Mystery Writing – 2

All successful stories have one, and only one, protagonist.

The Goal

All protagonists begin their stories with both an internal goal and an external goal.

The internal goal is centred on the protagonist’s flaw and eventual overcoming of that flaw.

Fundamentally, your story is about his or her realization of this flaw.

Antagonist—The Criminal

In most (but not all) mystery stories, the antagonist is the criminal.

This creates one of the major differences between mystery writing and other forms of fiction. In other types of fiction, it’s generally best to introduce the antagonist early in the story and to develop his or her character in parallel with that of the protagonist. This allows your readers to get to know both of them and to see how they are alike and how they differ. Your readers will respond to the different ways the two characters deal with their own flaws later in the story.

But in mysteries, it’s often impossible to introduce the antagonist early in the story without giving away the identity of the criminal. Sometimes the investigation must proceed for quite some time (and through a good deal of the book) before the protagonist first encounters the antagonist.

The Three-Act Timeline

At the root of nearly all fiction is the traditional Greek three-act structure. Our mystery will be no different. In the three-act structure, there is constantly rising action until the climax. As we discussed in Lesson 2, Doran William Cannon further elaborated on that system, dividing it into smaller milestones.

Combining those ideas with the theories of other writers and teachers and analyzing what worked best in my own mysteries, I’ve settled on nine sections of every mystery that I consider the most important. Some relate to plot, some to story, and some contain both. I call them checkpoints.

Act 1

Hook
Backstory
Trigger

Act 2

Crisis
Struggle
Epiphany

Act 3

Plan
Climax
Ending

	Checkpoint	Description	Plot	Story
Act 1	Hook	An event that hooks the reader and kicks off the action.	Plot
	Backstory	Gives us background information about the protagonist and the situation and introduces other characters.	Plot	Story
	Trigger	An event—usually a surprise—that attacks the protagonist’s flaw and causes a crisis.	Plot
Act 2	Crisis	An emotional moment where we clearly see the effect of the trigger upon the protagonist’s flaw.		Story
	Struggle	The protagonist’s struggle against adversity. This is the bulk of most mysteries. It is filled with setbacks, each progressively worse. It forms the rising action stage of traditional Greek drama.	Plot	Story
	Epiphany	The emotional moment in which the protagonist realizes his or her flaw. This is the emotional high point of the story.		Story
Act 3	Plan	The protagonist devises a solution to his or her problem. This plan is only possible because of the epiphany.	Plot
	Climax	The final conflict in which the antagonist is defeated by his or her own flaw. The audience experiences a catharsis at this moment.	Plot
	Ending	Tying up loose ends.

• Raise a story question.
• Establish your protagonist.
• Connect the reader to your protagonist.
• Propel the reader into the action.