hey folks anyone got any tips on how to write a mystery? 'Cus i love mysteries and want to write some, but the one i have written so far (fora Dungeons and Dragons oneshot) wasn't that good, so any advice?
I'm not a mystery writer myself, even if I want to be one, so take my advice with a grain of salt. That said, the best mysteries are replayable. The reveal should be a shock at first, but upon rereading/rewatching/replaying, it should be satisfying. Audiences should both believe the lie the mystery leads them down and appreciate how the lie was crafted upon learning the truth. I hope that's coherent enough, haha.
Make good use of red herrings. Really dig into what your characters want above all else, what would break their codes of conduct, and how they would cope with breaking them. Foreshadowing is so important. Don't pull a random, "But there was actually THIS thing the whole time!!!" If this thing wasn't implied before, it'll feel super unsatisfactory.
Once the audience knows the truth, they should be able to follow the plot points that previosuly made no sense to them. Chekhov's gun and all that.
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Make good use of red herrings. Really dig into what your characters want above all else, what would break their codes of conduct, and how they would cope with breaking them. Foreshadowing is so important. Don't pull a random, "But there was actually THIS thing the whole time!!!" If this thing wasn't implied before, it'll feel super unsatisfactory.
Once the audience knows the truth, they should be able to follow the plot points that previosuly made no sense to them. Chekhov's gun and all that.