  Mystery
This week: One thing out of place Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week: Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book.
~Mickey Spillane |
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Most mysteries begin with an obvious crime, and the characters spend the rest of the story trying to solve it. A common formula for mysteries says that the murder or other crime should occur in the first chapter. Just for fun, let's turn that formula upside down. Instead of a body on the library floor, let's begin the story with just one small thing out of place. The main character notices something that doesn't feel right and investigates. That clue will lead to another clue, which will lead to...In this story, the characters must figure out if a crime has even been committed before they can solve it.
Writing this type of mystery is a challenge, because you need to use a seemingly insignificant event to grab the reader's attention. The clue can be an object, an animal, or a person. Here are some examples:
 You find your butcher knife in the wrong drawer.
 A right handed man's pen is on the left side of his desk.
 Your neighbor's laundry has been on the clothesline for several days.
 A new bride is not wearing her wedding ring.
 A fashion expert wears mismatched clothes.
A friendly dog attacks.
A lifelong vegan begins eating meat.
A math professor miscalculates an easy problem.
Any character deviates from his routine.
For this type of mystery, you will need an extremely observant detective, such as Adrian Monk or Shawn Spencer of "Psych." Other characters might not even notice the clue or will dismiss it as unimportant. In some stories, the hero's sinister theory may turn out to be false, and the clue may have an innocent, but strange, explanation. In others, a missing paperclip could lead your characters to a conspiracy with earth shattering implications.
As in all mysteries, make sure the reader sees the clues when the detective does. Giving the detective information that the readers do not have is cheating.
If it is handled well, a single thing out of place can help ratchet up the tension in any story. Remember the scene in the movie "Sleeping With the Enemy" where Julia Roberts noticed the towels had been straightened! For anyone who just arrived from another planet, I won't give away the plot of that movie, but that clue "worked" because of the way it was foreshadowed earlier in the story.
Something to try: Write a mystery story that begins with one thing out of place. Have fun!
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| |  | The Message (13+)
A mysterious message results in an unexpected trip to the pub.
#1940283 by Diane  |
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This item number is not valid.
#1809912 by Not Available. |
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Question for next time: What topic would you like to see in a mystery newsletter?
Answers to last month's question: Have you ever read a story you would like to be part of?
Quick-Quill 
There are times when I wished I could live in an era for a while. say mid 1800's, midwest plains. Just to get the real story. Hygene, cooking on a wood stove and life from dawn to dusk. Just to visit, I love the 21's century.
Marci Missing Everyone
That was an awesome list of prompts! Thank you so much. You have my mind churning. In answer to this weeks questions... I have read so many books that I would like to be part of that I can't even begin to name them. Mostly, anything set in the Victorian era in England is a time and place I think I would enjoy. |
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Mystery: August 14, 2013 Issue [#5832]
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