Writing whodunnits and mysteries

[Earniel]

Most of us seem to be writing adventures and romance, but I was wondering whether anyone had tried his or her hand on a mystery or a whodunnit?

I've been thinking about them lately and they seem to me harder to write in comparison with, say, adventure-stories. Mainly because you have to work from the murder or crime up to the solution, while dropping hints and letting the characters discover bit by bit of info. And yet you have to be careful not let the reader see through the plot too soon or the story gets boring. While adventure stories can also rely on revelations and surprises, those are seemingly less vital to the story than in whodunnits.

Does anyone here have any experience with this type of story, or read any interesting article on how to write one? Is anyone thinking of writing one? And how would you start writing it if you did? Or why would you not?

[Tessar]

I've thought about trying them, but the mere thought of how tangled and twisted it would need to be is quite a bar for me .

[Earniel]

Yes, it seems to be that for a lot of people, myself included. Although I worry more about me being over-obvious with clues and hints.

[Tessar]

Oh my, Dr. McKillar has just come out of the library with blood stains on his coat!

He says he was only butchering a chicken, though.

Hmm. I wonder who did kill poor Mr. Ibeenkillar'ed?

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by Tessar

I've thought about trying them, but the mere thought of how tangled and twisted it would need to be is quite a bar for me .

I done gibbed it some thought, as well, but I have the same trouble.

[Mercutio]

Do you like to read any mysteries? If so...what?

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Oh my, Dr. McKillar has just come out of the library with blood stains on his coat!

He says he was only butchering a chicken, though.

Hmm. I wonder who did kill poor Mr. Ibeenkillar'ed?

LOL! Okay, I wouldn't be that obvious.

Still, I'd love to try a mystery, it would be great if I could write something like for a murder party. I was very impressed with the murder mystery one of the old mooters, Kyote Fields, once wrote and posted on the Entmoot. I didn't get to solve it completely, though.

Yet I think it would be awesome if I could write something similar but then for the Entmoot. Say like: "In the renovation of the last Teacup Cafe the body of blackbreathalizer was discovered behind some boxes from the first Teacup Cafe that were never unpacked. So he didn't just leave, he was murdered! But by whom? An Entmoot detective takes on the duty to unravel this mystery. He is granted access to the victim's PM's in the search for the killer. It turns out the victim had many enemies. There is JD, who was seen having many fights with the victim. Another likely suspect is..."

And so on, but with much more details. Unfortunately I don't have enough knowledge of characters and mooter history to succesfully put one together. (Sadly, I have the perception of a wooden log.) Still, I like the idea. It could be very interesting.

Originally Posted by Mercutio

Do you like to read any mysteries? If so...what?

The thing I like about mysteries is that they're so versatile. You can have mysteries in sci-fi or fantasy, romance novels, historic stories etc... Most of the mysteries I read are either in fantasy or historic novels. Pratchett, for instance, writes pretty interesting mysteries in his Disc World series. Another one I also like is the Sister Fidelma series of Peter Tremayne, because it also gives you a view on the background of early-christian Ireland.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

The BB idea is awesome, Earniel!

[Thain Peregrin Took I]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Does anyone here have any experience with this type of story, or read any interesting article on how to write one? Is anyone thinking of writing one? And how would you start writing it if you did? Or why would you not?

I'm thinking of writing one. I'm still trying to figure out the entire plot, along with how to add clues without it being too obvious.

Originally Posted by Mercutio

Do you like to read any mysteries? If so...what?

Personally, I like the Monk mystery novel. But I also like Nancy Drew.

[IronParrot]

This has been my genre of choice over the last few years of sporadic, abortive attempts at long-form fiction, so I guess I can offer a smidgen of input.

It really depends on how much focus you actually want to put on the element of mystery itself (as opposed to, say, some kind of comment on the criminal mind or the fruitless chivalry of your lonely detective). If your main concern is to write a thumping good puzzler that will keep the reader guessing, but suddenly all make sense in the end, then it helps to think about it in terms of two stories, instead of one - the "hidden story" (the backbone of the plot and the sequence of events that is there to be revealed), and the "surface story" (picking up and interpreting/misinterpreting the clues along the trail of evidence).

There is a fair amount of resources along the "how to write a mystery" vein, but I've generally been unimpressed with the ones I've seen. A lot of them offer tips that are painfully cliché, like having your major villain being identifiable by some kind of distinguishing feature or handicap (which isn't too flattering to people with handicaps). A lot of what irritated me to no end about The Da Vinci Code - which a lot of people like for some reason, but whatever - is how closely it sticks to a paint-by-numbers formula of crippled villains, murders on page one, and so on.

I think one good principle to fall back on is that of Chekhov's gun. (If you put a gun onstage in Act One, it must be fired before the show is over.) The trick is to introduce a lot of clues that are memorable enough that the reader will think, "Hey, that's a clue" - and then keep on reading, not just to discover the solution to the mystery, but how that clue will actually fit into the puzzle. Don't play Encyclopedia Brown and make your clues so deliberately obscure that the mystery is unsolvable without a perfect, photographic memory of everything that has taken place. I think the crux of a good mystery is when people forget things or make very human mistakes.

And never forget about perspective. Your entire setup will (and should) depend on where the reader is positioned in relation to whoever's doing the sleuth in the narrative itself.

[me9996]

I tried righting one on here, I think I might right a sequil

[Earniel]

That's some good advice, IP. Thanks for sharing.

[tolkienfan]

I'm writing one, it's pretty much my first attempt at writing, so it's going slowly. I get too wrapped up in thinking of new clues and side-plots and new characters that I don't actually write anything. I think it's fun though. I think your advice is good IronParrot. (I never liked Encyclopedia Brown, being able to solve it usually meant knowing some fact about the phases of the moon or something.) I LOVE Agatha Christie books, I'm trying not to copy her in my book.