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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 defines their role in the story. Use context as your primary guideline as you create a character background.
As you build your story alternate between action and reaction. Before you write a scene you need to know the basic structure of the type of scene that comes next in your mystery.
Tips on using characters, twists, and clues to keep your mystery reader guessing until the end.
The Victim is The Center of Your Mystery The victim in your mystery is more than just a dead body. The victim is the fulcrum for your entire mystery. Without your victim, your sleuth has no mystery to solve, no clues, no suspects to interview, and no killer. Everything in your novel pivots around the…
How to gather story setting details and use them in your mystery to keep your reader engaged.
When Characters Try to Take Over The Story Every writer has the experience of characters acting and speaking in unexpected ways. With the most detailed story outline, once you begin writing a scene, characters do something that you hadn’t planned in your outline. When the protagonist or the antagonist speaks pithy words or acts in…
Join The 3% That Finish Their Mystery It’s a long journey from a story idea to writing The End of a novel. One story idea needs to grow with setting, characters, and plot to reach a satisfactory conclusion. Because a mystery novel is a large writing process, most writers who start a novel in any…
What Came Before Every character arrives in your story with backstory. Backstory is what came before in their lives before the story begins. Long ago or maybe just last week, something happened that impacted your character. In a mystery, you need to know the backstory of your sleuth and each of the suspects, including the…
Build your reader fan base with email before your mystery is finished. Keys to setting up your email connection.
