Write a Short Detective Story
Do you want to write a short detective story? Here are some directions to get you started.
Contents
Steps
- Choose a time period for your detective story. It can be any time, any place, from Ancient Egypt to the future. It could even be set in an imaginary planet in a new galaxy.
- Do some research about cases and mysteries. You could look into any kind of murder, any kind of strange case known. If the case never closed, you could make the end any way you please.
- Develop the personality of your detective; he could be tough, comprehensive, patient or he could be even the murder of your story. You can even make yourself the detective of your own story. Answering all of the following questions may be unnecessary, but being thorough in this step can help you write a believable story with a complete and rounded main character.
- Think of the basics. Male or Female? What is their name? How old are they? What do they look like (hair color, eye color, and skin tone)? Where are they from? Where are they living when your story starts? How did they become part of the story? Are they victims? Are they the cause of the problems in your story?
- Develop a family for your character. Parents? Siblings? Significant Other? Children? Other relations? Sociably problematic groups? A character which may know everything but has disappear...Make it as normal or as interesting as you want!
- What kind of life do they live? Are they famous, or are they just starting out? Are they unexpectedly smart? What kind of mysteries do they solve? (murder, theft, a combination, other kinds?)
- Develop their tastes. Favourite sentence to say? What is their favorite color? Place to be? Soft drink? Book? TV show? Movie? Music? Meal? What are they afraid of? How practical are they? Do they wear a scent, and if so, what scent? Strong, soft, nice or not pleasant?
- Come up with their religion. Do they have a religion? If so, what? Did they invent one or combine some to suit themselves? How does this influence their actions? Are they superstitious?
- Develop their relationships. Do they have a lot of friends? A best friend? Are they romantic? What first impression do they make? Do they like children? Do they like smokers? Do they like reading?
- How do they dress? Do they use makeup or hair dye? How about piercings or tattoos? How attractive are they, and how attractive do they think they are? Is there something they wish they could change, or something they are particularly happy with? How much time do they spend thinking about physical appearance?
- Though this may seem like a lot to worry about for a short story, having your characters developed to the fullest is an essential part of writing a good story.
- Think of a plot and a mystery.
- Use Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? questions to get you started: Who committed the crime and who did they do it to? What was the crime? When did it happen (morning, evening, afternoon, dead of night)? Where did it happen? Why did they do it? How did they do it?
- Use this skeleton to more fully sketch out a summary of your plot, with as many details as you can think of at this point. By now, plot ideas may be boiling around in your brain. Don't even worry about putting them in order, just WRITE THEM DOWN somewhere so that you don't forget them later!
- Think about the crime scene. This is an especially important part of your story, so take the time to really develop it fully. Try to describe every single detail so the reader can picture the crime scene. What does it look like? Is it different in day and in night? What are the differences between the first and the second crime scene? What are all of the details of the crime? You may want to write out a first draft of this scene so that you get the basic idea.
- Make an antagonist. Go back and look at the questions you did for the protagonist, and develop their personality just as fully. Especially think about their relationship to the protagonist. A good antagonist will enrich the story and give it lots of thrill and suspense.
- Think deeply about the mystery, suspects, antagonist, etc. Make sure you have at least most of your ducks in a row before you begin writing.
- Make a list of the suspects. Detail their basic personality, using some of the questions in step 1.
- Do the same for witnesses and any other characters.
- Be sure to have in mind how the mystery is solved!
- Think of the type of the detective work. The detective work must be good. Develop how your protagonist ultimately solves the case, keeping their personality and qualities in mind. Make sure it isn't cheesy or too obvious.
- Begin writing. Start with an introductory chapter or two, to introduce the characters and setting. Then make the crime scene happen.
- Introduce the suspects and witnesses. (eg. Annie entered the office. She was a tall woman with thin legs and hands. Her face was shaped like a diamond...). Be sure to give the reader a vivid picture of each one.
- Build suspense. The more suspense you put, the more interesting the story will be. Make the protagonist get stuck in a couple of difficult situations and run into some obstacles. Don't make the mystery too easy to solve!
- Read some mystery books to get more ideas. There are plenty at your library, or if you are seriously taking up mystery writing, you should acquire a good collection of mystery books. Perhaps your librarian will have a list of recommendations, or you could find some online.
- At the end, reveal the motive of the crime. Be sure the ending is clear on who committed the crime and why, and how it was solved. There is nothing worse than leaving the reader extremely confused about what was going on!
- Check the story at least two times and make sure there are no holes. Rewrite things as needed, and reword things to make them more interesting. Cut out as many parts as necessary. Be ruthless! You want your story to be the best that it can be.
Tips
- Always write, check then check again. Your story should be checked at least 3 or 4 times to make certain it makes sense.
- Observe everyone and everything. You don't know where your next plot idea might come from, so stay sharp!
- Don't use the same word over and over again. Replace it with a synonym.
- Come up with a good title for your story, it has to be as attractive as you can imagine. If you need help, ask people for ideas, they don't have to es friends. It can be really obvious, or really vague about why it is the title, make it seem like it tells everything about the story but it doesn't tell the main point about it. The vague titles can be really cool. Make sure it is a title that would get your reader interested. For example, "The Big Mystery" sounds like a kindergarten reader, while something like "Mysteries of midnight" sounds very dramatic. It tells about the story, something happens at midnight but it doesn't tell what is about.
- You may want to get a big notebook to write all of your inspiration in while you are working on this. Type the final story on your computer.
- Make the beginning of the story, the beginning of a paragraph and the ending of the story very catchy. Use dramatic words, metaphors, personification or similes to make it more interesting. This way you can catch the reader's attention and also get good grades!!
Warnings
- Be original. Copying others might make you feel good, but you need to understand that other people may have put a lot of effort in their work and wouldn't like it at all if you copied them. This might also lead you to be fined.
- Don't go overboard and write a plot so intense that you end up writing way more than you should! It's a short detective story, remember?
- Don't add that in every sentence. Neither he said and I said, and I jumped and I fell. Try to explain every single detail or otherwise you will make your story so boring and common that you yourself will totally get tired of writing it.
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