Write Your Own: Mystery (6 page)

4. What?

You need some ideas about the central mystery in your story. This is called the plot outline, such as: A robbery takes place at the local jewellery store but no windows were broken, no alarms went off, and even the safe remained closed …

 

Writing tip!

Make a list of great mysteries that have really happened. For example, in the Bermuda Triangle mystery, a number of planes and ships disappeared and were never found again! Finding out about real mysteries may spark your imagination.

5. How?

Once you have decided on the mystery ‘problem' you will need to be clear about who did it, why they did it and how it happened?

Think up some clever clues that you will reveal to suggest ‘whodunnit' or what has happened. Of course, you will need to plant a few ‘red herrings' to make your reader think someone else is the villain, before you reveal the villain's true identity at the end!

Let's think a bit more about some of these five ‘servants'.

 

Your characters are one of the most important parts of the story. In mystery stories there are three main character types that you need to think about. You can have more than one sleuth, villain or suspect, of course, but try not to have too many or it will be difficult to make them all sound real.

Before writing, think about:

1. The character's names
The names you choose can often suggest something about the character. For instance, Dr Hate sounds like somebody not to be tangled with! You could also use the name to
hide the character's real intentions and to fool the reader. So old Mrs Perkins might not be such a nice old lady – she could be the villain of the piece!

Your sleuth character might have a very ordinary name like Tom Stannard or Jo Hanway and your villain may have an unusual name like Bodger O'Neill, Smudge Baxter or Fingers McClary. But there are no hard-and-fast rules, so spend some time thinking up names and think about how that character might look and act!

2. Character type

Now decide what kind of person each character is. In your ‘gallery' you could label each character as a certain type: shy, lonely, aggressive, happy-go-lucky, brainy, spiteful, mean, a misery guts etc. It can be fun to select contrasting characters, so if one is bossy then make the other one timid!

The sleuth or ‘detective' is the main character who will probably witness the mystery problem and then set off in search of the answer. As your main character, your sleuth will need to be someone likeable so that your readers stay interested in him or her.

A sleuth character needs to have a good reason for wanting to solve the mystery and it is likely that they are
good at solving mysteries. They should also have the following supersleuth qualities:

  good at working out clues
You will need to show your sleuth's thinking as they tussle with the mystery problem. For example:
According to Mrs Jenkins, Bill had been at the library first thing in the morning – but Jake now knew that this had to be impossible….

  asks lots of questions
Your sleuth should not be afraid of asking questions to help solve the mystery. For example:
So where did Sam go? Had he been kidnapped? So far, we had drawn a blank but I felt the only way to proceed was to keep asking around the village …

  extremely observant
Sleuths need to give good descriptions of suspects, places and events. For example:
There was something familiar about the way his eyes narrowed like a hawk. Then I saw a flash of gold – his teeth clicked together and his tongue flickered like a snake …

 

Writing tip!

Here are some useful phrases to show that your sleuth is on the case:

To lead the reader off the scent, it is a good idea to have a handful of suspects who your readers can believe might have been responsible for the mystery. Before writing, it may be useful to start drawing up a ‘gallery' of suspects and make notes under each one, about their appearance, who they are, what they do, how old they are and so on. You will need to think of reasons why each suspect might have been involved in the ‘crime'. These reasons will need to be dropped into the story as you go along so that the readers begin to suspect…. the wrong person! For instance, if you had a mystery in which a painting is stolen from a gallery, you might have a suspicious art dealer who happened to be in the vicinity at the time.

This person takes their place among your gallery of suspects and will need a good reason for committing the crime. Try not to make the real villain appear obviously evil; it can be more effective to make the villain someone
who you would never suspect! This keeps the reader guessing and adds a surprising twist at the end. Your villainous villain could be:

  a kind, old lady;

  a quiet and studious librarian;