  Mystery
This week: What If? Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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| I spent the first twenty years of my writing career preparing for the mystery genre, which is my favorite literary form.~Sue Grafton |
| ASIN: B083RZJVJ8 |
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In the 1930's, a young British writer explored the area around her new home in Cornwall and came upon an abandoned mansion by the sea. From local people, she learned that the house had belonged to one family since Elizabethan times. The last master of the estate had divorced his beautiful first wife to marry a much younger woman. As the writer gazed at the decaying beauty of the house and grounds, questions formed in her mind.
What if, instead of being divorced, the first wife had died in a tragic accident?
What if the second wife was unsure of her husband's love and worried that she could not compete with his memory of the first?
Over the next several years, a story grew from these questions. The writer was Daphne duMaurier and the novel was Rebecca, one of the most famous romantic suspense tales ever written.
You will always have a source of story ideas if you learn to play a game called "What If?" Here's how it works:
Step one--Observation
Start with an observation of the world around you. If you think your world is boring, think again! Your home town may not have any ruined Elizabethan mansions, but it is filled with situations just waiting to be turned into stories.
Step two--What If?
For every observation in step one, ask yourself as many "what if" questions as you can. Here's an example:
You are walking down the street and a young girl races past you on a bicycle, almost knocking you down.
 What if she is late for class and the teacher yells at her?
 What if she is running away from an abusive parent or boyfriend?
 What if she is hit by a car?
 What if you see her pictured on the news tonight as a missing person?
The possibilities are endless, because no two writers will think of the same questions.
- If you write romantic mysteries, the young lady on the bicycle may be on her way to meet a secret lover.
-To a murder mystery writer, she may become a murder victim (or a killer).
-In my twisted mind, she is...well, that would give away the story!
Often, one question will lead to another and you can "what if" your way through an entire story outline.
Something to try:
1. Do one of the following for at least a half hour
Go for a walk and take note of people, pets, houses, cars, and anything else that catches your eye along the way.
Go to a mall, library, or park and watch what happens around you.
Watch the traffic that passes your house or some other building.
Watch the evening news or the weather channel, read a newspaper, or look at a news page on the Internet.
2. Ask yourself as many "what if" questions as you can think of for each observation.
3. Write a short story or beginning of a story based on one of your observations and the resulting questions. |
Check out these great items from the mystery, suspense, and detective genres:
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#1838835 by Not Available. |
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#1151122 by Not Available. |
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| ASIN: 0910355479 |
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Question for next month: How do you find your story ideas?
Responses to last month's question:
What is your favorite mystery novel?
bertiebrite hoping for peace  Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier. It's suspense is non-plussed. A real nail biter filled with mysterious characters and a firm, twisty plot.
Comments on last month's newsletter:
billwilcoxI love surprise endings. It's like the icing on the cake, or better yet, the cream filling you find after you've eaten all the cake. My favorite Twilight Zone was the one where the old man survives a nuclear blast and figures now he has all the time in the world to read books, and then . . . his glasses break. Classic!
Jeff  Wonderful NL this week! When I read screenplays at work, it's amazing how many of these cliched plot twists turn up all the time. Even worse, though, are the plot twists that aren't set up; when the killer turns out to be a random character that only appeared for the first few minutes of the story!  |
| ASIN: B07NPKP5BF |
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Mystery: February 29, 2012 Issue [#4900]
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