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
Research Trip: Plan for No Plan My day job is ghostwriting. My current project is a thriller. The culmination of the story takes place at Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. Pictures, Google Maps, and other resources cannot replace the experience of being on site. The author had personal reasons for visiting over and above…
How to write detailed scenes to complete the big picture of your mystery.
The Mini-Story that Builds Your Novel Each scene is a building block to your story. And, each scene is a mini-story with the same components as the main story. A central character An obstacle A setting An emotional arc A beginning, middle, and end But the scene has one more function: Move the story forward…
Allowing your reader to imagine character details in the theater of the mind develops connections with your story.
The Detective Finds Clues in the Killer’s World Let the complications roll! Your detective screws up, asks for help from the wrong people, stumbles over his weaknesses. If it’s bad, bring it on. In the final section of Act II (Four-Act Structure) your detective dives deeper into the killer’s world as the ultimate exploration of…
Limit the goals, create aspects of conflict to increase reader engagement with your mystery.