Per our Elemental Genre theme, this week we further explore elemental mystery. Elemental mystery can be found in any work in which our curiosity is what keeps us turning pages. The type of satisfaction we feel at the reveal may also reveal the elemental genre in which the element of mystery has been embedded.
Credits: This episode was recorded by Daniel Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson.
Put a mystery into whatever it is you’re working on. Look at what your character knows they need, and then remove that knowledge. Force the character to figure out WHAT they need.
Thud, by Terry Pratchett, narrated by Stephen Briggs
We talk a lot about “raising the stakes” in our writing. When we say “stakes,” we’re referring to the things that keep our characters involved in the conflict, rather than just walking away and doing something else. We dig into what this really means, and how everyone in the story must be driven by things that they have at stake.
Liner Notes: in this episode we refer to the three character-development “sliders” model set forth in WX 9.13.
Credits: This episode was recorded by Jeff Cools, and mastered by Alex Jackson.
An object, a character, and a genre. Look to your left and that’s your object. Check your bookshelf, and the first book that catches your eye is your genre. The character? Your best friend.
Mystery may well be the most common element in use, at least in some form or another, across the many bookshelf genres comprising “fiction.” We discuss the driving force of elemental mystery, how to evoke those feelings in the reader, and the importance of being able to write mystery effectively.
Liner Notes: we mentioned Episode 7.10 in which Mary and Dan interviewed David Brin.
Credits: This episode was recorded by Daniel Thompson, and mastered by Alex Jackson.
Create a crime scene where you know what’s been done, and who has done it. List the clues that would be present. Then begin removing the ones that characters would not notice. This becomes your framework for a mystery, which you’re essentially outlining in reverse.
