Building A Mystery

Welcome to a new week, Copious Notes readers! I hope everyone who had off enjoyed their free day and had some good BBQ.

Now that we’re getting back into the swing of the week, I’d like to follow up to my inital post / first poll for the interactive story. First, thank you to those of you who did vote. While I had hoped for more input, some is way better than none. I am appreciative to those who posted what type of story this should be. Beating out science fiction by 2-1, we’ll be embarking on a mystery.

Now let me say that I’ve never written a mystery before and I don’t know how well I will do, but I think that because this will be an interactive venture, input from you will greatly help and in the end this could be a good story. I know that mysteries are normally exciting and also they are not limited to a ‘who-dun-it’. The recent success of Dan Brown shows that puzzle-mysteries can resonate with readers out there. I am also a history fan and believe that a history-driven, puzzle-style story could work well and it can also be a book that I would be excited to write. While that may sound selfish, I will say that enthusiasm to write a story equals the drive to write it. Given the fact that I haven’t written a single word in almost a month and a half, this experiment should work well.

So for this second round of input, please comment and let me know if you agree that this is the type of mystery that should be written. If you have a better suggestion, please feel free to let me know!

4 comments

  1. Hey Aaron,

    I’m not sure if I understood what you meant by a puzzle-mystery, but I have some idea, so I’m going to go ahead and say that sounds interesting. I do like the part about the mystery being historical – could it be more of a personal history? Less legendary and more about a specific subject that relates to the MC, say, like about the town he grew up in vs. a Civil War conspiracy. Those are always my favorite. It makes them feel like something that might actually happen.

    BTW, thanks for posting on my blog! How did you know I liked Back To The Future? It’s my favorite sci-fi series ever.

  2. Thanks for commenting. When I say puzzle-mystery, I mean something along the lines of Da Vinci Code or the movie National Treasure, where you’re putting pieces together to find out a secret. Personal history could work well and I’d be open to writing something in that realm.

    As far as BTTF goes, I clicked on your profile on your blog. In ‘favorite movies’, the first thing I saw was BTTF trilogy. It’s my fav series as well.

  3. Yeah, ok. That’s what I thought but I wanted to make sure. In National Treasure, the mystery was very closely related to the MC – that’s what I mean by making it part of his personal history. It’s fine if the mystery itself is epic, as long as it has a personal importance to the MC as well. Just to clarify.

    Oh… *feels silly* Lets never speak of that again.

  4. Both National Treasure AND The Da Vinci Code were horrible (yes, both the book and the movie. Especially the book in fact. He didn’t even get his facts right, after all that research).

    I would personally dread a “Puzzle-Mystery”, unless you think you can do better than those abominations that have preceded you.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *