Writing Excuses Transcripts

Writing Excuses 11.26: Elemental Mystery Q&A

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/06/26/11-26-elemental-mystery-qa/

Q&A Summary:
Q: How do you balance between two mysteries in the same story? Should you even try?
A: Yes. Especially small mysteries. A plot, B plot. Be aware of when you open and close each one, and the proportion of time spent on each. Sequential, with the answer to the first mystery introducing the real problem.
Q: What types of mysteries can fit as subplots? For example, when does a murder work as a subplot rather than as a main plot?
A: Any mystery can be a subplot, just set the scope and number of clues. A subplot find the murderer can heighten tension and build characters. Make sure your murder is a complication, that it changes things for the characters.
Q: When the beta readers all figure out the mystery too early, how can I tweak it so that my readers won't have the same experience as my beta readers?
A: Ask the beta readers what tipped them off, then take that out. All mysteries in first draft are either too obtuse or too obvious, and you have to add and remove to get it right. A good red herring that gets pulled out from under everyone helps.
Q: In terms of the MICE quotient, do all mystery plots have to be idea based?
A: Yes.
Q: How do you write a protagonist that is smarter than yourself?
A: Use revision, young writer! Accelerated thinking through rewriting. Jump to a conclusion, then explain the process of thought and clues -- it was not a guess! Extra mysteries with quick solutions to show how smart we are.
Q: So you've made your protagonist really smart, smarter than the average reader and the other characters. How do you still have it be a struggle for them to solve the mystery without losing people or ruining the story just by having it all internal inside of the protagonist's head?
A: Let them make mistakes. Use red herrings that mislead them, too. Make the cost of being wrong really steep. Lack of resources, or other kinds of obstacles.
Q: How do you keep a kidnapping victim from just being a MacGuffin if they aren't recovered until the end of the story?
A: Given them a point of view, and agency through trying to rescue themselves.
Q: How intellectually stimulating can you make a genre mystery? How literary or serious can it be?
A: There's what's happening (the story) and how you tell it. These are not intrinsically related! You can tell any story with any method. Genre, especially elemental genre, does not dictate method of writing.
( All the questions... and answers, too! )

[Brandon] So, your homework. I've got your homework this time. One of the things when we were discussing these episodes we realized is mysteries are embedded so much in our stories. There are often so many of them, a surprising number. So I would like you to take a book or film that you enjoy and just jot down every mystery you can see. From who drank my milk to who killed this person or how does the magic work. Whatever it is, write down every one, and you'll start to see that the curiosity of solving a mystery is integral to almost every story that's been written. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 11.23: The Element of Mystery

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2016/06/05/11-23-the-element-of-mystery/

Key Points: A mystery is a puzzle, and we read them for the thrill of solving a puzzle. Mysteries often start when the main character has a question, usually "Why is this dead body here?" Whodunit is one of the common forms of mystery, but there are others. Why are our robots acting screwy? Write a mystery because you are going to need that element in nearly everything you write! Puzzles and clues, oh my! Who did it? Where do the clues lead us? The body at the start creates an immediate question and stakes! Also, especially in the bookstore genre, a body is expected. For a murder to be compelling, there must be something at stake in solving it. Not necessarily a personal stake by the main character -- consider Sherlock Holmes and other PIs! Planning a mystery? Start with a question that has multiple answers, for uncertainty. The mystery plot is built on fascinating clues, revealed one step at a time. Plus a healthy dose of red herrings. Dan starts with the solution, then lists clues, and works backwards. Learn ways to plant clues, such as in the middle of a list, with a bit of character misdirection, or as part of something else.

( In the library, with a lead pipe... )

[Brandon] All right. I have to call the discussion here, although it's going very well. We will talk more about mystery in a couple of weeks. But for now, Howard has some homework for us.
[Howard] I do. For you seat-of-the-pantser's, this may be very difficult. For you outliners, this may be equally difficult. I want you to create a crime. Start with… Not in real life, please.
[Chuckles]
[Howard] Just stay at the keyboard. Create a crime scene. Create a crime that… Where you know who's done it, you know what's been done. Start leaving the clues, and work your way backwards through the criminal's path, through the victim's path, whatever, and lay clues. Then start removing the clues that people wouldn't notice, so that you are building… You're essentially building the framework for a mystery which you could then later wrap prose around.
[Brandon] Right. So outline backwards.
[Howard] Outline it backwards.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses 6.26: Mystery Plotting

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2011/11/27/writing-excuses-6-26-mystery-plotting/

Key Points: Mystery plots are when you don't know what's going to happen, and you're waiting for the revelation. How do you write a plot that is about finding out information? One trick is to bury the important information: for example, in the middle of a list. Add extra people and details to make it harder to see the important part for the trees. Start with the solution to the mystery, then work backwards, adding red herrings and other distractions. How could someone misperceive this? Break your information and clues into small chunks and reveal them slowly. Plan how to dole out the information, how to bury it, how to obscure it with other bits of information. Make your red herrings lead to something else, something extra. Separate learning a bit of information, realizing it is a clue, and realizing who it implicates into different scenes -- spread out the revelation.
( Whodunit? The answer is in the box! )
[Howard] Whichever. No, that's good. That's good. It's a puzzle box, and the answer to the puzzle is someone's soul is in this box. Now start building your way back to the beginning of the mystery so that the people who are trying to find out the actual contents of the box are deceived into thinking that it's anything but a soul right up until the very end.
[Brandon] That's very nice. Way to roll with our stupid comments, Howard. Well done.
[Howard] You called me Mister Brilliant, I had to execute.
[Brandon] This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.

Writing Excuses Season Four Episode 27: Major Overhauls to Broken Stories

From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2010/07/11/writing-excuses-4-27-major-overhauls-to-broken-stories/

Key Points: If you are a new writer, just keep writing! Writing group, editor, agent, your own judgment will usually tell you when a book needs work. Identifying that something is wrong and learning writing triage to pick the right thing to fix take lots of practice. Some possible solutions: rearranging things, adding characters or scenes, removing characters or scenes, changing the setting... You can't do everything in one draft -- focus on fixing certain things.
( Leave some breadcrumbs... )
[Brandon] Okay, before this goes any further, I'm going to end it and give you your writing prompt. Writing prompt this week is to take a story that you have written before and take one throwaway comment or throwaway concept somewhere in that story... find something that you didn't mean to be important at all. I want you to instead read write that scene, rewrite that chapter, so that that idea becomes the major focus of it, and see what happens.
[Dan] Cool.
[Brandon] All right. This has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.