  Mystery
This week: Edited by: darkin
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Welcome to the Mystery Newsletter. A good mystery is like that strange friend you've always had, and wouldn't give up for anything. Mysteries make you think, trying to solve the crime before the detective can. You follow ever clue, examine all of the crime scenes and remember what each suspect said when questioned by the detective. A good mystery can keep you interested until the end. A great mystery will keeps you guessing until the last page...when it makes you slap your forehead in surprise!
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Conflict Plot Plan
Writing a mystery story is like trying to make the perfect maze. You want the reader to be surprised at the end, but not get so frustrated while they are reading that they put the story down and never finish it. .
One way to keep the reader interested is to understand what your character's goals are. Not just your detective's goal of solving the crime and the criminal's goals for committing the crime. You want a clear picture of why they do what they do. Why does your detective need to solve the crime? Why does the criminal need to commit the crime? Knowing your character's goals can help you better understand their motives for doing what they do...and help you show your readers that too.
To have a clearer picture of what your characters want you'll need to ask questions of each main character; Hero, Heroine, and Antagonist. Take one piece of paper for each main character. Make three columns on each sheet and head them - plot, time, and conflicts.
What are your characters trying to achieve? You need to decide what each of your main characters needs in order to complete their quest. Does your hero just want to solve the mystery, or is he also trying to get back into the good graces of his boss by bringing the antagonist to justice? Is your heroine just looking for love, or does she also want revenge against someone too? Why does your antagonist do what he did? Does he hate, envy, or just loath the victim(s)?
In the first column you list the goals of the character. Prioritize each goal in relation to the others. Which is most important to your main character? List the goals in the highest to lowest order.
Remember, the ability of the character to compromise will depend largely on the importance he or she puts on each goal in relation to how they feel about the other characters.
As with people, each of your main characters should have more than one goal. Think about your own goals. You don't just have just one, you have many goals, and some of them even contradict each other. This is the way everyone is...and it's also the way your characters should be. Your characters should be as multifaceted as the rest of the human race!
Now you'll need to break down your character's goals into time groups. You should ask the following questions:
How long will it take your characters to achieve each goal?
Is what they want something which that will take a lot of time, or is it something they can fairly quickly?
Remember, not all character goals are likely to be way down the road, beyond present sight. On the paper with the columns put in the second column which time group each goal falls into:
Long term --- 20 years from now.
Mid term --- 10 years from now.
Short term --- 1 to 2 years from now.
Very short term --- less than 6 months to several days
If their primary goals are long or mid term, you'll need to break the goal down into shorter steps and write down those steps. This will help you to plot out what actions your characters are going to make to resolved their goals.
Remember every action of one character is going to cause a reaction from one or more other characters. The extent of the action and reaction will determine whether you are writing a short story, novella, full length novel, or a series. The shorter the time it takes to resolve the character's goals, the shorter the tale will be.
In your third column, under "conflicts", list those characters who will be in direct opposition to the intended goal. Be sure that you note why this is so on both character's individual page. There must be a good reason, and not just because you need conflict for the story. If there isn't a solid reason behind the character's opposition you've only got a plot device, not a solid piece of characterization.
Goals are important - to you, to me, and especially to your readers! They want to know why a character does what they do, what their motive is for want to finish their quest. It's one of the things that gives the reader a reason to keep reading.
Thank you for taking the time to read. Happy Writing!
darkin
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Here are some short stories I found while traveling the highways and byways of Writing.Com!
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Here's what some of you are saying about the Mystery Newsletter
Submitted by: robi4711
Thanks for taking the time to find a couple of web sites for those of us to harried to look ourselves. I guess I would have got around to it sooner or later, but it's so nice to have help now then. Thanks again.
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Submitted by: billwilcox
Wonderful newsletter, Darkin! To answer your question, yes, I've been published and paid by several different Ezines around the web. MS's that I mail out take forever to get answered, but of course, they're to glossy mags that are very busy and just happen to pay the highest amount for your material. So I keep submitting and collect my reject letters, but I will never stop trying
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Submitted by: Vivian  
Thanks for the links in this newsletter, Darkin. I found two places to send my mysteries. Now I'll go over the Writers' Guidelines for both and submit. ~~ Viv
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Thank you all so much for the kind words. I'm glad you are enjoying the newsletter |
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Mystery: October 05, 2005 Issue [#647]
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