Write Your Own: Mystery (12 page)

  someone is grabbed or attacked;

  the car's brakes fail;

  the stairs collapse;

  someone yells in surprise.

7. Flashbacks

Flashbacks can be a good way of explaining events or filling in background detail. Often a character thinks back to a previous event. For example:

Tim thought bock to the previous day when he had …

It had only been an hour ago that they had …

Wasn't it only a week since they had …

As far as she could recall …

She distinctly remembered that day because …

 

Writing tip!

Don't worry if your story isn't long enough to be split up into chapters, you can still use cliffhangers to grip your readers. Write your main character into a possibly disastrous situation at the end of a paragraph, so that your readers have to read on to the next paragraph to find out what happens.

 

Time to write!

You are almost ready to start writing. Before you start, however, you need to map out your mystery story. Make notes in your writing journal under the following headings:

the mystery problem

What is the crime or mystery that needs solving? Is it a robbery, a kidnapping, a disappearance or some other weird happening?

the main characters

Add more information to your gallery of characters. Think about how they talk, walk, act and any special details about their appearance. Do this for:

 the sleuth     
 the suspects     
 the villain

 the setting

Decide on the setting for your mystery and think about how you can bring the setting ‘alive'. Think about the weather and time of day too.

 the motive

Be clear about what your characters' motives are. Why did the villain commit the crime? Why does the sleuth want to solve the mystery? Make sure some of your suspects have a motive too, so that your reader doesn't solve the mystery before the end of your story!

 clues and red herrings