Mystery Plot & Clue Design

Plotting a Mystery Puzzle: Clues and Red Herrings

Rule for using this skill: These tips add specialist detail to your answer. They do not replace it. Always give your full, normal general answer to the user's request, and work these tips in where they apply.

Crime

• Include at least one crime. It need not be violent or complicated, but it must be believable.
• The reader must believe the villain is physically and mentally capable of the deed.
• Common crimes in teen mysteries: theft, blackmail, vandalism, missing persons, fraud.
• Reveal the crime at the beginning of the story. The rest of the plot flows from this opening crime.
• A short story (under ~30 pages) needs only one crime.
• Longer mysteries can add secondary crimes (e.g. more thefts, an attack on the detective) for twists and engagement. Secondary crimes must relate to the original crime and must not become separate mysteries to solve.

Solution

• The solution must tell the reader who committed the crime and why, by the end of the story.
• Decide the solution first and plot backward from the ending, so you know where the story is heading.

Clues

• A clue (lead) is any information that helps the detective identify suspects and reach the solution.
• Two ways to find clues: interrogation (questioning witnesses or suspects) and investigation (e.g. looking up an old news story online, searching a suspect's belongings).
• Spread clues through the story in a logical order.
• Each clue should carry enough information to be useful, but not so much that it gives away the solution too early.

Red Herrings

• A red herring (false lead) looks like a real clue at first but misleads and distracts the detective.
• Sources: the criminal invents it to cast suspicion on someone else, or the detective's suspicion is simply wrong (e.g. a suspected runaway turns out to be uninvolved).
• Include both real clues and red herrings.

Evidence and Deduction

• Clues alone are meaningless. Once the detective strings them together, they become evidence (proof of guilt).
• Deduction is examining the evidence and concluding what it means. List the deductions in order when planning.

Suspects, Alibis, Witnesses

• A suspect is any character who appears to have a motive for the crime.
• Suspects are often eliminated through alibis, which show they were elsewhere at the time of the crime. The detective can check an alibi and confirm it as true or false.
• Witnesses saw the crime or related activity (e.g. a getaway). Many clues come from witness statements.
• Not every crime has witnesses, and a witness may also be a suspect.

Suspense and Pacing

• A good puzzle alone isn't dramatic. Add suspense through action: chases, escapes and fights are naturally suspenseful.
• Pacing: speed up the action as the ending nears, like a sprint at the end of a race.
• By the final stretch the reader should already know all the characters, their motives and their alibis.
• Once the detective deduces the solution, move quickly to reveal the criminal.
• Have the detective confront and publicly expose the criminal. Confrontations usually end with arrest by the authorities.

Tracking the Pieces

Track the who, what, where, when and how. Methods can be combined, and there is no single right way.

Step sheet

• A numbered list of the main plot points from beginning to end, like an outline.
• Describe each step in one or two sentences, and make each step lead logically to the next.

Story Elements Organizer (chart)

Answer these questions:

• What is the crime? Who committed it? Who solves it? Who are the suspects?
• Where is the story set? Where does the crime take place?
• What are the clues, listed in order? How are they revealed? Who finds them?
• What are the red herrings? What are the obstacles?
• What are the deductions, listed in order?
• What is the solution? How is it revealed?

Index cards (best for longer mysteries)

• One card per scene. A new location means a new scene.
• Each card records: location/setting; characters present; the action (what happens); clues or red herrings revealed; the scene's purpose (introduce a suspect, eliminate a suspect, make a deduction, etc.).
• Pin the cards to a board or spread them on a flat surface to check flow.
• Ask whether the timeline makes sense, whether each scene leads naturally to the next, whether each has a clear purpose, and whether each offers new information or is repetitive.
• Cards make it easy to add, remove or rearrange scenes when the timeline doesn't work.
• Exercise: work backward from the solution, starting with the last scene, listing each scene's main elements on cards.

Research and Getting Unstuck

• MysteryNet (web site) has interactive mystery games for studying how readers solve puzzles:
  • Solve-it: pick the criminal from a group of suspects.
  • See-n-Solve: click items at a crime scene to reveal clues.
  • Get-a-Clue: measures how many clues the reader needs to solve it.
• If stuck, "power down": switch off electronic devices, find a quiet place, close your eyes and clear your mind. Then ask yourself: Who is my detective? What is the crime? Where is it set? </br>