a close. You want to plant those clues…

Your Villain Right and Wrong The true pleasure of mystery readers is trying to discover who the killer is before your detective does. It’s the big puzzle and the draw of the genre. The challenge for you as a mystery writer is to create a villain who is understandable, relatable, and yet hidden until the…
The Hidden Backstory of a Mystery The villain and the victim are star characters in your mystery. As the story unfolds for the reader the focus is on your sleuth, but the relationship of these supporting characters are the crux of the resolution. In a traditional mystery the puzzle pieces the sleuth uncovers are based on…

Give your current manuscript a head start in the book world by working on your author platform as you write.
Pre-Publication Activities The Roman Heir is due for publication on July 22. The book went out to advance readers over two weeks ago, I’m getting feedback. That means I’m doing some editing like rewording or fixing those gosh darn typos. I’m extremely grateful to these advance readers who give me early feedback.This is just the…

How to integrate research details into your mystery novel to keep readers reading.