 Mystery: September 18, 2019 Issue [#9764] |
This week: The TV Show Formula Edited by: NaNoNette  
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| Dear writers and readers of mysteries, I am NaNoNette and I will be your guest editor for this issue. |
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The TV Show Formula
Do you watch TV shows? Do you watch police/crime TV shows? Do you watch Lucifer or Hawaii 5-0?
If you said yes to the last two questions, then you have witnessed the typical police procedural formula for writing crime mysteries. You may or may not have noticed that it's usually the first person on scene who is not the victim or a police officer who is the culprit. It is true that there are episodes where the first person on scene will be a decoy. A detractor from the pattern to give you the impression that you can't ever tell for sure until the TV show wants to reveal the culprit to you.
Once you watch a few seasons of Hawaii 5-0 or Lucifer, you will find that the person who committed the crime is first on scene eight times out of ten. It will then be up to the police officers or crime solvers to drag the net around that person.
As writers, we can use that in our short stories or novels. Once the crime is discovered, you can have the culprit show up on the scene. Since we are writing and not producing TV shows (yet), we have to be sure to give our reader enough incentive to remember that person once the plot noose starts tightening around them.
At first, the culprit might appear as a concerned neighbor, a jogger running by, or even be the person who called the crime in! 
As the detectives collect more and more clues and evidence, that evidence has to keep pointing back at that culprit, but not in too blatant a fashion. There has to be at least one decoy culprit in the story. Maybe even someone who would have a reason to have a grudge or a motive. Something that makes the other person just as likely to be the perpetrator.
Remember to keep track of your hints and clues as mystery writing is planned writing. In the end, you don't want the reader to be able to say, "This clue was nowhere in the story. You just pulled this one out of thin air to wrap up the plot, but it wasn't anywhere." You have to be able to point to the clue. The better hidden, the better it is. |
| |  | Invalid Item
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#2200524 by Not Available. |
| | | Top Secret (E)
A detective sets up in business. Third place in No Dialogue Contest.
#2198184 by Beholden  |
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I received this reply to my last Mystery newsletter "Forest"
ChrisDaltro-Chasing Moonbeams  wrote: Thank you for featuring my short story on your amazing WDC Newsletter - Mysyery: Forests. I was honored and proud. Christina Daltro
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