Write Plots for Mystery Books & Scripts

A Mystery Structure has Seven Parts

1. What happens? THE CRIME
2. Who is involved? THE CHARACTERS
3. Why did it happen? THE MOTIVE
4. How did it happen? THE METHOD or MEANS
5. When did it happen? THE OPPORTUNITY
6. Where did it happen? THE CRIME SCENE
7. What is the solution? THE CLUES

Flooded by Ideas?

One Step at a Time

Take the process step-by-step to stay focused. Your decisions will make your mystery unique. There’s no set order to begin since plotting isn’t linear; use diagrams to track the story.

Setting, characters, motives, and crime are interconnected.

Writing for live entertainment has narrower parameters than for books or films.

Got an Idea?

Mysteries Can Go Anywhere

Truth & Misdirection

One story is What Appeared to Happen, and the second story, which everyone is trying to figure out, is What Really Happened.

What Happened is the story. What Appeared to Happen makes it a mystery.

It’s how you tell it that matters; when you reveal crucial information.

Learn from Others

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2 Comments

  1. I am trying to write a mystery book but it is difficult what are some tips and by the way its not a murder its a theft. Thanks.

    • Hello Mystery Lover!
      A mystery has two components; ‘what actually happened’ and ‘what appeared to have happened’. You tell the story of ‘what appeared to have happened’ and your detective or protagonist figures out ‘what actually happened’. This is often accomplished by telling the story out of chronological sequence. Know what actually happened before you start, break it down into pieces and then toss them out there for your sleuth to find and put back together.
      A mystery doesn’t have to be a murder, in fact it doesn’t even have to be a crime. A ‘whodunnit’ simply means that an unknown person performed an action – no matter if the action is a murder, a theft, or the baking of a cake. Basically you want to have your theft have the motive, the method and the opportunity (The Mystery Bones) to have committed the theft and then create the clues to prove that he had, indeed, each of those three things. You will also need to create clues to show that other people also had one or two of the Bones (motive, method or opportunity) otherwise there is nothing to solve. You can get a bit of help with the clues here.
      Put the crime, or a piece of intrigue leading up to the crime, at the beginning of the story. You want to grab the reader and have them asking questions right away. Keep the action going right up until the end. ‘Give hope. Take hope away. Give hope. Take hope away.’ Let your detective make wrong assumptions and then figure out what a clue really means at the last minute. If you enjoy writing your mystery then others will enjoy reading it.