Mystery Monday #15

Welcome to our regular Monday feature, where you'll find different kinds of writing prompts and exercises. Each week, we'll give you something to help exercise your mystery-writing muscles.

This week’s prompt is designed to inspire new plot ideas. I’ve adapted it from Sean Murphy and Tania Casselle, two authors and writing teachers based in New Mexico.

• Choose one of the photos below. Spend some time imagining the sights, sounds, smells, and textures of the place. What is happening outside the photo’s frame? What has happened before? What will happen next? Who has been here? Who will be here and why? Why do things look like this?

• First, set a timer and free-write about this setting for ten minutes starting with the phrase “I remember…” (or, if you wish, frame it in your protagonist’s POV). Do you remember the tire swing in front of the house where Phoebe broke her arm? Do you remember when flower boxes lined the apartment balconies? Or when you went to Dash’s tenth birthday at the amusement park?

• After ten minutes are up, re-set the time. Now free-write about the same setting starting with the phrase “I don’t remember…”

If this exercise was useful for you, I highly recommend you visit author Sean Murphy’s website to find out more about his and Tania’s “Writeto the Finish” workshop. At the start of it I had a vague notion that I'd like to write a novel. By the end I had a first draft of the manuscript that eventually turned into my middle-grade novel, Young & Yang. It’s hard to imagine a more encouraging environment and wiser teachers.

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