A crime is an illegal activity. A crime is something someone commits that is an offense to the law. A crime is a robbery, a murder, assault, kidnapping, etc.
It’s not good.
So. How does one commit a crime?
I’ll tell you how, but only the skeleton of it. The rest you’re going to have to figure out on your own. You can’t expect me to do all the work, can you? No, of course not.
Step One.
Plan the crime before you do anything else.
Step Two.
Now — Wait, what? What do you mean you don’t know how to plan the crime? What are you even doing with your life if you can’t even figure this part out on your own?
Alright, come on…
Let’s start back at the basics, shall we?
A mystery is a puzzle, a riddle. Maybe a secret or a problem. A mystery is something of the unknown. The only way to solve said riddle, puzzle, problem, whatever is to ask yourself basic questions.
Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How.
Yes, I’m bringing you straight back to elementary school. The only difference is that we’re not trying to write an essay from analyzing a book. No, we’re going much darker than that. We’re adults now.
Who
“Who” refers to people, the characters of the story. Each character has to have something to do with the crime whether they like it or not. Are they a witness? A victim? An investigator? A suspect? Maybe they’re just there to throw the investigator off the trail and take the reader along with them.
Once your have your characters lined up in a row, give them each a job.
- Who are the victims?
- Who are the culprits?
- Who are the witnesses?
- Who are the suspects?
- Who are the accomplices?
- Who are the investigators?
- Who discovered the crime(s)?
What
The “what” may not be known right off the bat, but depending on the situation some answers may be more obvious than you think.
- What is the problem/crime/secret? (What happened?)
- What was the weapon/what was stolen?
- What was the motive?
Where
“Where” is how you set the scene for yourself, your characters, and your readers. It’s a little tough to investigate when you can’t see the scene surrounding you.
- Where does the overall story take place?
- Where does the crime take place?
- Where was the victim(s) when the crime took place? (Unless it’s a murder, the victim doesn’t necessarily have to be around.)
- Where was the weapon(s)/stolen item or person?
- Where was the culprit(s) hiding?
- Where were the witnesses when the crime occurred?
When
Time matters.
- When did the crime take place?
- When was the crime discovered?
- When were the authorities called/brought to the scene?
- When does the investigator find his first, second, third clues, etc.?
- When does the investigator solve the crime?
- When does the culprit(s) get caught/confess?
Why
The reason is key. You need to be able to explain to your readers why this mystery happened in the first place, why it was a good story to tell.
- Why did the culprit commit the crime?
- Why did the culprit choose that particular victim?
- Why was your investigator the best one to solve the case?
- Why did the crime take so long to solve? (Why did it take not long at all to solve?)
How
I assume you’re writing a fictional mystery. In which case, your readers still need to know the “how.” Everything needs to fit together nicely like a puzzle and be explained as realistically as can be.
- How long was the overall investigation?
- How did the culprit pull off their crime?
- How was the culprit caught?
- How did the investigator figure it out? (How did they finally piece it all together?)
Some of these questions are redundant, but I think it’s good to repeat yourself sometimes. It helps you remember and helps you catch mistake or plot holes.
Some questions you may not need. I’m sure there are other questions out there that you can ask yourself that are not on this list.
This is how I plan my mystery novels. I plan the crime before any actual writing begins so I, as the writer, am the investigator.
Now all you need to know is how to implement this crime.
This post was revived from Mystery Month’s 2015 post: Who Dun It?
