Lesson 3: The Writing Process
Clues: Hidden or Revealed
There are other elements that writers use in the supsense, detective fiction, and thrillers to intrigue readers. They are clues, red herrings, and shocker endings.
Suggested Reading Assignment
(1) You Can Write A Mystery by Gillian Roberts Chapter Fifteen
(2) Read Detective Fiction Stories--Shocker Endings by Janet Blaylock. This can be found at the following link: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/3056...
Suggested Writing Assignment
(1) Make a list of clues and red herrings you want to use in your story.
(2) Write scenes planting clues in the methods we will discuss in the following reading.
Outlining Your Plot
Let's first look at clues and how famous authors outline their clues and red herrings.
Clues and Red Herrings
Gillian Roberts reveals her views about clues in her book: "The unraveling of the clues provides much of the basic framework of your novel, so try to have each chapter/scene frame a clue. This will also move your story along." (95) Writers will plant clues that will help readers identify the villain. However, some writers use red herrings, which are false clues.
Red herrings are used to throw readers off track. For example, Gillian mentions that "[the] actual red herring was smoked, then dragged across the trail to distract hunting dogs from their objective." (95) Hunting dogs were thrown off track. They were given false clues that led them in a different direction from their prey.
This happens in detective stories. Writers want to throw readers off track so they will plant red herrings throughout the story. However, Gillian Roberts cautions writers to not use many of these because readers might grow annoyed.
You need to know what clues you are wanting to use in your stories that will reveal the identity of the villain. You also need to know what red herrings you will use.
Making a list of clues that you want to use is important. You could write a list of clues, red herrings, and the scenes or chapters where you would like these planted. If you choose to write a chapter outline, you would first write down a chapter and what you want to reveal in that chapter. Then you would give it a title. From that point, you would proceed to the rest of the chapters.
P.M. Carlson also discusses clues in her article titled "Clues, Red Herrings, and Other Plot Devices." This article is featured in Writing Mysteries edited by Sue Grafton. She says "once I've outlined the basic story of the victim and the murderer, together with the unusual motive or unusual murder method that links them, I go back to the victim and think about him or her. Who else might want this person murdered, and why? Several more stories have to be outlined about people who have good reasons to desire the victim dead and who have the means and opportunity to kill the victim." (161-162) These suspects and their motives are examples where writers can plant clues.
Outlining Your Characters
Making a list of the characters: suspects, victim, and villains will be helpful to you when you begin the writing process. These lists need to contain the character's names, motives, alibis, clues or red herrings attached to certain characters, and weapons they might have.
Also, answering these questions and placing them beside the right character will help structure your novel:
(1) Who are the suspects?
(2) Who is the villain?
(3) What crime was committed?
(4) How was the crime committed?
(5) What were the possible motives the suspects had?
(6) Who had alibis?
(7) What weapons did the suspects have in their possession?
(8) What clues were given?
(9) What red herrings were given?
(10) Where are the clues and red herrings going to be planted?
You can reveal different suspects and their motives for committing the crime by having a perfect motive. However, if someone had an alibi, then he or she couldn't have committed the crime. Suspects can even be given certain weapons that will also lead readers in different directions.
Shocker Endings
Shocker endings are endings that writers use to throw readers off guard. For example, a reader may think they know who killed the victim, but when they have reached the end of the story, the villain is actually another person. By reading the required article I wrote, you will understand more about shocker endings. Beware! You will be thrown off guard.
Writing Scenes With Clues
There are several ways that writers plant clues in their stories.
Clues
Gillian Roberts mentions that clues "can be nearly anything-action, gesture, movement, speech pattern, attire-particularly if, in a subtle manner, it does not go with the way the person presents himself or his history." (96)
For example, if a person is normally calm and handles his/her situations calmly, and then suddenly changes and becomes very nervous and can't sit or stand still, then that is a clue. The person may be hiding something. He/she could be a suspect or villain.
Another clue might be if a person suddenly leaves town after a crime has been committed. He/she could be considered a suspect or villain. He/she is trying to escape the situation.
In the following passages, clues can be planted in different ways: Tucking them in a paragraph, heighten the drama, clues of omission, the missing weapons, and clues from real life.
Tucking Them In A Paragraph
Lesley Grant-Adamson states in her book Writing Crime and Suspense and Getting Published that "clues to the killer's identity should be plentiful but may be tucked away in a pargraph that tells the reader about something else of, apparently, greater significance. This way you play fair and provide the information but the reader is gulled into missing it.
Heighten The Drama
Another trick is to heighten the drama immediately after planting the clue; the change of pace forces the reader to go scooting by instead of pondering the lines that contain the clue. This principle of revealing information while slyly distracting attention from it applies to most novels within the crime and suspense genre." (79) You want to plant clues in such a way that the reader sees it but misses it at the same time. Also, you want to keep the pace moving throughout the story.
Clues Of Omission
Shannon OCork states in her book How to Write Mysteries that "[one of the most famous clues in mystery literature is the dog in the night that didn't bark, when, if the story that was told of what happened was true, the dog should have. Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes figured out that one. And a good clue it is, because it's one of omission; instead of something dropped in, something is subtly and simply left out." (81) Sometimes writers leave out clues to throw readers off guard.
Missing Weapons
She further states that "[another] famous clue is the murder weapon that can't be found in Roald Dahl's short story, 'Lamb to the Slaughter.' In this example of superb mystery-telling, the wife kills her husband with a frozen leg of lamb, then cooks it and serves it up to the unsuspecting quartet of police who investigate so long they miss their dinner hour." (81). This is a popular way of deceiving the police or detectives.
Clues From Real Life
Other clues come from real life. Shannon OCork states, that "[in] true-life tragedy of the kidnapped Lindbergh baby, the lot number of the lumber used to build the ladder became a famous clue. Real-life crimes are a good place to scout for clues, but change them to suit your story." (81) Clues can be found anywhere. Try searching for clues in real-life situations. All you have to do is change the clues instead of using the real-life clues. Write the clues according to your specific needs in your stories.
