How to write a mystery story

Do you feel like getting started in the world of writing? Is the mystery genre the one you like the most? Then you can begin to devise your mystery story following a series of recommendations that will make your story original, entertaining and literary. The first thing to keep in mind is that a story, unlike a mystery novel, is of a shorter length and, therefore, the development must be faster without losing logic or intensity. In this article we tell you how to write a mystery story giving you the basic tips that will make you write a good time.

Steps to follow:

one

Before getting down to work with the writing of your mystery story it is important that you specify who your protagonist will be . One of the essential factors of a story is the main character who, with his fears and his talent for solving crimes, manages to empathize with the reader and develop a logical and credible plot.

Therefore, to make a mystery story the most important thing is to think about your character and answer some questions about himself to make it true; Some that you can begin to solve are the following:

Full name
Basic information of your family nucleus (parents and siblings): professions, characteristics of your personality ...
Complete physical description about the character: height, weight, race, hair color, eyes, manner of dressing, etc.
Define some mania or strange habits
Who is your role model (if you admire someone in particular, if something inspired you, etc.)
Does your character regret something he has done?
His attitude towards life: he is optimistic or pessimistic
Is it religious, political, activist, etc?
Marital status: single, married, divorced ...
He has friends?
Do you have a vice such as tobacco, alcohol, drugs, sex, etc?
Hobbies

Once you have a drawing about your character, it begins to be more real and to be formed in your unconscious, so you can continue with other essential aspects for your story. In this article we give you basic tips so you can learn to write a story.

two

The next step in writing a mystery story is to think about the storyline ; it determines what will be the core on which the mystery will move and tries, first of all, to be original, leaving the clichés. It is true that there are great universal themes about mystery stories and that, in fact, are the ones that most move readers, but when you choose the mystery in question, it is important that you give a different and unique touch to your history, if not, your story will not stop being one more being the great amount of mystery literature that there is.

The following topics can help you write your story:

Conflicts with a family inheritance
Unspeakable family secrets
Infidelity and conjugal lies
Blackmail and / or business on the black market (drugs, prostitution, money fraud, etc.)
Prophecies or curses that are fulfilled

Once you have chosen the theme that most catches your attention, give an original and different touch to the conflict. To take an example, if you choose the black market issue do not talk about drugs or prostitution because it is a very subject, choose, for example, to talk about animal trafficking, lottery counterfeiting, and so on.

3

Opposed to the protagonist, now you must think about the "bad guy", the person who commits the illegality or the crime about which your story is about. In the same way in how we have defined the main character, you must do the same with your villain but making a deeper analysis of his personality so that you can determine in a rational and logical way the reason for his crimes . In a mystery story it is essential that both the argument and its resolution be logical and coherent, the reader must also understand the personality of the bad guy so that the story is good and end up liking all audiences.

Nor should you forget that in a mystery story the surprise factor is essential, so avoid using typical clichés such as the villain is the butler or husband and try other characters that can leave the reader with his mouth open. A trick is to make the criminal a person close to the protagonist (his father, his best friend, his son, etc.), in this way, the reader will be used to it and the surprise will be brutal.

4

Now that we have already thought about the protagonist, the antagonist and the argument, we started to deal with pure themes of the story such as, for example, the narrative voice of your story . Who is going to tell the story? You can choose between an omniscient narrator, that is, one who speaks in the third person and who has no connection with it, or you can decide that it is written in the first person by one of the characters in the story.

Instead of having the story explained by the detective, you can make it the criminal who speaks and earns the reader's empathy; You can also choose a story to two voices in which the detective is intersted with the view of the offender; Another option is to provide the vision of a witness who, from home, finds out about all the research. The choice is important because, depending on it, the story will be written one way or another.

5

It is also vital to determine the resolution of the conflict, that is, the outcome of your story. Do not forget that to be a good story, the end must be surprising, unexpected and logical ; There are many authors who, without knowing very well how to finish the argument, end up proposing an unlikely ending and without any sense in relation to how the plot has developed. So think carefully about how you want everything to be resolved so that the reader understands it, sees it credible and does not expect it.

For the reader to be satisfied with the story it is important that the resolution of the crime be done from a rational point of view, so that everything that has to do with the divine or superstitious does not fit with this literary genre. Chance, intuition or a premonitory dream will not be enough to be able to conclude with your mystery story because it will seem that you have wanted to end the quick story.

In order to achieve this surprising end we are looking for, you may have thrown, during the course of the story, some false clues that have given the reader to understand that the "bad" is another, in this way, you will get an unexpected result. But it is not worth saying "this has been" and that's it: to be completely closed you must explain in detail all the clues that led you to discover the culprit as well as solve all the false leads.