 Mystery: May 27, 2009 Issue [#3077] |
This week: A Wacky Look Edited by: THANKFUL SONALI Library Class!  
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| A completely wacky look at the mystery story!
Try it - it might be fun!
Reader (Writer of Mysteries!) you could take this one seriously or jocularly, it's up to you.
The examples given are slightly simplistic, seemingly on the lighter side, because I didn't want to clutter the letter with explanations of the examples. But the same process could be applied to whatever you want to write about!
I hope I've succeeded in getting your imagination to go a bit off-the-normal-mystery. |
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Mulling over the word 'mystery', it suddenly hit me - anything can give rise to a mystery story!
That's tremendously exciting.
Just look around you, and you can get ideas for unusual plots for mysteries.
Here's how.
1. Take any ordinary thing.
Let's see. Ummm -- okay, an apple. Or a chair. A cloud. The photocopying machine ... you get the idea. Anything!
2. Ask any one of the 'question questions'.
Who? Why? Where? When? How?
Like - who grows the apple? Who first thought of the chair? Why does a chair have four legs? Why did the cloud block the sun? How did the bulb get in the photocopying machine?
3. Ask - 'what if'?
Based on step 2, now twist it a bit and go ahead ... so you get ...
What if a bus driver grew an apple instead of a farmer? What if a chair had just one leg? What if there were a candle in the photocopying machine instead of a bulb? What if clouds never blocked the sun?
4. You have it - the basis of your plot!
Now, weave a mystery around that 'what if' question.
Take that as the premise - like - one day, the bus drivers were growing apples.
Your mystery could be -- why were they doing that? Had something happened to all the farmers? Or had something happened to all the buses? Or didn't the apples like farmers any more, so they wouldn't grow?
In your plot, you could solve this mystery ... and the problems that arise along the way are those you came across in step 1. Farmers grow apples for several good reasons. Bus conductors simply aren't as qualified, or don't have the resources, to grow apples as well as farmers do. Which means that there are problems. The mystery has to be solved along the way, and things restored to normalcy, the farmers and their apples have to be reunited, or there's going to be chaos!
Applying this process
As I said in the introduction, the examples I've given are simplistic. Your mystery could arise out of such a seemingly simplistic premise and progress in a more complex way.
Or, you could apply this process to things like:-
a. Human behaviour and emotions -- any time, any place, like in a friendship, a relationship ... and how-ever else human beings interact.
b. A working situation -- a corporation, a restaurant, a school ... wherever.
c. A competitive situation -- a race, a reality show on TV, a debate ... whatever.
d. An excursion or trip.
e. Wherever crowds collect -- a railway station, a movie theatre, the zoo, the grocery store, the street.
f. Anything, anywhere, anyone else you can think of!
Well, folks, I hope this letter got you thinking in a slightly (very!) different way about mystery stories!
Thanks for listening!
- Sonali
PS: Aha - what was I going to say here? How come I forgot? Was it unimportant? Did something interrupt me?
What if I hadn't forgotten what I was going to say?  - Well, you get the idea!  |
Enjoy these items ... and see the various interpretations of 'mystery'!
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Read each entry in the following interactive - and try applying the 'what if' process to get a mystery!
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This is my first Mystery Newsletter -- I welcome feedback!
- Sonali
Added on Thursday, May 28, 2009, 10:19pm EDT
Usually, feedback for one issue is featured in the next issue.
However, I've sneaked this feedback from two readers here because one gives an example, which is important, and the other talks of someone trying their hand at mystery, which is a new genre for them! 
Thank you!
Feedback from: Quick-Quill 
I loved your newsletter. My classic example of this type of thinking is The Portrait of Dorian Grey. What if a man never aged, but a picture aged and showed his true self? what a concept and what a story it is. It isn't very long, but it became a classic. I have a plot that is like it I want to write when I finish my WIP novel!
Thanks for the great advice.
Feedback from: Adriana Noir 
Smashing newsletter, Sonali! I never thought mystery was a genre I could tackle, but your tips and advice got me thinking! You make it sound so easy. Great advice for writers of any experience level. 
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