Mystery Monday #22

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, we have a story prompt that we like to call "Start at the End". This is simple, make up any kind of character you like. It can be a computer genius, a sports star, a debate champion, or whatever. It's totally up to you. You can go anywhere with this exercise. The only stipulation is the first line. You have to start your story with the following words:

"After all the craziness--all the danger--I wasn't sure that we'd make it through. But, I'm glad we did."

That's all you get. Now you have to run with it. Tell the rest of the story as a flashback. Here's a couple of ways to challenge yourself.

• Explain 'we'. How many people made it?
• What kind of craziness? Danger?
• Did all of the events happen in a day? A year? A decade?
• Is this on Earth. The moon. A completely made up fantasy world?
• And so on

This story can go in a lot of directions. Shoot for something short to begin with, then think about expanding it if you like what you've got. Happy writing, Sleuths!!