Spoiler Alert!

I'm hoping I got your attention with that headline (hee hee). Anyway, with the completion of a new draft plus the conclusion of Breaking Bad last night (which I have NOT seen because we DON'T have cable and I am LIMITED to Netflix which means I have to emphasize in ALL-CAPS that I DO NOT want to know what happens until it's available for STREAMING!), I have been thinking a lot about narrative endings and the emphasis we place on them.

In some of my stories the end has been obvious from the get-go, but in my current project, revisions to the rest of the story have forced me to rethink its conclusion.

The conventional wisdom is that a great ending should be surprising but inevitable, and in a mystery or thriller, probably doubly so. Maybe you can guess what happens, but not the how. Or maybe there's a revelation that makes you realize what you subconsciously knew all along about a character. Of course, if there's a ingenious twist, it may have you reevaluating the entire story up to that point.

And then there's the notion that the ending has to be earned—that it matches the promise of your beginning and middle. It's gotta be big, or at the very least, important.

So tell me about your experience. Where do you find that ending that makes the whole thing feel worthwhile? Do you know before you even sit down to write? Is it already hiding in the story, a thread that only needs to be plucked out? Is it simply a matter of putting yourself in your readers' shoes? (As if that's simple...)

P.S. Don't watch this video if you are spoiler-averse.

Mystery Solved! (or not)

As a reader, I love trying to figure out the the mystery along with the main character, processing the clues and looking for hints in the subtext of the story.  But here's the rub- I hate when I solve the mystery long before the protagonist does.  Almost as much as I hate a solution that drops out of left field.  I'm all for plot twists and red herrings, but to be satisfying, the ending needs to be equal parts surprising and inevitable. 

As a reader, I want to go "Whoa!" and then, "OF COURSE."  I want to be kept precariously on the edge between feeling like I know exactly where things are going, and having the rug pulled out from underneath me.  A good mystery makes me want to immediately go back and reread, to see how the author wove in the clues from beginning to end.

Remember the first time you watched the movie The Sixth Sense?  It was a brilliantly crafted mystery- with a completely surprising but inevitable twist at the end: the psychologist played by Bruce Willis was really dead.  All the clues were there- Bruce Willis getting shot at the beginning, interacting with a boy who saw and talked to dead people. No other characters talked to Bruce Willis.  He even wore the same clothes in every scene.  Yet, it was completely surprising, because the writer used misdirection and red herrings to distract the viewer from the real solution, by focusing on  the boy's strange affliction and the psychologist's efforts to help the boy.  I didn't feel cheated because the psychologist did help the boy, and more importantly, the psychologist didn't realize he was dead until the same moment we discovered it. I loved that there was more going on than I ever realized.  And, once the reveal was made, it all fell into place.

I think that kind of ending is really hard to pull off.  Indeed, try as he might, M. Night Shyamalan has never been able to duplicate that kind of story-telling success.  I'm not saying that every mystery needs to end in an amazing twist, but I do think that there are some "rules" to good endings that mysteries should strive for.

1. The Clues are in the Text:  The reader does not necessarily have to be able to piece all the clues together before the big reveal, but once the big reveal happens, the reader should be able to go back and see that the clues were there all along.  That's part of what builds the inevitability of a good ending.  Perhaps a clue was there, but overlooked by the main character (and the reader).  Maybe the clue was misinterpreted.  Maybe the clue only had significance after a later discovery.  The reader should be able to see how things the main character discovered at the beginning of the book fit with the solution.  The reader should not have to be an expert in a particular field to solve the mystery.  If a particular piece of expert knowledge is required (such as the fact that the flowers in the garden are poisonous) make sure that this information is in the book. 

2.  The Main Character Should Not Hide Important Information from the Reader:  A solution to a mystery that is dependent on the main character withholding important information is sure to drive a reader insane.  Readers want to relate to and connect with the main character.  They don't want to be lied to.  And, while a glaring omission is not exactly a lie, it feels like one.  It's okay to tease and build suspense by making the reader work to understand a character's past or motivations, but if the central mystery is dependent on the protagonist withholding a key piece of information from the reader, the twist will feel contrived.

2.  The Bad Guy has a Role in the Story: Nothing is worse than narrowing down a field of suspects, only to learn that the bad guy is someone we've never met or heard of.  A good ending connects dots and capitalizes on clues that were planted at the beginning of the story.  The reader cares about the outcome because we care about the characters. 

3.  The Twists Don't all Come at the End: A good mystery doesn't save all the plot twists and turns for the final act.  A few well placed surprises prime the reader to expect the unexpected, and also keeps the reader guessing until the end.  A lot of twists at the end is not only exhausting, but it can make the reader start to lose trust in the writer, if NOTHING is as it seemed. 

4.  Not all Leads are False:  False leads and red herrings are important in a mystery.  Not only do they help keep the reader from figuring things out too soon, but they add layers to the story.  That said, some of the clues have to pay off, or the reader will lose trust in the story.

5.  The Mystery has Consequences for the Protagonist: the stakes in any great story should be deeply personal to the protagonist, but this is especially true in mysteries.  While it's possible to write a good story about a detective investigating a crime involving strangers, the best stories are filled with personal stakes.  There should be consequences that will directly affect the protagonist.  If the protagonist is personally involved in the outcome, the reader will be too.

Talia Vance is the author of Silver (Flux).  Her YA mystery Spies & Prejudice (Egmont) will be published in June 2013.

Advice from the Masters

I've been on a writing hiatus the past few weeks—after turning in my first draft for book three in my series I skipped town for a needed vacation and have since been playing catchup. So when it came time to write a post, I was feeling a little short on immediate inspiration. That's why I'm turning to some well established mystery greats for some insight. Here's what I came up with:

"The construction of a detective story might be formulaic — the writing need not be.” — P.D. James


"Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book." — Micky Spillane

"I suppose I would compare my technique to meandering down a road, excited to be at the beginning of a journey. The people and things I meet along the way, for the most part, are a surprise to me as much as to the reader." — Julia Buckley

"I’m learning to trust the process. I’m trying to remember that writing should be a form of play. I keep saying the fate of the free world does not hang in the balance. Even if I write a book that fails, nothing will happen. I’ll be mortified and embarrassed, but lives will not be lost over this. I take writing terribly seriously, and sometimes that just gets in my way. Writing is about the Shadow, which is about play. I just have to learn that again."  —Sue Grafton

"Ignore my advice. Because a book can only work if it has a spark in it, if it is 110 percent yours and full of integrity, and it's organic. Somebody else will like it. Maybe thousands of people. Maybe tens of thousands of people. Maybe, if you're lucky, millions of people." —Lee Child

What are some of your favorite pieces of advice from authors, mystery or otherwise?

Lessons from a 5-year-old Gumshoe

I've created a mystery-loving monster. In the past week, my five-year-old son has transformed into a hard-boiled private investigator. To protect his anonymity, I'll call him Special Agent G--.

Special Agent G-- has become keenly alert to anything out of the ordinary or slightly off-balance. Menace lurks around every corner. ("Listen! Did you hear footsteps? Music? Squeaking?") Disaster looms. ("What if robbers break that loose door handle -- and steal my Legos?" Clues mount. ("Look! A dried green pea! A scratch on the placemat! What could it mean? We have to solve this mystery . . . before it's too late!")

Is this a boy who admires his mystery-writing mother and seeks to follow in her footsteps? A budding Encyclopedia Brown?

I can hope. But I suspect this is a child who's had a little too much TV on his summer vacation. In the mix might also be his developmental stage, as he becomes more aware of the world.

But I'm enjoying this phase. I love watching him work out possible mystery threads. In this long, last stretch of August, lacking summer camp or reliable childcare, trailing my young sleuth around the house is often the only exercise my mystery-writing brain can get.

For example: just this morning, after finding the dried green pea and the placemat scratch, and after hearing an unusual sing-song-squeak sound (really the dishwasher, overloaded and straining), Special Agent G-- gathered more clues. Then he listed them:

• Writing, on an art print, that hadn't been there before. (In fact, the writing -- the artist's spidery signature -- had always been there. I just think he hadn't noticed it before, high up on the wall, and he's suddenly taller, so his vision range has changed. But what a cool idea, looking at an old print of a ship at sea, and imagining writing curling out of of the waves, all on its own)
• Magnetic words on the fridge, suddenly rearranged. (OK, I'd bumped into the magnetic poetry that morning, but why not enjoy imaging more exciting scenarios?)
• The dining room rug turned up on one end, a piece of garlic placed beneath. (I know the cat has an odd habit of batting things under there, but again, why settle for mundane explanation?)

I've learned a few lessons from observing Special Agent G-- on the crime beat this week:

1. Potential mystery is everywhere. Like my son, I can be more alert to the unusual, the out-of-place, the off-balance, the odd, especially in my everyday surroundings.

2. Clues can be right under your nose. Special Agent G-- doesn't roam far and wide looking for his clues. He combs the immediate area. He makes several passes. He goes deep. This is a useful lesson for my own writing. When I run dry, I'm tempted to build in a new scene, a new chapter, with some clue to be revealed. This approach can slow the pace or add needless pages. If I go back to previous scenes, and look harder for potential off-balance things, I may find existing clues, or places to plant clues.

3. Mysterious incidents can have multiple explanations. As adults, we are quick to rationalize, to reach for the easy explanations. But Special Agent G-- will stay with a potential clue longer, looking at it from various angles, coming up with several scenarios. My sleuths and sidekicks could do that too. Red herrings could be explored in this way.

4. Child characters in a mystery don't see the same things as adults. If I have young characters in my mysteries -- sleuths, sidekicks, or secondary characters -- they may notice different things depending on their age, developmental stage, personal interests,, or, simply, height. Would a 42-inch-tall person notice something amiss that a 5'7" adult would overlook? Would a kid who knows there are fun napkin rings to play with in the buffet discover the missing silver long before the adult who is focused on dusting the top?

We never did solve the Mystery of the Kitchen Phantom this morning. We had too much fun unearthing and discussing clues; we never followed them to a conclusion or thought about which clues might be linked and which were unrelated. That's perfectly okay. After all, we're not writing a story.

Oh, and as it turns out, my son is a gumshoe in more ways than one . . . there really IS gum on his shoe, which explains the unusual stickiness on the floor. And now I'm on to my next mystery. How to remove gum.

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Diana was born in Seattle and now lives outside of Boston with her husband and son. TOKYO HEIST (Viking/Penguin, published June 2012) is her first novel.

Damn(ed) Good Mystery Writing

Welcome to our Tuesday "Case Files from our Detectives." This month our theme is HARD FACTS. Mystery writing resources we turn to, from books to websites to people. Or how we wrestle with the practical matters of plotting and planning our mysteries. Whether you're a mystery writer yourself, a teacher planning a unit on mystery, or a reader who wants to know more about this genre, you'll find some great references and tips listed each Tuesday in July.

I have a confession to make. How to Write a Damn Good Mystery by James N. Frey* has recently become my bible. This is oh—a good two years after I wrote my mystery, The Wig in the Window — a mystery, by the way, I didn’t realize was a mystery while I was writing it. “What did you think you were writing?” my editor asked me, puzzled, when I revealed my ignorance. I still don’t really know. I guess I thought I was writing a story about two unlikely friends who just happened to suspect a local middle school counselor was a fugitive?

How everything would have been easier had I known about How to Write a Damn Good Mystery back then**! (Of course, that would have required knowing I was writing a mystery.) I could have spared those poor agents I queried with my ridiculously long, plotless, meandering draft that warmed up around page 150. And I could have spared myself the feeling of utter embarrassment of people having read it in that condition…

I tend to think reading about writing is a little bit like trying to learn guitar by reading about it. Did Jimi Hendrix pore over tomes about guitar solos? I suspect not. That said, if future Hendrix biographers discover  he owned a well-worn, heavily annotated copy of HOW TO PLAY A DAMN GOOD GUITAR SOLO by James N. Frey, I’d revise my opinion.  Frey knows how to break down mystery writing in a way that’s clear, basic, and useful — but he doesn’t offer formulas. As he says in his introduction, “[The book] is not a collection of tips on what to do and what not to do. It’s a guide to brainstorming, planning, plotting, drafting, rewriting, and polishing a mystery.” Sure, the title’s cheesy. (How I want to add an ‘-ed’ to the end of that ‘damn’ title!) And some of his advice is a little muddled. Still, Frey really knows what he’s talking about, and for the most part he provides very clear illustrations of his advice in action. For those new to mystery writing and looking for some guidance, I highly recommend it! It’ll save you lots of agony…

What about you? Any mystery writing resources you’ve found especially helpful?

* No, not that James Frey, thank goodness. You're thinking of the author of How to Pass Off Lies as Nonfiction and also Cheat Naive Authors as well as a little-known book called A Million Little Pieces.

**Technically I should have bought Frey’s other how-to book How to Write a Damn Good Thriller as Wig is really more of a psychological thriller for the middle-grade set:-)
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Kristen Kittscher’s debut middle grade mystery THE WIG IN THE WINDOW (Harper Children’s) will be released in Summer 2013. It follows the comic misadventures of two tween sleuths who suspect their school counselor is a dangerous fugitive — and just might be right! A former middle school English teacher, Kristen lives in Pasadena, California with her husband, Kai. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her running her after-school tutoring business or taking orders from her hopelessly spoiled cat and dog.