Mystery Sleuth & Cast Creation

Mystery cast creation

Rule: these tips add to the answer and do not replace it. Give the full general answer you would normally give on character creation or mystery planning. Then work in the tips below wherever they apply. Do not drop general knowledge just because a tip exists, and do not reduce the answer to a list of these tips.

The sleuth: know them first

• Know the sleuth more intimately than your best friend, including details the reader will never see. Use only the telling details on the page.
• Decide three things up front:
  • the investigative style: bumbling and brute force, intellectual finesse, or cool detachment;
  • the interrogation style: charge in with threats, or lurk and wait for a gaffe;
  • the inner driving force that makes the sleuth risk everything, even if investigating is part of the job.
• Make the sleuth sympathetic at minimum, never perfect. Give interesting flaws.
• Decide deliberately between an unattached, childless sleuth (freedom, no worry about orphans or widows) and a sleuth with family baggage. Each dependent (kids, pet, partner) brings plot obligations: child care, dog walking, temptation by a suspect.
• Give the sleuth a dark past that motivates the present. Each case then becomes a personal journey and a chance to "get it right this time."

Getting the sleuth involved in the case

• A 300-page novel needs a believable reason the sleuth stays involved. This is easy for police, PIs, and medical examiners, and harder for amateurs.
• Profession likelihood of tripping over a body:
  • Absolutely: bail bondsman, expert witness, federal agent, Fish and Wildlife special agent, medical examiner, military police officer, police officer or detective, private investigator.
  • Well, maybe: archaeologist, attorney, clairvoyant, forensic psychologist, forest ranger, handwriting analyst, judge, physician, nurse, reporter, scientist, thief.
  • Not very: actor, art collector, cabbie, caterer, banker, bookstore owner, college professor, golfer, horse trainer, librarian, minister, museum curator, teacher, party planner.
  • The less likely the profession, the more work you must do to justify the involvement.
• Credible reasons for an amateur to investigate:
  • special expertise the police need;
  • related to or married to the homicide detective;
  • a friend or relative is accused;
  • the sleuth is accused;
  • police are corrupt or incompetent;
  • police are chasing the wrong person;
  • the sleuth's reputation is at stake;
  • police don't believe a murder occurred.

Researching the sleuth's world

• Authenticity breaks are fatal. Example: a judge chatting about the case with the jury foreman mid-trial stops informed readers cold.
• For a profession you haven't lived, use:
  • recorded interviews with prepared questions;
  • tag-alongs (ride with a cop, spend a day with a criminal attorney) while taking notes;
  • a citizen's police academy, which often includes firearms and ride-alongs. Befriend the officers so you can ask follow-ups while writing.
• Finding experts:
  • people you already know (neighbors, friends of friends);
  • places your character would hang out;
  • expert-hosted websites that list credentials and contact details, or online groups where you can pose queries.

Sleuth profile checklist

• Appearance: know it even if you never describe it, because it drives how others respond.
  • Separate qualities others infer from the look from qualities you hide.
  • Build a gap between look and true capability (the Miss Marple model), then reveal the truth through plot and action.
  • A slightly larger-than-life real person works well.
• Present status vs. ambition (disequilibrium): list who the sleuth is at page one and who they want to be. Use the misfits to drive plot and motivation. A would-be homicide detective takes risks, and a woman who swore off men is easy to deceive.
• Background: family position, upbringing, and origin shape reactions. Pick a background that suits the story direction and is personally meaningful to you, so you can draw on yourself.
• Talents and skills:
  • Unexpected contrasts add texture.
  • Add things the sleuth hates doing.
  • Use hidden strengths to surprise the reader.
  • You don't need personal expertise in the skill.
• Personality: map what triggers humor, anger, fear, and love. Place the character on spectrum continua. Decide what makes them persevere, buckle, or crack.
• Under duress: decide in advance how the sleuth reacts to insult, lies, threats, injury, and a violent confrontation (trade insults vs. turn the other cheek, simmer vs. explode, charge in vs. call 911).
• Tastes and preferences:
  • Drink, home evening habits, clothes, eateries, passions.
  • These supply recurring quirks and scene settings (a jazz bar, an ice cream parlor).
  • They also give colleagues something to tease.

Naming the sleuth

• Pick a catchy, memorable name whose sound or meaning suggests character, region, class, and tone (Sam Spade is hard-boiled, Nick Charles is dapper).
• Process:
  1. List at least eight things the name should suggest: strength, vulnerability, age, region, ethnicity, class, occupation, and so on.
  2. List candidate first and last names.
  3. Pick the best pair.
  4. Search the exact combination in quotes online to see how common it is. If there are too many hits, choose another combination.

Sleuth planning exercises

• Write a five-minute, one-paragraph biography that could appear in the novel.
• List four to six formative life events and the impact of each.
• Write a one-page first-person monologue about one of those events.
• Complete the Protagonist section of the blueprint.

The crime and the victim

• Start planning with the crime scenario: who gets hurt, how, and where. The timing can be at the open, later, or past (flashback).
• Match violence to subgenre. Soft-boiled readers want violence offstage and object to killing cats, dogs, or children. Hard-boiled readers tolerate more.
• Match depth to role. A throwaway victim needs only what put them in harm's way. Flesh the victim out if they are tied to the plot (the guard who knew the robbers, or a victim tied to the sleuth).
• Victim's secrets:
  • Secrets drive the plot, and revealing one redirects the investigation.
  • Brainstorm about six secrets and keep two to four.
  • Some become red herrings that make innocents look guilty. At least one points to the villain.
  • Example categories: about to expose embezzlement, an affair with the boss, addiction, a look-alike sister, compulsive gambling, a drug-dealer boyfriend, a newly contacted birth mother.

Making the crime matter to the sleuth

• Tie the crime to the sleuth's dark past. This raises the stakes and sets up failure and redemption as themes.
• Devices:
  • the victim is the sleuth's friend, colleague, lover, or relative;
  • the next likely victim is such a person;
  • the sleuth may be the next victim;
  • the sleuth is accused;
  • the sleuth identifies with the accused innocent;
  • the sleuth identifies with the victim;
  • the sleuth or a loved one suffered a similar crime.
• Victim thumbnail:
  • name, age, gender, occupation;
  • a few distinguishing physical traits;
  • key personality traits;
  • telling details (possession, habit, favorite expression);
  • what puts them in harm's way;
  • their secrets.
• Also write why the sleuth must solve this crime, and complete the Crime section of the blueprint.

The villain

• Avoid the obvious baddie (anyone who looks that nefarious turns out innocent).
• Never promote wallpaper characters to villain in the last chapter, and never give a personality transplant in the final chapter. Plant subtle clues so surprise is credible.
• Plan ahead whether you know the culprit from the start (work backward) or discover them while writing. Planning up front saves large rewrites.
• Make the villain smart, wily, and dangerous, a worthy adversary. Stupid, bumbling characters work only as comic relief. The villain need not be loathsome and can be charming. Aim for a little reader sympathy and shades of gray.
• Know the villain's own justification beyond the standard motives (greed, jealousy, hatred):
  • righting a prior wrong;
  • revenge (the victim deserved it);
  • vigilante justice;
  • protecting a loved one;
  • restoring order.
• Villain thumbnail fields:
  • basic information (name, age, job, appearance, family, background);
  • ostensible motive;
  • motive 2: how the villain sees the crime, in their own voice;
  • life trigger(s): past events that explain why.
• Also brainstorm family background, education, and formative events.

Making the crime fit the villain

• Check capability and expertise.
  • The method must fit what the character is shown to be able to do. A respectable surgeon suddenly using a machine gun fails unless Special Forces service was hinted earlier.
  • Strangling, stabbing, or beating needs strength or a history of violence.
  • A sophisticated bomb needs shown training and access to components.
  • A gun needs shown skill, and the shooter must be strong enough for the recoil (a .45).
  • Apply the same plausibility test to all suspects' methods.
• Check the rage factor.
  • Extreme violence implies hatred and rage (a robber shoots once, an enraged husband empties the gun).
  • A quick poison suits someone who wants the victim out of the way. A slow, painful poison with the villain watching suggests hatred.
  • Adjust the violence to the rage.
• Method checklist: smoke inhalation, beating, burying alive, bludgeoning, drowning, hanging, machine-gun fire, poison (mushrooms or overdose), pushing in front of a train, running down with a car or heavy equipment, pistol, smothering, stabbing once or multiple times, strangling, slitting the throat.
• Complete the Villain section of the blueprint.

Innocent suspects

• Use at least two innocent suspects plus the villain. More than five reads like a parlor game.
• Surprise requires that the most obvious suspect is not the killer, or that the crime is not what it appears to be.
• Each suspect needs a motive and a secret or two. Secrets can make them look guilty or prove them innocent.
• Kinds of secret:
  • something the suspect doesn't know (a hidden marriage to the victim, an unknown inheritance);
  • something the suspect knows and lies to cover up;
  • the suspect doesn't exist (the villain plants evidence implicating a dead or nonexistent person).
• Lie patterns:
  • a false identity to hide from an abusive ex;
  • a false alibi covering another crime (a bank robbery);
  • an alibi given for a relative the suspect thinks is guilty.
• Rule of thumb: the guiltier someone looks early on, the more likely they are innocent.
• Devices to cast guilt on innocents:
  • obvious motive;
  • vanishing act;
  • stonewalling about whereabouts;
  • contradictory behavior;
  • overheard threat ("Drop dead");
  • enmity or rivalry with the victim;
  • overeagerness to supply information, some of it false;
  • bad reputation (swindler, liar);
  • guilt by association;
  • previously suspected;
  • previously convicted;
  • hidden skeletons (gambler, addict, alcoholic, pedophile);
  • cracks in the veneer (a kind character seen kicking a dog).
• Suspect thumbnail fields:
  • basic information (name, relationship to the victim, age, gender, physical traits, personality or past, telling details, quirky contrasts);
  • motive;
  • lie(s);
  • secret that makes them look guilty;
  • secret that proves innocence. In the sample, the secret behind the lie is an unrelated crime: drug dealing at the time of the murder.
• Use unexpected contrasts to avoid cliché (a glam jealous wife who sponsors orphans).
• Exercises:
  • Watch a crime show (Law & Order, CSI) and list each suspect's secret, noting whether it incriminates or exonerates.
  • Write a one-paragraph description per suspect.
  • Brainstorm secrets for one suspect.
  • Write a first-person monologue by that suspect about the secret.
  • Complete the Innocent Suspects section of the blueprint.

Supporting cast

• Build the cast around what the protagonist needs:
  • an amateur needs an inside-information contact (cop, PI, crime reporter);
  • an arrogant sleuth needs a deflater (an acerbic co-worker or mother);
  • a hard-boiled cop can have kids to show a softer side.
• Every supporting character needs a role. Roles:
  • sounding board;
  • special expertise;
  • inside access;
  • bodyguard;
  • caretaker/worrywart;
  • drudge;
  • mentor;
  • mole;
  • moneybags;
  • red-tape cutter;
  • love interest.
• Stereotypes are fine while planning, but push past them while writing. Characters may land in peril or become suspects. In a series they return with their own ongoing stories.

Sidekick

• Design the sidekick as the sleuth's opposite (yin to yang) so the contrast sharpens the sleuth.
• Process: list the sleuth's traits, write the opposite of each, and circle the best. Contrast areas include:
  • gender;
  • profession;
  • cerebral vs. physical;
  • analytic vs. emotional;
  • weapons;
  • training;
  • car;
  • food and drink;
  • hobbies;
  • friends;
  • religion.
• Sidekick profile: name, occupation, roles, personality, background, strengths and weaknesses.

Adversary

• The adversary is not the villain. It is a good-guy character positioned to annoy and obstruct the sleuth: a skeptical cop, a micromanaging boss, an overprotective relative, a rival reporter.
• The obstruction can be thickheaded (a superior pulls the sleuth off the case) or deliberate (quashing an investigation, withholding information).
• Brainstorm how each candidate complicates the investigation.
• Adversary profile: name, the position that enables obstruction, and the relationship to the protagonist.

Other supporting characters

• Profile each with name, story role, and a brief description (age, gender, appearance, personality).

Naming supporting characters

• Pick memorable names. Nicknames work (Spike, Red), as do ethnic names (Zito, Kwan). Avoid dull (Bob Miller) and weirdly exotic (Dacron) names.
• Avoid confusion:
  • no double first names (William Thomas);
  • vary syllable counts;
  • avoid similar sounds or the same initial letter (Leanna/Lillian/Dana).
• Sources: the phone directory, baby-name books, and name-list websites by ethnicity (search "dictionary names"). Keep a "keepers" list.
• Complete the Supporting Cast section of the blueprint.