Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Mystery Central: General Tips

Tip of the Day: check out this cool mystery book trailer for the latest book in the "Dead Is" supernatural mystery series by Marlene Perez. These books are awesome!!!

Last day here on Mystery Central. Don't forget to check out my tips on characters, crime, and mystery structure. To wrap everything up, I'd like to give some general tips about things I've learned writing mysteries for middle-grade and teen readers.

1.) Watch alot of mystery TV shows. I know you are supposed to read. Yadda. Yadda. Yadda. But this is an excellent quick way to understand how plots fit together, red herrings are thrown at the viewer, clues are given (and mistaken), and how the sleuth figures it out.

Ones I particularly like: Castle and Psych (mainly because both of these take a comedic mystery approach, which I think fits more with younger readers), and Vernonica Mars (why oh why did this show have to get cancelled. I'm still not over it.)

2.) Keep a running list of things you want to add later. With lots of clues you are giving out, it can get confusing (at least it does for me), so I like to have a list of things I need to add later to remind the reader.

3.) There's lots of cool books out there that help with crime solving. One which is especially good for a younger audience: The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book.

4.) If you are wanting tips for more forensic type stuff or just general crime info. The FBI has tons of great stuff on it's Website, particularly on their Law Enforcement Services page and Research page.

There's tons of tips online and in mystery writing books, so you should never be without ideas. If anyone wants to share any other tips, I'd love to hear them.

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

2 comments:

Kate Fall said...

I'm gonna miss Mystery Central! This has been a great resource. You could make your last few posts into a great article.

DeenaML said...

The Nancy Drew Sleuth Book! Great rec!