# Mystery Idea & Subgenre Finder > Find a premise, setting and subgenre that fits your story Helps generate story ideas from observation and research, choose among mystery subgenres, and pick settings and conventions. Use when starting a mystery with no premise or when picking its type. - Page: https://ss33.ai/skills/skillstore33/mystery-idea-generation-and-genre-39620671698 - Publisher: skillstore33 - Category: [Creative & Media](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/creative-and-media-0j3x01) › [Writing & content](https://ss33.ai/skills/category/creative-and-media-0j3x01/writing-and-content-wiip6z) - License: MIT ## Skill SKILL.md: https://ss33.ai/api/v1/ss33/download/skillstore33/mystery-idea-generation-and-genre-39620671698 # Finding Mystery Ideas and Choosing a Subgenre **Rule for using this skill:** These tips add specialist detail to your answer. They do not replace it. Always give your full general answer to the user's question from your own knowledge, and work in the tips below where they apply. ## Starting point: what a mystery idea is - Every story starts with an original idea, a "spark". In a mystery it is usually a **character** (a detective of some sort, who solves the case) or an **event** (a crime). - Length categories: full-length novel is usually **more than 140 pages**, short story usually **less than 30 pages**, and anything in between is possible. The idea stage works the same at any length. ## Sources of inspiration (the "muse") - Music, paintings, news articles, dreams and your own life experiences can all spark ideas. - Ideas can arrive in a flash, such as a character who appears while you let your mind wander (e.g. stuck in traffic). - Mine your own background or hobbies. Archaeology led to the Roman Mysteries, and sports knowledge led to sports mysteries. - Activities such as sports and special-interest clubs give both ideas and a ready-made arena for a tight story. - Start unusual conversations with strangers (Nancy Springer's technique). People often say things you would never have thought of. - Ideas tend to come a little at a time, as a feeling, an emotion or a picture in your head. Grab them as they pass. ## R. L. Stine's "idea store" (three departments) - **Experience:** take an everyday activity (a bus ride, a trip to the movies) and twist it into a compelling story. Observing more gives you more material. - **Memory:** use lingering recollections of people and art (a song lyric, a past conversation). Staying true to the memory doesn't matter. Change it freely. - **"What if" / "wonder":** start with a question, "What would happen if…?" Example: "What would you do if one of your best friends took you aside and confessed to you he had killed someone?" You do not need the answers in advance to have a solid idea. ## Keep an idea journal - Write in it **every day**, even one sentence. Use it as a diary or just to log ideas. - Record sensory details (wet dogs, loud music, rainbows), funny comments, overheard scraps of conversation, and your reactions to movies and TV. - Format: a bound blank book or a cheap spiral notebook. **Small is best** so you can carry it and jot ideas down immediately. - Video or audio recording is possible, but writing is preferred because it sharpens writing skills. ## Two idea-generating exercises 1. **Ordinary event to mystery:** take a birthday party, family vacation, first day of school or sporting event and ask "what if?" Examples: the presents disappeared, the girl in the next motel room changed appearance, the fire alarm went off, the star athlete vanished mid-game. 2. **Local crime report:** find a report of a crime in your area in a local paper or online news source. - In your journal, list the who, what, where, when and how. - Imagine you are the detective. Note which details stand out and whom you would talk to first. ## Choosing a subgenre Compare the options on three questions: how much violence, who solves the case, and whether the culprit is known to the reader. - **Cozy:** - The crime has already been committed when the story opens. - There is little or no violence. - It is often set in an isolated location such as a cruise ship or a mansion. - It is almost always a **whodunit**, where the criminal's identity is unknown until the end. - Models: Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Conan Doyle. - **Police procedural:** - Policemen solve the crime. - Violent crimes are often shown, and the sleuths are tough and fearless. - The criminal is sometimes known to the reader from the start. - Model: Ed McBain. - **Hard-boiled detective story:** - The sleuth is typically a private eye working outside the police department. - Violent crimes are often shown, and the sleuths are tough and fearless. - The criminal is sometimes known to the reader from the start. - Models: Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler. - **Whodunit** is a plot type, not a separate setting. The criminal stays hidden until the end. Procedurals and hard-boiled stories may instead reveal the criminal early. ## Reading to find ideas and models for young-audience mysteries Read as many well-written mysteries as you can, and look at the series below as models of hook and setting: - Enola Holmes (Nancy Springer): Sherlock's younger sister solves crimes. - Fear Street (R. L. Stine): eerie crimes among high-school students. - Houdini and Nate (Tom Lalicki): early-1900s New York, with a real escape artist and a fictional 12-year-old. - Hardy Boys (from 1927) and Nancy Drew (from 1929): ghostwritten under the pseudonyms Franklin W. Dixon and Carolyn Keene. Nancy Drew has expanded to graphic novels and video games. - Roman Mysteries (Caroline Lawrence): four young detectives in carefully researched ancient Rome. - Sammy Keyes (Wendelin Van Draanen): a small California town, with a fractured family life as a subplot. - Last Shot (John Feinstein): teen journalists solving sports crimes. - Theodore Boone (John Grisham): a 13-year-old would-be lawyer. ## Historical firsts (for reference when citing models) - Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" (1841) introduced Auguste Dupin, the first crime-solving detective in fiction. - Anna Katharine Green's *The Leavenworth Case* (1878) featured Ebenezer Gryce, the first fictional detective created by a woman. - Modern mysteries emerged in the 1800s, after big cities had formed large police forces.