dark+stormynight

My first attempt at a novel could best be classified as a murder story with a mystery as opposed to a murder – mystery. (Who commits the murder is never in question, the story is told from the murderer’s point of view. There is another surprising event that adds the mystery element.) But I’m hoping that anyone familiar with the more common murder-mystery format might be able to answer my question.

Although individual chapters are usually written ‘free-style’ with no detailed pre-planning, I do maintain a summary level outline of a handful of major plot points. The outline might be considered informal and only a guide as opposed to a detailed, step by step map of the plot.

Now that I am about halfway into the book I’ve reached the point where the mystery sub-plot should become a prominent feature. (In the preceding hundred or so pages, there have been two mentions of seemingly unrelated issues that will later turn out to be part of the mystery story.) But now I’m having a hard time developing and organizing all of the little hints, twists, turns, mis-directions, etc. that will define the mystery. Unlike the main story that was outlined mostly for convenience, I feel that the mystery sub-plot needs to be more formally planned and structured in advance of the actual writing. Maybe on my third or fourth mystery novel I will be able to improvise a complicated mystery storyline on the fly, but not this time. On the other hand, I don’t have a clue how to outline something like a mystery sub-plot with all of the attendant hints, twists, turns, etc.

I guess the first problem is that an outline is normally at summary level, and for me to plot out little hints, mis-directions, etc., the outline almost needs to be so detailed as the actual writing itself. When I try to visualize what a mystery outline would look like, I see this horribly complex three-dimensional puzzle of characters, plot lines, descriptive narrative, etc. all spread out along a time line (hmmm…. that makes it 4-D, not 3-D…). I hope you get the idea; my idea of a working mystery plot outline is more complex than the story itself. (it would make a great project for a visual artist into computer graphics)

Anyway…. I’m hoping that someone has come up with a more practical way of outlining a mystery story that would prove helpful for someone trying to organize all of the little bits that make a good mystery. Is there some secret template or formula that published mystery writers gain access to? How about something as dull as a “how to” book or ???

If not, how do YOU develop, define and organize all of the little bits required of a great mystery?

aspiring

I think every writer will be different. I prefer to do a mind map/spider diagram - where the central issue is in the bubble in the middle and there are lots and lots of other bubbles joined to it, and sometimes linked to each other, kind of like a tree with lots of branches. That way, when you refer to one particular aspect, you can immediately see at a glance how it is linked to other aspects. You can add more links as the book continues.

Otherwise there's the good old plan-it-down-to-the-last-detail idea, which I can't do either because it takes all the fun out of writing.

Oh, the other thing I do is to jot events/thoughts etc on post-it notes and stick them to my wall. Then I can jiggle them around into a linear sequence and I know how far into the plot I am by glancing at the wall!

FrankBlissett

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cbrmale

I keep the plots and subplots in my head, mentally organising the bits into the correct sequencing before I do a very skimpy outline of dot-points in the order they will appear in the novel. The dot-points refer to all of the different plot threads and would be more or less gibberish to anyone but me.

Once satisfied, I do a moderately detailed outline. This outline will refer to key events and mention key conversations, and therefore runs for several pages.

But I have always been able to store and organise details in my head, so this technique doesn't suit everyone.

bob rulz

This sounds very similar to what I do for most of my plot lines (whether they be mysteries or not). I've always been very good at organizing my plot lines in my head. I don't write a lot of things down unless I feel like I'll forget them. But, as cbr said, this doesn't work for everybody.

SeattleGhostWriter

If you are new to writing out the mystery, I suggest the following authors to see how they put together their mysteries:

Short Mysteries: Dashiell Hammett, Mickey Spillane.

Full Length Mysteries: Ridley Pearson (the Lou Boldt/Daphne Matthews Mystery); Iris Johanson (Female M.C mysteries); Michael Connelly, Ed McBain.

For some good reference books on writing the mystery, these are in my library:

Writing Mysteries, edited by Sue Grafton, The Criminal Mind - A Writer's guide to Forensic Psychology by Katherine Ramshland, Ph.D.

There are other great books out there on how to write the mystery.

As for the plotting of your mystery, here are some questions that I employ that help me with my mystery story lines.

1) Create a Suspect List
2) Create prospective Alibis for each suspect.
3) Prove each Alibi fallacious or true.
4) Create the Crime, the Crime Scene, the Modus Operandi.
5) Solve the Crime, find the clues, and conclude as to the M.O.
6) Motives, who would and why?
7) Relationship suspects have to the victim.


If you are telling it from the pov of the murderer, then the obvious is assumed - the murder confesses already his guiltiness to the crime and reason behind the crime. So, in this case, the Main Character is the murderer who is the Protaganist, and the detective is the Antagonist. This puts quite a spin on the storyline and plotline (I don't think I have every read a book like this so not sure where you would find one that has already been written and published to see how the complexities of sub-plotting would work in this).

Since the reader already knows how and why the character committed the crime, then the plot would seem to take on a life of its own where the detective has to solve the crime and catch the criminal, but the clues are not the detective to solve (along with the reader) but the clues are how the M.C. would throw off the detective in confusion (and having the reader maybe sympathize with the m.c? Still a bit farfetched).

These are my suggestions here.

Timothy

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