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mbarker.livejournal.comWriting Excuses 11.25: Elemental Mystery Is Everywhere
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/06/19/11-25-elemental-mystery-is-everywhere/
Key Points: Why do people turn the page in a mystery story? To see if they're right! How will it unfold? Curiosity! What's the answer? Mystery as a subgenre may not have a body or a big problem, but it is still a mystery whenever the character tries to figure something out. Something weird just happened, what is the hero's dark past? Mystery is the journey, the curiosity leading up to the reveal, but the reveal shows what subgenre is blended in. Curiosity keeps you reading, foreshadowing tells you what kind of reveal is coming. To create mysteries, think about the information the reader needs to know. What do the characters want to know? Why? Start with what a character needs or wants, and what it will take to achieve that. Now, what information do they need to search for to let them accomplish that? There's a mystery! Whodunits, why is it doing that, even what is this thing we keep running across -- all good mysteries. Make sure you have the right mystery. Which one does your character interact with most? When you have a body on the floor, the question is obvious. But sometimes you need to plant stuff, and hang a lantern on it to make sure the readers notice the question. Mystery as subplot usually is easy to see, trying to solve a crime, but elemental mystery as subgenre may be more subtle, using curiosity to answer a question.
( There's something happening here, What it is ain't exactly clear... (Buffalo Springfield) )
[Brandon] All right. Let's go ahead and give you guys some homework.
[Mary] All right. So what we're going to have you do is insert a mystery into whatever it is that you're currently working on. Short story, novel, whatever it is. All I'm going to ask you to do is look at what it is that your character needs. You've probably got the solution already in there. Take the solution out. Then build it in so that the character has to figure out the solution. So essentially, you have just created a mystery within your story.
[Brandon] Excellent. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go solve some mysteries.
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/06/19/11-25-elemental-mystery-is-everywhere/
Key Points: Why do people turn the page in a mystery story? To see if they're right! How will it unfold? Curiosity! What's the answer? Mystery as a subgenre may not have a body or a big problem, but it is still a mystery whenever the character tries to figure something out. Something weird just happened, what is the hero's dark past? Mystery is the journey, the curiosity leading up to the reveal, but the reveal shows what subgenre is blended in. Curiosity keeps you reading, foreshadowing tells you what kind of reveal is coming. To create mysteries, think about the information the reader needs to know. What do the characters want to know? Why? Start with what a character needs or wants, and what it will take to achieve that. Now, what information do they need to search for to let them accomplish that? There's a mystery! Whodunits, why is it doing that, even what is this thing we keep running across -- all good mysteries. Make sure you have the right mystery. Which one does your character interact with most? When you have a body on the floor, the question is obvious. But sometimes you need to plant stuff, and hang a lantern on it to make sure the readers notice the question. Mystery as subplot usually is easy to see, trying to solve a crime, but elemental mystery as subgenre may be more subtle, using curiosity to answer a question.
( There's something happening here, What it is ain't exactly clear... (Buffalo Springfield) )
[Brandon] All right. Let's go ahead and give you guys some homework.
[Mary] All right. So what we're going to have you do is insert a mystery into whatever it is that you're currently working on. Short story, novel, whatever it is. All I'm going to ask you to do is look at what it is that your character needs. You've probably got the solution already in there. Take the solution out. Then build it in so that the character has to figure out the solution. So essentially, you have just created a mystery within your story.
[Brandon] Excellent. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go solve some mysteries.
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