I went to the source for the following questions:
Susan Quinn asked:
How do you reveal a key clue to the mystery in your
story, without letting the reader know it's a clue until later, when everything
finally clicks into place?
AND Cynthia Chapman Willis asked: What is the best way to set up a twist at the end of
a novel that readers do not see coming, yet makes perfect sense once they read
it. You know, that slap the forehead "but of course" sense that we
get when we've read a really great twist.
Both of these questions relate well to mysteries. And there's no better blogging mystery expert than Elizabeth Craig! SO here's her response:
Thanks so much to Lisa for inviting me here today to talk about
a couple of important mystery elements. Since she’s recently gotten questions
in her comments about laying clues and including twists in our stories, those
are the two topics that I’ll cover today.
Clues
One of the most important rules of mystery writing is that
the reader must be kept in the loop.
We can’t write mysteries where the sleuth is privy to information that
we don’t provide the readers.
Reading a mystery is almost an interactive experience—we’re solving the
crime alongside the sleuth.
So how do we supply enough clues to point to the murderer
without actually giving away the killer until the end of the book?
The best way I’ve
found to lay clues is a technique I think most mystery writers employ:
distraction. Here are some ways to do it:
Include the clue in a list of other, less-crucial observations.
There’s a smudge of white paint on a suspect who is also unshaven, unkempt,
smells like oranges, and has a runny nose.
Lay the clue but immediately introduce a red herring (false
clue) that seems much more important. The suspect mentions going out for
breakfast at a time he previously stated he was sleeping at home. This information is immediately
followed by Penelope’s revelation that Cindy, the victim’s secretary, will unexpectedly
receive a large sum of money from the victim’s estate.
Drop the clue and immediately distract attention away from
it by an interruption. Carter has just revealed information that seems
contradictory to something the sleuth believes to be true. Suddenly, they hear
shouting outside and two suspects are engaged in what looks like a life and
death struggle after one accuses the other of being the murderer.
Use a minor distraction. The interruption doesn’t have to be
violent—it could be something as quiet as another character arriving at the
scene and cutting off the sleuth’s ability to analyze or process important
information she’s been given.
Plot Twists
Twists are fun to write for any genre. The trick is to make sure the readers
don’t feel like they’ve been tricked or cheated (the “it was all a dream”
scenario where we find out the events in a book, television series, or movie
didn’t actually even occur.)
I’d use some examples here, but we run into the problem of
spoilers. So I’ll keep it vague and if you’ve seen or read this technique in
action, you’ll be able to think of your own examples.
Unreliable narrator:
This can be tricky, but is really effective if done well. The idea is to make the reader believe
that the person telling the story is a reliable and trustworthy observer…then
show them in the plot twist that the narrator is anything but. I’ve seen this
done where the narrator is actually the killer in the mystery, where they’re
mentally unstable or incompetent, or where we learn the first person narrator is
a young child or even an animal.
Chekov’s gun:
This is a technique where you take a common object that seems unimportant and
imbue it with some form of usefulness, symbolism, or importance later in the
story.
Unlikely perp: Someone
your protagonist and readers trust and believe in turns out to be the
perpetrator or villain. You’ve got
to make sure you’ve laid clues to point to this person…the reader will likely
discount those clues since they’ve written that person off as a suspect or bad
guy.
Surprise identity of
a main character: In this twist, we receive a surprising revelation about a
main character. We learn the protagonist is a double agent, for example. Or we discover
(maybe the protagonist makes a simultaneous discovery) that either the
protagonist or other important character has a shocking relationship or link to
another—he is the child or parent or sibling, etc., of another.
A surprising twist in
something we’d assumed to be true: The story isn’t set in modern times,
it’s set 200 years in the future.
The story isn’t populated by humans at all but by aliens. Something that
appears to be true is completely false. We think that all of the characters are reliable and trustworthy and reasonable,
then we learn that the story is set in an asylum or prison. I think these types
of twists would likely only be considered fair in short stories or similar
forms.
In mysteries, using an
unreliable
witness can also be effective in
helping to provide a twist. You’ve written in a character who is known by all
to be highly unreliable—a habitual liar, someone in the early stages of
Alzheimer’s, maybe even a young child—and then this person provides information
that points to the killer. Real and useful information that shouldn’t be
discounted, but is because of the way the writer has s
et-up
the situation for the reader.
Can you think of any other ways to lay clues or provide plot
twists? Which are some of your
favorite techniques? Have you used
these in your writing?
Elizabeth’s
latest book Hickory
Smoked Homicide released November 1.
Elizabeth writes the Memphis Barbeque series for Penguin/Berkley (as Riley
Adams), the
Southern Quilting mysteries (2012) for Penguin/NAL, and the Myrtle Clover
series for Midnight Ink and independently. She blogs daily at Mystery Writing is Murder, which was named by Writer’s Digest as one
of the 101 Best Websites for Writers for 2010 and 2011.
Writer's Knowledge
Base--the Search Engine for Writers
Twitter: @elizabethscraig
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