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SFGirl Profile
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Scribus Administratus

Registered: 01-2004
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Posts: 939
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To begin...


Well, I have written one mystery short story; it's set in a fantasy realm and involves one of my series characters. So I'm no expert, but might have something to contribute to discussions here.

The hardest part of writing a mystery, I found, was striking the balance between making it possible for the character to solve the mystery in a believable way, without having it too obvious to the reader.

Sherry

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Reading: Low Port ed. by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Rewriting: short story: The Price of Roses
4/22/2005, 11:11 pm Link to this post Send Email to SFGirl   Send PM to SFGirl
 
David Meadows Profile
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Registered: 09-2003
Posts: 165
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Re: To begin...


I've only written one mystery story, and I decided not to take the "see if the reader can solve it" approach. I decided that the reader should be watching the detective's progress in uncovering the clues and misdirection, not looking for the clues and misdirection himself. (At least, I tried to do it that way...)

I think it takes a high degree of intellectual rigour and planning to write a mystery that the reader can "play along" with, and to strike that balance you talked about. I don't think I could do it.



---
Reading without thinking will confuse you.
Thinking without reading will place you in danger.
-- Confucius, Spring and Autumn Period
4/23/2005, 2:55 am Link to this post Send Email to David Meadows   Send PM to David Meadows
 
SFGirl Profile
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Scribus Administratus

Registered: 01-2004
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Re: To begin...


quote:

I decided that the reader should be watching the detective's progress in uncovering the clues and misdirection, not looking for the clues and misdirection himself.



Having read that story of yours (at least I'm assuming that's the one) I know what you mean, and you did it well, but don't you think that in most cases the mystery reader is actively trying to solve it at the same time as they are reading it? And if they get there much before the detective they will

a) think the detective is not smart enough to be a detective
b) think the story must not be very well-done or
c) be disappointed?

I think there should always be something that intrigues the reader right up to the end, whether it's the whodunnit or the why they did it or something else. I think readers like detectives who come out looking just a little bit smarter than the average person.

I didn't have your story totally figured out, David, so I think you did strike the balance. But it's definitely not an easy thing to do.

Sherry

---
Reading: Low Port ed. by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Rewriting: short story: The Price of Roses
4/23/2005, 7:08 am Link to this post Send Email to SFGirl   Send PM to SFGirl
 
wanda7 Profile
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Registered: 02-2005
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Re: To begin...


I've been reading Elizabeth George's book on writing and I went to a reading by her. It got me curious about the genre (I read almost every genre there is but am not really bonded to any particular one).
One of the questions she was asked was this: why do people read mysteries?
She said she thought mystery readers looked for the following (maybe one, more than one, or all of these elements):
- first, it's like a traffic accident and we have monkey brains, we want to see the unusual, the underbelly, the things we never want to see in our own lives; it's a voyeuristic urge.
- second, it's predictable. The format of the mystery means you know what to expect. This is especially so when the mystery is part of a series. There's something warm and comforting about the familiar.
- third, intellectual challenge. Can you solve the mystery before the truth is revealed? If you can solve it too fast, it's not a good book, if you can solve it just before (or at the same time as) the detective it's a good book, if you can *almost* solve it, it's a very good book. Some people like to pit their brains against the author.
Within that structure, it gives the writer room to focus on a number of different elements, pyschology, physiology, location, and so on.
Oh, there's a ton more in my head. But I have to get back to Edna and the dead body in her car.
wanda

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Reading: Cargo of Eagles
Spinning: Lilith Fair
Writing: If It Were My Life
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I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.
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4/23/2005, 3:50 pm Link to this post Send Email to wanda7   Send PM to wanda7
 
David Meadows Profile
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Re: To begin...


quote:

SFGirl wrote:
I think there should always be something that intrigues the reader right up to the end, whether it's the whodunnit or the why they did it or something else. I think readers like detectives who come out looking just a little bit smarter than the average person.


But then there is also room for something like Columbo where there is no mystery at all for the viewer, as you are shown who, how, and why right from the start. The enjoyment comes emtirely from watching Columbo piece together what you already know. (Actually there is a mystery of sorts - it's in trying to determine when he gets the answer. I think he usually has it within two minutes of meeting the murderer. The man's a wizard.)

quote:

I didn't have your story totally figured out, David, so I think you did strike the balance.


That's nice to know, but if I did then it was purely by accident. I still don't know how to plot a mystery (one that the reader will be able to solve).

I've found in role-playing games that mysteries are the hardest scenarios to run. Clues that seem blindingly obvious to me go completely unnoticed by players.



Last edited by David Meadows, 4/27/2005, 2:21 am


---
"The Spirit that guides you, follow it through.
To the Spirit inside you, always be true."
--Tony Clarkin, The Spirit.
4/27/2005, 2:18 am Link to this post Send Email to David Meadows   Send PM to David Meadows
 
SFGirl Profile
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Scribus Administratus

Registered: 01-2004
Location: Nova Scotia, Canada
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Re: To begin...


quote:

Clues that seem blindingly obvious to me go completely unnoticed by players.



Oh, absolutely!!! I love writing puzzles and riddles but that's the thing--thinking everyone's brain works the same as one's own does. My sister and I wrote a murder mystery party for my niece's birthday last winter and WOW, it was difficult. And they didn't pick up on the clues in the way we thought they would.

Sherry

---
Reading: Low Port ed. by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller
Rewriting: short story: The Price of Roses
4/27/2005, 9:05 pm Link to this post Send Email to SFGirl   Send PM to SFGirl
 
duval1219 Profile
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Registered: 01-2006
Location: Central Florida
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Re: To begin...


The word mystery is such a broad term. There are so many different types and various ways to set them up. The detective type, like Micky Spillane, Mike Hammer types, the Agatha Christie, and like David mentioned, The Colombo thing. How you decide to write your mystery is going to be your personal preference. What works for one writers style of writing might not work for anothers.

I have two mysteries in the works. The first is turning into a novel. I'm half way through it, and it's there that I let the readers know that the protaganist assumes the killer is a woman. But the victim was a player and many women in the story could've held a grudge. But that still doesn't leave out the possibility of the killer being a man either.

In my other mystery, two murders have already happened. The killer is introduced early in the story, so no mystery there, but he has another hostage. Will that person die like the other two, who's bodies have already been found?

Needless to say, I break all the rules in my writing. Who needs them....rules....smules. emoticon

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"Write something to suit yourself and many people will like it; write something to suit everybody and scarcely anyone will care for it." -Jesse Stuart
1/10/2006, 1:01 pm Link to this post Send Email to duval1219   Send PM to duval1219
 


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