Posted On: 2024-10-07
I haven't written about storytelling in over a year, and it's been even longer since I did a "lessons learned" post based on examining someone else's work. Today's post will be exactly that: three lessons for writing fiction gleaned from examining a mystery story.
Many mystery stories focus on criminal misconduct, but a well-written mystery about something mundane can be just as riveting for the reader. Whether it's an unexpected knock at the door, a friend lying to a mutual acquaintance, or a too-good-to-be-true advertisement, life is full of things that defy expectations, and the principal tools of mystery-solving (observation, inference, deduction, etc.) can be applied to just about every one. In fact, many longer-form stories rely on these mundane mysteries - spending time to solve them gives the reader what they want (a mystery-solving experience) while also building a foundation of evidence that can be used for the larger/longer-term mystery at the heart of the work.
It is a common trope in mysteries to have the protagonist explain to another character what actually happened - both to demonstrate the protagonist's competence and also to show the reader the full chain of evidence that solves the mystery. An interesting twist on this trope is to have the protagonist discover partway through their explanation that they were, in fact, wrong. How the character reacts to that discovery can say a lot about who they are (and potentially model how to acknowledge one's own mistakes), and a reader that has been nodding along in agreement will get a shock as their own understanding is suddenly shown to be flawed.
The protagonists of mystery stories tend to be a bit nosy: they get involved in others' problems, and if they even have a stake in the story it's usually through that lens (ie. being in physical danger as a result of someone trying to stop the investigation.) Yet there's no reason the protagonist wouldn't have plenty of mysteries in their own life - especially those of the more mundane variety. This can create interesting opportunities for the storyteller: a nosy friend can bring drama/complexity into relationships, and a protagonist may have a tougher time seeing things rationally if they have emotional ties to the people/situations involved.
Hopefully this has been an interesting break from the usual posts about programming and status updates. As always, if you have any thoughts for feedback, please let me know.