Tips on Writing in the Detective Fiction Mystery Genre
Extra: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (and become smarter...)
Now try these strategies and solve these riddles/puzzles: 13 Short Detective Stories & Math Riddles to Test Your IQ
From: edeverell.com (Eva Deverell)
Choose 1 Prompt to Start & Write for 5 Minutes without Stopping:
Extra: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes (and become smarter...)
Now try these strategies and solve these riddles/puzzles: 13 Short Detective Stories & Math Riddles to Test Your IQ
Let's pick a crime. Please watch the video, then record a crime & a "country". The crime will be used in the prompt below. The "country" will help you further define your character or victim(s). Most common crimes in the US:
- Theft (the action or crime of stealing)
- Larceny (theft of personal property)
- Burglary (entry into a building illegally with intent to commit a crime)
- Assault (physical attack or violence against a person)
- Robbery (theft using force or threatening force)
- Drug use (illicit drug use)
- Drunk driving (DUI)
- Fraud (a person deceiving others intended to achieve financial or personal gain)
- Blackmail (demanding money or profit in return for not revealing information about the victim)
How to Observe a Person (Things to Look For)--building a clue list. Using the information in this linked video, create a list of 4, 8, or 12 clues that might go along with the kind of crime you have selected.
- Choose 1 of the prompts below.
- Write whatever details come to mind for 5 minutes. Do not leave off your writing or disrupt others or stop writing or leave the room or put your pencil down (or you have "died"). Survivors will receive a prize at the end of this exercise.
- You may start a new prompt from this list if you finish one before time is called.
- Stories do not have to be linked to events that occurred before you started writing (you do not need to write from beginning to middle to end...)
- This is just an exercise--this is not intended to be the final draft of your mystery story.
Choose 1 Prompt to Start & Write for 5 Minutes without Stopping:
| 01 | A note is discovered. | Who was the intended recipient? |
| 02 | A character who was thought lost or who departed reappears. | Why did they stay away until now? |
| 03 | A new (contradictory) clue is discovered. | Is it a red herring? |
| 04 | An old clue is reevaluated. | How has the evaluator’s perception changed? |
| 05 | Suspicion shifts to another person. | Why were they not previously suspected? |
| 06 | The investigator examines the scene of the mystery. | What seems out of place? |
| 07 | A previously innocent or unrelated person is connected to the mystery. | Why wasn’t their connection noticed earlier? |
| 08 | The investigator explains their own interest in the mystery. | Are they qualified to try and solve this? |
| 09 | A character puts two and two together. | What leads them to the connection? |
| 10 | A character finds they’ve misread someone’s MOTIVATION. | How were they misled? |
| Write a SHORT scene from one of these prompts...this is NOT your mystery draft. |
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