Plotters Ink Assignment for November 2015 - Mystery, Crime, Suspense!

Who doesn’t like a good “whodunit”  once in a while - all that plot thickening, intrigue & false leads, until the mystery is solved and the bad guys get their just desserts.

Most people can rattle off a dozen or more fictional heroes, series and authors without thinking too hard. Let’s see…Sherlock Holmes, James Bond, and Agatha Christie come to mind instantly, but there are probably thousands of examples that apply.

This month our challenging assignment is to write a viable story within one or more of these genres. But how does one describe a crime or mystery and solve it in a mere 500 words? Can you build suspense – will you leave us hanging?

Here are some ideas that may help you write at least an opening for a story, or one aspect of the story – who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired to write the rest of the story someday.

•  Focus on describing ONLY the crime as it is being committed.
• Write the scene in which the crime is discovered.
• Tell us about the person/persons investigating the crime.
• Describe the turning point in a long investigation.
• Tell us about the suspects (“unsubs”).
• Write a mini- cliffhanger – in other words, present but don’t solve the mystery.
• Dare to write a short piece of “fan fiction” – choose your favorite hero or series and describe a new mystery they aim to solve.

 Any one of these ideas could make an interesting piece of prose. The rest is up to you.

This is our last genre assignment of the year, and we hope you’ll stretch your imaginations as much as you have with all the previous ones.

As always - please bring copies for the group to read along with you on Thursday, November 12 at 2 PM. 

We’ll end 2015 by working on a literary technique called “foreshadowing”. More on that next post. Keep writing!