The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing the Modern Whodunit

Make your story a series of experiences for your readers. Give them sensory impressions. Show them some significant details of people and places, but resist the impulse to tell them what those details mean. Write scenes in which characters act and interact, and put your readers in the middle of those scenes. Allow them to participate, to interpret, to draw conclusions, and to fill in the blanks. Trust them to think for themselves. Respect their intelligence.

If a woman slams her fist on a tabletop or curses loudly or clenches her teeth, you might conclude that she’s angry. You might be wrong. In fact, she might be trying to make you believe she’s angry when, in fact, she is trying to manipulate your emotions or make you believe something that isn’t true.

People’s actions and words are clues to their inner feelings, attitudes, philosophies, and motives. Y

Show, don’t tell.

They don’t want to be given more information than the sleuth has. That would give them an advantage over him, which also violates the rule of fair play.

On the other hand, readers don’t want to be guided through the puzzle’s solution. They want only a fair chance to solve it for themselve

Unless readers have the evidence, they cannot fairly participate in the solving of the puzzle.

modern readers expect fair play. You cannot withhold vital clues from them

The most important advice I can give you is this: Always think of your audience. Write for your readers. Never deprive them of the chance to participate.

Give your readers credit. Assume they are as smart as you are. “No one can write decently,” said E. B. White, “who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing.”