Activity

Greetings writerly companions!

As you could cleverly deduce from the title, I’m looking for advice on the basics of the noble craft of the whodunnit.

Out of the blue, I had a concept for a mystery novel, which may or may not be induced by my recently heightened consumption of Agatha Christie novels.

The problem is that I am very much the titular dummy. Though my current project has threads of mystery, it was never a pure whodunnit with a detective and a murder.

The concept has been a blast so far. Though I’ve only been working on it for the grand total of three days, I have a main character (the Watson character) a detective, and a concept for the crimes. (Yes, plural)

(For those of you who are informed on my recent scrivenings and know that I not only have a whole trilogy to revise but also another project that is half-plotted and begging to be finished: I know. Stop judging me, I’m following the inspiration and won’t end up writing it for quite a while XD)

My main issue is that I have truly not the foggiest idea of how to plot it.

The setting: A boarding school/ college in a vaguely contemporary setting.

The crimes: A series of murders and injuries that seem alarmingly close to following the plot of a ballet that is being rehearsed.

The concept is vaguely similar to “And then there were none” though the predicted series of murders is in fact the only thing it shares. The motive, characters, setting, POV, ending, and mood are very different.

My main issue is that I have no idea how to set up the mystery, put out the trail of clues, determine a motive for the murder, write the deduction process, in short, everything that makes a mystery a mystery is a mystery to me. (Followed that? Good.)

Any resources, suggestions, and feedback are highly appreciated!

I don’t know anyone who definitely writes mysteries so here I go randomly tagging a handful of people XD

@this-is-not-an-alien

@obrian-of-the-surface-world

@noah-cochran

@joelle-stone

@anyone and everyone