  Mystery
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All that I see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Edgar Alan Poe
A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
Raymond Chandler
Welcome to the WDC Mystery Newsletter, where we weekly 'distill' the ingredients of a mystery in prose or verse, piecing together the pieces of a puzzle, filling in the blanks we create for our readers, and exploring the ways we can give them (and ourselves) a good read.
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Greetings,
What do coffee and doughnuts have to do with cops walking a beat? Well, it's tradition. Well, the pair walking out of Lucy's Bakery just as dawn cracked open day's window must be really serious about the tradition. Just look at all the jelly running down the skinny one's hands. He's so busy wiping it on the inside of his shirt, he won't notice if I slip in the bakery to see if they've left anything behind before services let out, and the churchgoers arrive for their weekly post-liturgical taste toasting..
The patrol car slowed as it passed the open door to the bakery. Nobody left doors open any longer; it just wasn't safe. Perhaps it they stopped in and expressed their sage concern, the baker would offer them a doughnut.
Looks like he had a spill. Coffee and doughnuts and a whole jar of raspberry jelly spilled across the threshold. Careful not to slip, the officers approach to find the baker's hat bobbing atop a beggar's snoring head, passed out on the floor. Must not have liked the jelly. But why did he have to kill the cook just because the recipe displeased? Why leave him lying across the counter, one hand in the empty register, mouth frozed in an 'o' of surprise, or perhaps an invective more livid?
One oficer leaves to radio for help while the other attempts to wake the sleeping hobo, going through the motions of reading him his rights.
What do coffee and doughnuts have to do with cops walking a beat? It's a redundant question, they don't walk a beat any more, not in the city. The hobo must be off his head; likely get off with an insanity plea; and the officers with commendations for a crime swiftly solved. But we've clues planted for the discerning reader, and readers of mystery are by nature puzzlers, are we not? Let's see.
***
What have I done? Posed a question and answered it, setting the stage for a mystery. The cops think they have the perpetrator. But if the baker's still warm; where's the stolen loot? No bars open on a Sunday moring, so where did he drink the money, and he did that, just take a whiff.
***
Now I've filled in a few more details with questions for your sleuth (and reader) to follow; weaving the scene into the action taking place. Cops walking a beat also alludes to a time gone by, tagging the hobo as one old enough to recall it. Hand in empty register, impoverished hobo. Again, posing questions for the officers to solve.
The spilled jelly; bet you thought it would be blood. Well perhaps it was on the 'fake' cop's face; but what then of the broken spilled jelly jar the officers discover.
 I started with action framed in the dawn; adding detail with the bakery and the hobo's attire and attitude.
Then I misdirect, perhaps, with spilled jelly; pose some more questions in relation to the scene where the officers arrive and take action.
The character (officer) assumes he's solved a murder within minutes of its occurrence perhaps. But there are clues that misdirect or perhaps allude to oher possible solutions that merit exploration. What will happen when the hobo wakes? Will he call the officers beat cops? Will either of them hear what he says or act upon their predisposed images? Food for thought in the planning stages of a mystery.
We began the story just after the crime was alluded to.
Although our character was off in his (or her) own thoughts, opening the puzzle by puzzling over what he saw, then taking action, our readers following alongside.
We've planted a number of clues and perhaps a red herring (or sticky condiment) .
We've kept the action moving, characters interacting with objects and, perhaps soon, with each other. And we've set the scene with images - sunrise, a city street, modern-era. See how many more you can pinpoint in a second quick read. Pretty tight, with few adverbs or filler. We've identified at least four (or six, if the beat cops were real -- to be uncovered along the way) characters who will interact in some way, either by mere proximity or in the search for clues and solutions to the puzzle. Yes, I'm counting the recently deceased baker.
We've introduced the puzzle, although your reader may have to fish a bit to solve the 'real' one.
And solve it he will, whether correctly or incorrectly, alongside your readers, who may have alternate preconceived opinions which your clues will guide to the believable, achievable, and satisfying resolution of the puzzle.
Until we next meet,
Keep Writing!
Kate
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Some openings that grab you and see if they let you go before the mystery is solved
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#1584259 by Not Available. |
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Not your usual detective story or who-dun-it. Choppy, precise, graphic. Science-fiction?
#1473639 by Ray  |
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#1339219 by Not Available. |
Check out the following challenges for the muse creative ~ can you open with dramatic flair or panache, and keep the momentum going until the satisfying, unexpected end ~ with or without images to kick-start the muse creative
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#1553351 by Not Available. |
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Thank you for sharing some coffee and sweets in your virtual maze of reality and vision; on my way out, I'll leave you with a thought ~ Happy 9th Birthday, WDC ^_^
Until we next meet,
Keep Writing!
and reading ~ to solve
the clues ~ along the way
in mysteries you envision
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Mystery: September 23, 2009 Issue [#3290]
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