  Mystery
This week: Horses or zebras? Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week: "A leopard can't change his shorts"
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Doctors have a saying, "If you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras." This means that the most likely explanation is likely responsible for a patient's symptoms.
This saying applies to criminal investigations as well as illnesses. If all the evidence seems to point to one suspect, he or she is likely to be arrested and charged with the crime. Of course, the most likely suspect is not always guilty in real life, and especially not in mystery stories. Who would want to read a story where the obvious character turned out to be the killer? Of course, if the least obvious character is always guilty, that solution will become predictable too! 
The best solutions to mystery stories are unexpected, but they make perfect sense when the reader has all the facts. A zebra shouldn't gallop in out of nowhere, but instead, it should hide among the herd, pretending to be a horse. Maybe the devoted wife actually hated her husband, or the aristocratic gentleman is really penniless. Or maybe the zebra doesn't have to hide at all, because all of the possible solutions are zebras. Maybe the victim was loved by everyone, or so it seemed...
In their quest for an original mystery plot, writers often skip past the zebras and go straight to unicorns ( totally unbelievable solution). Readers won't care how original your story is if it doesn't make sense. If a smart character does something foolish or the police conveniently ignore important evidence, your readers will see the unicorn's horn and lose interest in the story.
Something to try: Write a mystery story where everyone is a suspect. |
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Answer to last months's question: Who is the best character you ever created and why?
BIG BAD WOLF is Howling  One of my favorite Characters would be Zena. She's this ex-thief who has a heart of gold. That being said, don't get on her bad side.
However, another Character I created, and commonly use, can be found in the Campfires done by one Twiga  - James. He's the kind of soldier who is prepared for most anything, and is armed to the teeth. He also has something of an arrogant, know-it-all attitude and is known to even berate his superiors, and those around him. That being said, when his friends are in trouble, he'll go through Hell to help them, and he's done that on a couple of occasions.
J. A. Buxton  This isn't an easy question to answer since I'm torn by three of my male characters. If push came to shove, I guess I'd have to say William Walker, the owner of a large estate, who gave a safe haven to both the elderly and children. He was the main reason I wrote Home of the Red Fox along with the two following novels now as e-books on Amazon. I'm not sure if the following link works here, but I do invite anyone to check out my Facebook author's page where my novels about Walker, Randall, and Vulcan are mentioned.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/J-A-Buxton/339955082702711?sk=wall
Quick-Quill 
I have two. One is Trevor the Detective in my some-day-to-be-finshed manuscript. (submitted) The other is one I'm developing.
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Mystery: June 18, 2014 Issue [#6380]
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