 Mystery: July 26, 2006 Issue [#1164] |
  Mystery
This week: Edited by: schipperke
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| As one of your four mystery newsletter editors, my goal with my newsletter is to present excellent mystery writing from our own authors on Writing.Com, and to help you write a better mystery. |
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Mystery readers love to exercise. Exercise their minds, that is!
A great mystery should challenge readers and make them think. Readers want to figure out the mystery along with the detective and not be able to figure out the mystery by page two. In order to do this, the writer needs to include a literary device called a red herring.
What is a red herring?
A red herring is a dried, smoked herring that looks red from the curing process.
Why should a mystery writer stick kipper snacks into their plot line?
From the information I could find on the original of the phrase, it seems some kind-hearted folks would try to save a hunted fox by dragging a red herring across the path of a fleeing fox, confusing the hound dogs and leading them away from the little red fellow. Another mention of red herrings comes from a poem written in the 1680's, around the same time as the first written mention of the fox hunting reference. Wikipedia
Like the hounds who are thrown off the trail in pursuit of a smoked fish instead of a live fox (the fish probably tastes better anyway), a red herring is a clue meant to confuse readers and make them take the wrong path away from the truth and the solution to the case.
For example; my detective knows his quarry strolled out of a Super Shoe store at six o’clock on the night in question. The store clerk said she left wearing her new shoes. The pavement in front of the store was freshly cemented and the suspect left shoe prints in the wet cement. The detective thinks the size 6 shoe print with the distinctive outline of the newest Stuart Wietzman Empire boot is the suspect's and asks the shoe saleswoman for a printout of all the women who bought that boot that day.
However, the detective didn’t realize the suspect would NEVER wear a new pair of three hundred dollars boots on wet cement, and had walked out wearing the second pair of shoes she bought; a pair of Keds tennis shoes! The boots are a red herring.
Red herrings are an essential part of your mystery plotline. Use them judiciously to baffle your readers and keep them interested!
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|  | Burned (13+)
She was hot on the trail of the arsonsist, but was she getting too close....?
#678732 by Scott Joseph   |
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This week's question: Do you have a new favorite mystery author? What mysteries are you reading this summer?
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