One of the most important skills every writer has to master, no matter their genre, is crafting a great mystery. It’s also one of the most misunderstood elements of novel writing.
Mysteries are the lures that keep us turning the pages and keep us glued to the book. They send us into a frenzy because we’re dying to know what happens.
Is the detective going to find the murderer? Is the couple going to get together? What happened on that fateful night last December? Will the protagonist’s hatred of saxophones be his undoing?
The best stories also have smaller secondary and tertiary mysteries that keep the readers turning the pages.
But how do you craft a great mystery? How do you get readers invested in them?
How to craft a great mystery
When it comes to crafting a mystery, authors often get distracted by the bodies and the murders and the stereotypical mysterious elements, and they miss what really drives a great mystery. They also may try to be very coy and think that by leaving out certain details, the reader will be inspired to wonder about say, who the characters are entirely.
But good mysteries are not created simply by arbitrarily withholding information from the reader. If you fail to include basic details, you’re not creating a mystery, you’re just being vague. The reader will be more confused and/or annoyed than intrigued.
Mysteries are about people. And, more specifically: every mystery starts with a character who wants something.
The detective wants the femme fatale to fall in love with him or he wants to catch the killer or he wants to find the truth about what happened or he wants to escape with his life. We keep reading to find out if the characters are going to get the things they desire.
This is the heart of every mystery: Is the character going to get what they want?
The greater the character’s desire to get what they want, the greater the stakes and the consequences of getting it or not getting it, the greater the obstacles and intrigue and the amount of effort the characters expends, and the longer things linger: the greater the mystery. Basically, we’re reading to find out if something a character badly wants is going to happen.
Let’s break that down into word math:
character’s desire and the consequences/stakes + obstacles/intrigue + delay = mystery
Here’s what that means…
Desires and consequences
The first step in crafting a mystery is showing what your character wants and what the stakes are. (Read more about stakes and how to raise them in this post).
If you show your character caring about something, it plants the appropriate question in the reader’s mind (are they going to get what they want?) along with a sense of the rewards and consequences (dear God, what will happen to them if they don’t get what they want?).
Is the cop going to find the murderer? Is the girl going to get the guy? Is the depressed penguin going to find its purpose?
The reason we care about the outcome of these questions is because there is an important character who cares deeply about the outcome. The more they care, the more we care about what happens and the more nervous we will be on their behalf if it looks like the outcome is in doubt.
And, of course, characters want to stay alive above all, so mysteries that have great danger are some of the best because they have the most significant stakes.
That’s why it’s helpful to build your mysteries around whether characters will succeed or fail. It ratchets up the stakes when the character is highly invested in the outcome.
Obstacles and intrigue
The next step is placing roadblocks in front of your very active characters that prevent them from immediately getting the thing they want. What good is a mystery if it’s easy to solve? What good is it to wonder about whether a girl is going to get a guy if he says yes immediately?
If you want your reader’s spine to tingle with fear, you may also introduce some intrigue in the form of tantalizing hints, creepy details, and an atmosphere of danger or uncertainty. If you want them to feel titillated about a possible romance, you can introduce some misunderstandings, false starts, and alluring distractions.
A great way to deepen a mystery is to show your character putting skin in the game and expending a great deal of effort in order to find out the answer. The more your protagonist suffers to try to find the answer, the more we’ll have a sense that they care, and the more we’ll care on their behalf. Don’t let up on the tension.
The more difficult and insurmountable the mystery seems, the more your reader will be curious about the ultimate answer. And always keep your protagonist going after the mystery. If they seem to stop caring, the reader will too.
Delay
This is the part where some writers go astray. A great mystery is built by prolonging the suspense. The longer we have to wait to find out who the killer is or find out whether two characters will get together, the greater our anticipation of that reward.
But sometimes writers try to create this delay by simply holding out on the reader and failing to share information that the characters would otherwise have known. This is the writing equivalent of playing keep-away with your reader while yelling “Neener neener neener” at them.
If a character knows exactly what happened and the author is simply withholding the information from the reader, it starts to feel like a contrived way of creating a delay. You can get away with some small delays, but when it goes on for too long and failing to reveal the answer to the mystery doesn’t make narrative sense, the reader will know that the author is just holding out on them.
The flip side of this problem is when writers step on their surprises and give everything away without allowing a mystery to marinate.
Instead, great mysteries feature a character trying to get what they want, and we know what they know, but the truth is obscured or confusing or surprising or not what was anticipated. The object of desire lies just beyond their grasp, and it takes them a bit of time to get there.
As a character tries to figure out how to get what they want, the delay before they get there is what prolongs and deepens the mystery. They should have to work hard in order to solve it.
Always deepen the mystery
The better you are able to articulate your characters’ fears and desires, the greater the mystery the reader will experience. If the stakes are high, the reader won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough to find out what happens.
Mysteries aren’t just for suspense and thrillers. Every novel, no matter the genre, should have some solid mysteries to keep the reader turning the pages. They’re a crucial part of making your novel unputdownable.
But it all starts with understanding what ultimately makes readers care about mysteries. If your characters care deeply about resolving a mystery, we will too.
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Art: Detail of Der beim Diebstahl ertappte Hausdiener by Charles Wauters
I love your Math, but when I was in school, Math was always a mystery to me!
I think this is a very relevant viewpoint; so many books these days are lacking plots in general that it can be hard to remember what a good mystery looks like, let alone how to build one. Mysteries also have to do with how much you care about the characters. If Jacob W. wasn't such a lovable kid, nobody would give a hoot if he found his dad or not. You kind of have to build a premise that makes you want to care about the characters in the first place, right? Speaking of which, I'd love to see a post on how to make villains lovable, or at least bearable, or likable??!
Excellent word math. And I also think that the less predictable the obstacles and outcomes, the better.
Great equation. I'm working on my first mystery now and it is harder than I expected but I'm having fun with it!
Love this. I am always trying to bump up conflict, which I think ties into your word math. (Although I flinched a little. Word problems make me antsy! ) Only thing I'd add is that the obstacles should increase in intensity, and they should be related to the central goal. I've critiqued a lot of manuscripts where people threw in random obstacles and subplots that felt repetitious: the same level of conflict. (I may not be making sense – need coffee!)
Nathan,
You said, "This is the part where I think sometimes beginning writers go astray. A great mystery is not built by withholding information, and especially not by withholding information that the main characters know but the author isn't sharing with the reader…."
But it's not just the beginning writers who are guilty of this! I've read a fair number of books where authors do this. (In fact, I just reviewed a novella yesterday wherein this very thing occurred.)
And it DOES frustrate a reader.
Have you ever seen the movie "Murder By Death"? (Or better yet, have you read the book?) The murderer/victim/strange evil dude, Lionel Twain, rants on at one point about Agatha Christie novels doing this very thing, leaving out important information/clues until the dramatic revealing of the solution right at the end. That character's anger at the habit causes him to set up his whole elaborate mystery and is the basis for the plot of the book/movie.
In my WIP I'm withholding info the MC knows. But my intention is more about easing the back story in and avoiding the info dump. I wonder if it's working…
In it the MC keeps referring to a boy, and his identity, his place in her life, and the status of their relationship now is reavelaed through brief flashbacks.
Do you think this is different than what you're talking about? Have you seen something like that work without being frustrating?
Another good one. In fact, I often find it most fun when as the reader I know something about the mystery the characters don't, or maybe can't admit to. That can make it lots of fun.
In my own writing, I know that these parts are important (even though I don't literally write mysteries) but I have a hard time finding a balance of implied versus overt. That's what critique partners and beta readers are for.
Thanks, Nathan!
I believe the best mystery for the readers is how is the character going to get around these obstacles.
Thanks, Nathan for giving me something to ruminate on.
True Dat!
My personal mysteries:
Will I ever stop procrastinating and finish the damn thing?
Will I ever stop eating so much sugar?
Will that house be ours?
Will my daughter not be like me and actually be good at math and science?
Did the bat in our house last night bite the cat?
Is the cat ok or will he get rabies?
Stay tuned…..
P.S. Nathan, I'm itching for some query or 1st page reviews. Coming soon?
Liked this post, Nathan, and your points about knowing the characters wants, or motives.
I can recommend one book that I've got in my library which discusses the crafting of mysteries from the POV of various mystery writers.
That book is Writing Mysteries, edited by Sue Grafton, it's a handbook by the Mystery Writers of America.
The reason mysteries are well-loved? They pique our curiosity and make our brain work, in other words they keep us thinking.
About that photo: Is that guy in the attic trying to hide something or find something? Hmmmm-mm.
I agree with this. I get so frustrated, as a reader, when I'm not getting enough information. I feel like the author's holding out on me.
I prefer conflict getting in the way.
Thanks for this.
Wow! Your blog topic is very interesting. Every writer knows mystery is what attracts readers to read their books. As a matter of fact to continue reading it…and crave for some of their next book if there is any.
I wish you'd been my math teacher. Maybe it would have been easier. Great post.
Hmmm, wonder if my MC has enough at stake. Yet another thing to look at with my rewrite. Thanks.
A good friend of mine (and crit partner) is a mystery writer, and I started reading mysteries to better understand her genre. (I write SFF for teens) And you;re right, a lot of what she does transfers to all genres. There is mystery to every story because if readers aren't wondering what's going to happen they won't stick with you and keep reading.
I also agree about not withholding info. One little trick I leaned there is to slip in a new mystery or puzzle before you reveal an existing one. That keeps something there for readers to wonder about but still gives them a sense that they're figuring things out and the story is progressing.
It would involve math, wouldn't it? As an account you would think I'd love that. But I don't. I really don't.
Great post though.
'Der beim Diebstahl ertappte Hausdiener?' I couldn't have put it better myself! I think…
And the inside of my house looks exactly like that painting, lectern and all. Except the tricorn hat. Note to self:- MUST GET TRICORN HAT IMMEDIATELY!
Speaking of roadblocks, life has temporarily taken me away from JACOB WONDERBAR. Bad life! Naughty! Naughty! But what I want to find out is how does Jacob fix the Universe?
As for entanglements and reversals, I'm currently polishing a scene in my WIP where the giant ocean liner carrying my young protagonist runs into a roadblock in the middle of ocean, but cannot reverse either. Which sounds unlikely, but I found a real life early twentieth century historical precedent. And not an iceberg. The liner hits an iceberg later…
The English Teacher, indeed Agatha Christie could be quite postmodern! One of my favorites is the novel (and one of the best Agatha Christie movies) where it turns out they ALL did it! I'll reduce the spoiler factor my not specifying the title.
Excellent post! I think my issue when I was just starting out (I say, as if I'm not still an amateur/aspiring author) was being too heavy-handed, especially when trying to create an actual mystery of the whodunnit variety. I was so worried that whatever plot twist or resolution I had decided upon would seem too random or out of nowhere, and to compensate, I'd hammer the reader over the head with clues and ruin the mystery altogether. Once I started looking at crafting it as a series of obstacles, the writing not only got stronger, it got easier.
@Serenity: I think it depends on how you handle it. If withholding some of the information makes sense (say maybe your MC has difficult thinking about the boy, let alone talking about him (though obviously I don't know if this is really the issue in your WIP)), then I think your strategy could work, as long as we eventually find out the information at a well-plotted point. If, however, you're setting up situations where the reader feels information is being withheld just for the sake of a shock later, then maybe you should reevaluate.
If I were the servant caught stealing, I'd change my facial expression.
Provocative, then useful, post! Thank you for articulating this.
As a non-fiction writer, there is overlap: maintaining the reader's investment of time by letting them know that their problem is solvable, the more so the longer they keep reading.
Especially if they then tweet and facebook everyone they know with the benefits.
Will build that in. Community and personal integrity are key, and developing them, in whatever our field, turns out to be vital. Just like Mrs Serafia told us in first grade. Gosh.
Good post. I think the idea that all genres need mystery in order to keep the reader hooked is a really good one!
I also agree it's not a good idea for the protagonist to know something the reader doesn't – that tends to be really irritating. It's much better if the AUTHOR knows things the reader and the protagonist don't know – that's fun and works well – espeically if the protag must travese great obstacles in order to learn it.
Great topic, Nathan – thanks!
Love this! Thank you!
Posts like this one are the reason your blog is the only one I read consistently.
I do write mysteries, and it's nice to see that I may actually be on the right track.
Now if only I could finish the novel instead of being sidetracked by short stories….
I'm taping this one to the top of my WIP:
The more the character wants what they want, the more significant the stakes, the more tangled the obstacles, and the longer it takes to get there, the greater the mystery.
Gee Nathan, I wish you were still an agent.
No mystery, no conflict just
miss you as a one of my top five to query.
Oh well, that's life…you got one and that's great.
Serenity-
Sorry for the late reply! I think it's okay to withhold information as long as the info isn't contextually relevant. You also can kind of ease into backstories and don't have to worry about spilling everything up front. I think it's more of a problem when the mystery is created by withholding info the character knows rather than not giving everything away up front. Hope that makes sense.
Thanks for the response, Nathan! Yours helped as well, Kristin. I appreciate both of you taking the time. I think I'm on the safe side at the moment, but I'm definitely keeping this in mind as I decide how and when to reveal.
When this blog first appeared it may have been the inspiration for the only mystery short story I’ve written, I also may have been one of those anonymous commenters. I was still cloaked back then.
I really enjoyed writing that mystery, followed your leads and think I did a good job. The protag was a mix of detectives from the past, part Sam Spade and part Sgt. Friday. I had a lot of fun writing “The Case of the Instant Replay” and always let the reader know what my detective, Sgt. Frankie “Flake” Muldoon, know and his thought process. I don’t believe I gave anything away too soon and I didn’t have a femme fatale. Sgt. Muldoon didn’t have time for dames nor did I give him enough room for one. I put it in with my compendium of short stories, “The Wonderfulist and Three Other Short Stories” which I published on my Smashwords account in 20014.