WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.150 --> 00:00:16.150 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Welcome everyone. Welcome back to day one of crime writers week. If you can see and hear me, please drop your location in the chat, so we can see where in the world you are joining us. 2 00:00:17.590 --> 00:00:21.009 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: and I'm going to drop some special links for you. 3 00:00:21.100 --> 00:00:25.250 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: and I will drop them intermittently throughout today's session. 4 00:00:26.265 --> 00:00:31.819 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: I already see so many fun locations. Scotland, Chicago, Maryland, Albuquerque. 5 00:00:31.870 --> 00:00:51.199 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: London, Spain, Connecticut. It's moving quickly now. It looks like things are working as they should. So I'm going to move forward with introducing our session today. I have a couple of quick housekeeping items for you, but I am Michelle from pro writing aid. I'm so happy to have you back for another session. 6 00:00:52.290 --> 00:01:01.569 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: We have our crime writers. Week Hub is up and running. You should have received the link in your email. But I'm also going to put the link in here again 7 00:01:01.700 --> 00:01:26.690 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: with our other links for today. The Hub is going to have all of your replays resources and special links from our speakers, and throughout the day make sure you're refreshing it because we are adding the replays and the audio transcripts as soon as they're done uploading from Zoom. And also we have slides from our speakers. And Laurie has some extra special resources there as well 8 00:01:26.690 --> 00:01:47.400 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: that you'll want to check out, including a mystery quiz, which I'm sure she will tell you all about. We are also going to be uploading the replays to our community page next week. So by next Friday, June 28, th you'll be able to watch them there, too, as well as you can view our back catalog of other writers. Week event replays that we have there. So there's a lot of material for you there. 9 00:01:47.650 --> 00:02:15.450 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Premium day is this Friday. So Monday, through Thursday is free for everyone to attend. Friday. Sessions are limited to premium and premium pro users. If you're unsure about your account feel free to email us at Hello, at pro writing aidcom, and we'll be happy to take a look for you. But all of those folks will get an email Friday morning with your links and instructions to view Friday's Re Fridays sessions live resources and then view those replays. 10 00:02:15.790 --> 00:02:42.909 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: if for some reason you don't receive that email Friday morning, and you are premium or premium pro user, please, once again, email us at Hello, pro writing aidcom. And that is how you can get in touch with our support team, and we will be happy to help you there. If you would like to upgrade you can upgrade until Friday morning to receive access to premium day. We do have a special offer for you. It's 15 off your 1st year of yearly premium or premium pro the 11 00:02:43.430 --> 00:02:57.849 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: purchase link is on the hub. But there is a special code. Cw, 2024, and that will give you your discount. I'm gonna drop the links for you again there, and this offer ends July 6.th You can find out more about that on the hub. 12 00:02:57.850 --> 00:03:24.020 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: If you would like to keep talking crime writing. We'd love to have you in our free writing community the link is here and also linked on the hub page. You can log in with your pro writing aid account information, and it will let you write in. We have the live event chat going now with a lot of different conversation, threads, polls, discussion prompts. You can promote anything you're working on within the self promo thread there, and you can meet other writers. 13 00:03:24.190 --> 00:03:26.259 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: So please join us there. 14 00:03:26.420 --> 00:03:33.729 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Reminders for today's session. Please use the Q. And A. Box. If you have questions for our speaker, as you can see, the chat moves quickly. 15 00:03:33.900 --> 00:03:40.659 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: and we don't want to miss any of your questions. If you would like to chat throughout the session today, feel free to do so. 16 00:03:43.690 --> 00:03:44.630 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: please 17 00:03:45.230 --> 00:03:54.659 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: change the dropdown menu to everyone. And then everyone can see your messages, otherwise by default they will just come to the host and panelists. 18 00:03:54.690 --> 00:04:04.969 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: and lastly, all of our offers from our speakers will be available on the crime rate's week hub and within our participant guide. So everything you need will be on the hub. 19 00:04:05.640 --> 00:04:23.640 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: So thank you for joining us. I'm so excited to introduce our next speaker to you. Lori puma helps. Authors write novels that inspire readers to skip, bathroom breaks and survives on chips and salsa. She started her writing career publishing scientific papers, great reading. If it's 3 12 Am. And you've run out of ambient. 20 00:04:23.640 --> 00:04:37.850 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Since then she's worked a variety of jobs, many of which involve telling stories with numbers. Now, developmental editor, excuse me. Lori has done guest spots on writing podcasts, including the creative writers, toolbout writership and the rights cast network. 21 00:04:37.850 --> 00:04:48.610 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: She also runs a blog and creates quizzes to help writers, craft page turning fiction. Visit her website to take a quiz and see if your work in progress will leave readers hungry for more of your writing. 22 00:04:48.890 --> 00:04:51.669 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Welcome, Lori. We're so happy to have you here. 23 00:04:52.030 --> 00:05:02.442 Lori Puma: Hi! Great thanks! So much for having me, Michelle, let me get my thing started, and I'm gonna turn off my video. So you don't have to watch my face 24 00:05:03.050 --> 00:05:04.730 Lori Puma: awesome. Let me get 25 00:05:05.860 --> 00:05:14.699 Lori Puma: click a couple more buttons. So I am excited to talk with you today about booming the puzzle behind your mysteries plot. 26 00:05:16.510 --> 00:05:45.420 Lori Puma: And before we get started, I just want to say, if you tried to access the mystery quiz and something went wrong. Yeah, I'm really sorry. That was a problem with my quiz provider. There is now the Pdf version on the Crime week, Hub and I also included a link to it. I made some extra material for some bonus material for you guys, and I included the link to the Pdf of the mystery. Quiz in there. 27 00:05:47.100 --> 00:06:09.290 Lori Puma: Okay? And about me, as Michelle said, I've been a but developmental editor since 2,017. I trained as an epidemiologist which they're sometimes called disease detectives, and I'm relying on a lot of that training to. I relied on a lot of that training to come up with the presentation that I made for you today. 28 00:06:09.799 --> 00:06:25.620 Lori Puma: I also wanted to give a shout out to my visually impaired friends. I have a visual impairment, too, and I added alt text to all of the slides, so you should be able to know what's on them when there are graphics. 29 00:06:25.800 --> 00:06:33.560 Lori Puma: And one personal thing is, I write jokes, and I had a mystery themed one to tell you. 30 00:06:34.170 --> 00:06:49.699 Lori Puma: I've learned so much from reading mystery novels. For example, one thing I learned about travel is that if you're taking a train or a cruise, and you hear that there's a famous detective on board, it's time to reschedule. 31 00:06:51.160 --> 00:06:53.432 Lori Puma: So thank you. 32 00:06:54.856 --> 00:07:02.380 Lori Puma: That's my joke. And now let's jump in to the meat of what we're going to talk about today. 33 00:07:02.640 --> 00:07:09.850 Lori Puma: So we're going to look at the anatomy of a puzzle. And we're going to specifically look at a murder mystery. 34 00:07:10.281 --> 00:07:20.110 Lori Puma: And then we're going to talk about some problems that happen that make of the puzzle in your book. Less fun for readers and how to fix them. 35 00:07:20.320 --> 00:07:36.740 Lori Puma: We're gonna talk about what the universe of clues that you should create for your mystery is, and I need to move this guy. Then we're gonna talk about how to make the best use of clues in the moment within a scene. 36 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:52.730 Lori Puma: And then we'll move to doing that with how do you make the best use of your clues and puzzle within your plot? And then, finally, I'll remind you where to get the resource list and talk a little bit more about what I included in it, and we'll do the QA. 37 00:07:54.950 --> 00:07:55.960 Lori Puma: So 38 00:07:56.200 --> 00:08:02.459 Lori Puma: let's jump in to the anatomy of a murder mystery. 39 00:08:03.460 --> 00:08:11.289 Lori Puma: Okay, so here is a representation of a book. We've got the beginning on the left. 40 00:08:11.480 --> 00:08:21.820 Lori Puma: the end on the right. It's split into 4 equal sections. We call the 1st section act one. The 2 middle sections act 2, the 4th section x 3, 41 00:08:21.830 --> 00:08:30.800 Lori Puma: and then from top to bottom, we're going to organize our characters based on how innocent or guilty looking they are. 42 00:08:31.780 --> 00:08:36.720 Lori Puma: So that is a murder mystery. And in a minute. 43 00:08:36.740 --> 00:08:45.190 Lori Puma: when my animation continues, we are going to have a a body show up 44 00:08:47.780 --> 00:09:03.779 Lori Puma: eventually. There it is. So we've got a an image of our body, because in with a murder mystery, somebody has to die. So they have died down there at the bottom, and after they die 45 00:09:03.780 --> 00:09:19.506 Lori Puma: you'll see to the right 3 boxes outlined in blue numbered 1, 2, and 3 appear. Those are our clues because we're gonna go to the crime scene and figure out what is happening. Oh, no. I screwed up and 46 00:09:19.910 --> 00:09:25.660 Lori Puma: messed up the timing. So let's do it. 47 00:09:27.220 --> 00:09:28.370 Lori Puma: How do I? 48 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:34.232 Lori Puma: Okay? So we're gonna lose the animation for which I'm sorry. 49 00:09:34.760 --> 00:09:43.950 Lori Puma: but we'll just talk through it. So from so the next thing that was supposed to appear were the 4 circles in Act one. 50 00:09:43.980 --> 00:09:46.710 Lori Puma: So we've got 51 00:09:46.900 --> 00:10:09.574 Lori Puma: our pink circle up here at the top. Who is innocent? They're up at the top. Our gray circle is on the dash line. So we're not sure about what happened to them. Whether they're innocent or guilty. And then we've got our 2, our white circle and our black circle are are below the dash line. So they are. 52 00:10:11.138 --> 00:10:12.930 Lori Puma: They are our suspects. 53 00:10:13.330 --> 00:10:29.930 Lori Puma: And then, when we move into the 1st half of Act 2. You know, we still think our pink circle is is innocent. We meet 3 new characters who are our yellow circle, our red circle, and our light blue circle, and then we move 54 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:33.020 Lori Puma: our our white circle and 55 00:10:33.150 --> 00:10:45.050 Lori Puma: black circle are still suspects, and the black one is moving down. We think they're looking guilty, or and by the end of Act 2 gray circle has become our prime suspect. 56 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:50.900 Lori Puma: And one other thing that happened. So we're collecting more clues in 57 00:10:51.200 --> 00:11:07.419 Lori Puma: back to the 1st half, and then there you can. You can see that there is a box that's kind of green that is labeled with a 3. That's a clue that has changed in its significance from the act one right? 58 00:11:08.220 --> 00:11:08.910 Lori Puma: So. 59 00:11:12.380 --> 00:11:25.420 Lori Puma: excuse me. So. At this point, if the animation worked, everything would have been missing from the second half of x 2 and acts 3. And what I would have asked you is, what do you think? 60 00:11:25.740 --> 00:11:33.269 Lori Puma: You know if you know anything about story structure. You know that there is a big plot twist that happens 61 00:11:33.800 --> 00:11:44.719 Lori Puma: the middle of the story, and I wanted to ask you what you thought that plot twist might be, but I managed to wreck it for you. But 62 00:11:45.500 --> 00:11:54.589 Lori Puma: when I practiced this with my friends they guessed things like, you know, the gray circle was going to become the next victim 63 00:11:54.640 --> 00:11:55.365 Lori Puma: and 64 00:11:57.080 --> 00:12:01.180 Lori Puma: and basically they had other ideas about how 65 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:30.890 Lori Puma: you know the gray circle. What is our prime suspect? But they're gonna not be the prime suspect later. So if we now move to the second half of Act 2, we've got our yellow circle at the top with the big X so Gray Circle wasn't our next victim. It was our yellow circle, and it turns out that because Gray was our prime suspect. We had them in custody while Yellow Circle happens, and we now know that they couldn't have committed the 1st murder either. 66 00:12:31.250 --> 00:12:32.150 Lori Puma: So 67 00:12:33.220 --> 00:12:34.290 Lori Puma: excuse me. 68 00:12:35.313 --> 00:12:36.599 Lori Puma: Just so. 69 00:12:37.580 --> 00:12:46.610 Lori Puma: We've still got our other 4 suspects black, red, white, and light blue circle, and you know we picked up more clues in this section 70 00:12:46.650 --> 00:12:48.870 Lori Puma: 7 and 8, including 71 00:12:48.970 --> 00:12:53.220 Lori Puma: clues for which we went back and reevaluated. 72 00:12:54.370 --> 00:13:15.929 Lori Puma: And then finally, we move to act 3. So we've got black, yellow, and light blue circle at the top, and then we've got red and white circle at the bottom, and then at the very bottom. We've got our pink circle who had tricked us all along. They are actually the guilty party. 73 00:13:17.640 --> 00:13:18.630 Lori Puma: and 74 00:13:18.860 --> 00:13:22.700 Lori Puma: I wanted to do this this way, because. 75 00:13:23.930 --> 00:13:28.949 Lori Puma: oh, my! There we go! So there's kind of 3 76 00:13:29.050 --> 00:13:31.479 Lori Puma: elements that were meant. They're 77 00:13:31.560 --> 00:13:35.559 Lori Puma: that make that are the ingredients of the puzzle puzzle. 78 00:13:35.610 --> 00:13:43.180 Lori Puma: So one is progress right during every single section we are collecting clues that 79 00:13:43.200 --> 00:14:06.609 Lori Puma: not just, you know, in additional pieces of information, but they actually make a difference as to who we consider innocent versus guilty. And you know we move them around on our little game board. So that's what progress means is that we are getting clues that make a meaningful difference in what we think about the solution to the puzzle. 80 00:14:07.374 --> 00:14:16.900 Lori Puma: And then the second ingredient is expectation. If I hadn't screwed up the animation, you could have guessed what might have happened at. 81 00:14:16.910 --> 00:14:29.969 Lori Puma: That's the midpoint of the story, because I've given you enough information to form an expectation about what kinds of things might happen in this story. 82 00:14:30.360 --> 00:14:39.799 Lori Puma: and then the 3rd ingredient is uncertainty. If I hadn't given you the solution you wouldn't have been sure what 83 00:14:39.870 --> 00:14:50.019 Lori Puma: the solution was, even though you could have made a guess. So those are the 3 things that we want to think about progress, expectation, and uncertainty. 84 00:14:51.240 --> 00:14:56.520 Lori Puma: So that is the anatomy of puzzle that is working. 85 00:14:56.740 --> 00:15:00.929 Lori Puma: And now let's talk about how puzzles 86 00:15:00.940 --> 00:15:02.690 Lori Puma: go astray. 87 00:15:03.260 --> 00:15:22.649 Lori Puma: So I'm gonna be very careful and not click this time. But we've got the same setup as before, from left to right, beginning to end of the novel from top to bottom. We've got innocent to guilty, and this puzzles a little bit different than the previous one. So we've got in Act One. We've got. The black and pink 88 00:15:22.760 --> 00:15:31.290 Lori Puma: circle are innocent gray. We we don't know about white is definitely a suspect, and we're picking up clues again. 89 00:15:32.540 --> 00:15:34.670 Lori Puma: And I want you all to 90 00:15:34.710 --> 00:15:46.518 Lori Puma: type into the chat box when you think you know what the problem is going to be in this puzzle. So if Michelle, if you could read out 91 00:15:47.850 --> 00:15:49.920 Lori Puma: a couple answers, that would be great. 92 00:15:50.760 --> 00:15:54.180 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Sure we're waiting for them to come in now. 93 00:15:55.230 --> 00:15:56.120 Lori Puma: Awesome. 94 00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:03.000 Lori Puma: So we've got 1st half of act 2. And now we've got the second half of Act 2. 95 00:16:04.380 --> 00:16:07.679 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Lou Marie says too many innocent characters. 96 00:16:08.950 --> 00:16:11.850 Lori Puma: Too many innocent characters. Yes. 97 00:16:12.020 --> 00:16:18.619 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: We have a couple of other people who are saying the same thing, and Amanda says obvious answers to little characters. 98 00:16:19.894 --> 00:16:30.340 Lori Puma: Yes, so I would say, we have too few suspects. That is kind of the opposite of of the in the same 99 00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:44.889 Lori Puma: same idea too many. Yeah, we have so many innocent characters and not enough potentially guilty. So exactly right. You guys are so smart. And you might be like Lori, that's pretty obvious. 100 00:16:44.900 --> 00:17:04.680 Lori Puma: like, of course, you need to have sufficient suspects for a puzzle. And the way that this problem happens tends to be, because the characters who are innocent have a lot else going on. So here, you know, you might have. 101 00:17:04.680 --> 00:17:25.970 Lori Puma: Black Circle is a love interest. Pink circle is a friend who owes money to some dangerous people. Blue circle is a neighbor who the detective is having a court dispute with, and Red Circle is a friend or relative who needs childcare assistance. Right? Those are things that can hide. 102 00:17:26.030 --> 00:17:35.580 Lori Puma: If you have all of that going on in your story, you might not notice that actually there are not enough suspects for the main mystery. 103 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:53.190 Lori Puma: So in order to fix that problem, there are 2 parts. One it is that you can tie your subplots to the main mystery. So I just listed out the subplots that we had in the previous slide here, and then at the bottom 104 00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:56.950 Lori Puma: you can tie them in by making the subclat 105 00:17:57.130 --> 00:18:04.539 Lori Puma: character a suspect or witness. You know how or giving the detective a clue. 106 00:18:04.800 --> 00:18:11.789 Lori Puma: helping them get access to information or making their investigation more 107 00:18:11.800 --> 00:18:22.399 Lori Puma: difficult. So, for example, if the court dispute with the neighbor led the sleuth to get arrested, that's 1 way to complicate it, or 108 00:18:22.490 --> 00:18:42.639 Lori Puma: the final way is raising the stakes of catching the culprit. So if the kid that you're supposed to babysit ends up being taken as a hostage. That's the classic way of raising the stakes. So part one of the solution is just to, you know, you can tie those susplex subplots to the main plot. 109 00:18:43.630 --> 00:18:47.030 Lori Puma: and the second part is pretty obvious. 110 00:18:47.050 --> 00:18:48.799 Lori Puma: You can add more suspects. 111 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:52.940 Lori Puma: And here I've listed out 112 00:18:53.010 --> 00:19:10.430 Lori Puma: all of the different relationships your suspects might have with the victim and the community in your story, because you want to have a range of different types of relationships so that your characters seem distinctive. 113 00:19:12.160 --> 00:19:15.879 Lori Puma: Okay? So that's problem one and the solution. 114 00:19:16.120 --> 00:19:26.929 Lori Puma: And now let's move to problem 2 same setup as before, from left to right, beginning to end, from top to bottom innocent to guilty 115 00:19:27.190 --> 00:19:27.885 Lori Puma: and 116 00:19:28.830 --> 00:19:29.760 Lori Puma: are 117 00:19:30.330 --> 00:19:42.549 Lori Puma: little people in the circles are gonna appear, and you can type into the chat again when you've got a guess as to what is wrong in this setup. 118 00:19:47.570 --> 00:19:48.379 Lori Puma: and Michelle, like. 119 00:19:48.380 --> 00:19:53.939 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Amanda. Oh, we have a few people saying too many characters, or suspects. 120 00:19:54.080 --> 00:19:56.550 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: That seems to be the theme here. Do you mean. 121 00:19:56.550 --> 00:19:57.310 Lori Puma: And you all. 122 00:19:57.310 --> 00:19:58.660 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Many characters. 123 00:19:58.660 --> 00:20:18.600 Lori Puma: Are extremely smart. And obviously, yeah, when you have too many suspects, it's really a lot. You're asking your reader to keep track of a lot, and it really takes away the fun of forming an expectation cause they're like, well, I know something's gonna happen with one of these characters. But 124 00:20:19.050 --> 00:20:20.570 Lori Puma: who knows which one. 125 00:20:20.710 --> 00:20:23.179 Lori Puma: So that is 126 00:20:23.470 --> 00:20:28.920 Lori Puma: problem, too, where there's just too much uncertainty and information overload. 127 00:20:29.420 --> 00:20:38.779 Lori Puma: And before I give you, we talk about the solution, I just want to talk about. How do you know how many suspects you need for your mystery? 128 00:20:38.880 --> 00:21:05.399 Lori Puma: And there really isn't like a you need abs this many all the time. There's a range of answers. So you need at least 3, and definitely no more than 10, possibly no more than 7. But it really depends on. You know how many words are in your story and what your goal is for the story like, if you want to write a 129 00:21:05.450 --> 00:21:08.319 Lori Puma: 80,000 word classic puzzle mystery. 130 00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:29.830 Lori Puma: You want more suspects. But if you want to write a 50,000 word story that brings attention to a social issue, then you don't want as many suspects, because you won't have as much word count, to devote to your other goals. If you have a whole. 131 00:21:30.090 --> 00:21:32.459 Lori Puma: you know way too many suspects. 132 00:21:33.670 --> 00:21:34.580 Lori Puma: So 133 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:42.989 Lori Puma: that's how many how to know how many you need. And then, when you realize that you've got too many for what you've got. 134 00:21:43.240 --> 00:22:03.419 Lori Puma: Obviously, you can cut those characters out entirely. But there's also a couple of other strategies that you can use to manage your suspect lists. You know you can combine characters. You can make a character who was, you know, a main character and a suspect. You can turn them into a side character. 135 00:22:03.510 --> 00:22:12.440 Lori Puma: You know, group similar characters together in scenes so that they feel like one big mob rather than multiple 136 00:22:12.460 --> 00:22:24.849 Lori Puma: individual characters. And then, obviously, you know, you can clear suspects by killing them off, or by convincing your detective that that character could not have committed the crime. 137 00:22:26.670 --> 00:22:31.760 Lori Puma: So those are the strategies that we use to solve problem 2. 138 00:22:31.810 --> 00:22:36.949 Lori Puma: And now let's talk about problem number 3. 139 00:22:37.030 --> 00:22:44.059 Lori Puma: And this one, I'm just going to tell you it's trouble with the investigation. It's actually a whole 140 00:22:44.070 --> 00:23:11.069 Lori Puma: big grab bag of problems that all have the same solution. And I represented 2 of those possible problems here in images. So in the top one, you know, if every time the detective picks up a clue, they immediately know what it means and what to do next. That's way too straightforward and way too easy for them. 141 00:23:12.193 --> 00:23:20.760 Lori Puma: And that isn't. That doesn't create enough uncertainty in our puzzle. And then the second image is. 142 00:23:21.030 --> 00:23:24.670 Lori Puma: I have the clues, and then I have. So there's 143 00:23:24.800 --> 00:23:28.740 Lori Puma: 5 clues total and clues 2. 144 00:23:29.080 --> 00:23:31.610 Lori Puma: The second clue is read. 145 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:33.790 Lori Puma: the meaning of it changes 146 00:23:33.990 --> 00:23:38.130 Lori Puma: 3 times after we pick it up. The 3rd 147 00:23:38.150 --> 00:23:48.110 Lori Puma: clue, 3 changes twice and clue 4 changes once. And basically, if you change what a clue means so many times, readers, just stop believing you. 148 00:23:50.220 --> 00:23:53.269 Lori Puma: So that is problem number 3, 149 00:23:54.859 --> 00:24:22.290 Lori Puma: and the solution to Problem 3 is to basically, you want your puzzle to be in the Goldilocks zone. So you know you want it to be just right where your clues aren't too obvious and they aren't too obscure. There's some reversal in meaning, but not too many reversals, and the investigation is challenging, but not totally impossible. And there's a plausible number of twists 150 00:24:24.020 --> 00:24:32.080 Lori Puma: and the rest of our time together. We're going to be talking about how to create a puzzle. That is 151 00:24:32.100 --> 00:24:33.799 Lori Puma: just right. 152 00:24:34.510 --> 00:24:35.480 Lori Puma: So 153 00:24:35.710 --> 00:24:39.329 Lori Puma: let's talk 1st more deeply about clues. 154 00:24:40.900 --> 00:25:01.180 Lori Puma: So this is the who, what, when, where, why, and how, and I've got to be at them in a different order, which, when you are in your story, your detective is going to be collecting all of these clues simultaneously. But this order was just because that's what made sense for the presentation. 155 00:25:02.280 --> 00:25:04.920 Lori Puma: Okay? So first, st 156 00:25:05.710 --> 00:25:13.679 Lori Puma: we want to know, you know, when you're writing a murder mystery. You know that the death is a murder, but in real life 157 00:25:14.100 --> 00:25:23.000 Lori Puma: somebody reports a dead body. Investigators who arrive at the scene. They have no idea it. What has happened. 158 00:25:23.020 --> 00:25:41.029 Lori Puma: and somebody has to make a decision about what they think happened, and figure out which authorities need to be involved. Well, if there's an investigation needed in the 1st place, and if so, who needs to be involved? Who needs to be in charge? 159 00:25:42.150 --> 00:25:46.840 Lori Puma: And the I wanted to tell you that the law there are laws that 160 00:25:47.150 --> 00:26:10.380 Lori Puma: tell investigators what kind of deaths need to be investigated, and the reasons that I have listed here are ones that are almost always on that list. But for your story it's a really good idea to look up the laws in your setting about what deaths need to be investigated. 161 00:26:10.500 --> 00:26:17.410 Lori Puma: and who would be doing that investigation? Because in an urban area, you know, it'll be the 162 00:26:19.060 --> 00:26:33.420 Lori Puma: But there's probably a lot of resources. But in a more small town or rural setting there can be, you know, there might be state agencies involved. There can be a lot of other people involved. 163 00:26:33.850 --> 00:26:36.809 Lori Puma: So first, st you have to figure out. 164 00:26:37.160 --> 00:26:39.909 Lori Puma: does this death need investigation? 165 00:26:40.410 --> 00:26:42.149 Lori Puma: And in our case. 166 00:26:42.310 --> 00:27:02.880 Lori Puma: we know it's murder. So let's just talk about. Okay, how do you figure out what kind of murder it is? And this shouldn't be a surprise to anybody who reads a mysteries or writes mysteries on the left. I've got a list of murder methods, and then on the right. 167 00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:17.080 Lori Puma: I've got a list of clues that you can use to figure out which method and I just wanted. So biological clues means, you know, stuff that's learned in an autopsy or toxicology screens. 168 00:27:17.310 --> 00:27:29.990 Lori Puma: physical objects. Means, like, you know, if there's a bloody knife or observations. If there's tire tracks nearby, we can probably figure that the person was run over by a vehicle. 169 00:27:31.250 --> 00:27:34.309 Lori Puma: yeah. Witness testimony. So 170 00:27:34.550 --> 00:27:46.469 Lori Puma: you want to think about the all of the senses. So not just what witnesses might have seen, but what they've heard, what they felt in some cases what they've tasted or touched 171 00:27:46.560 --> 00:27:54.139 Lori Puma: depending on what's relevant. And then, obviously, if there's any audio or video, you want to see that. 172 00:27:56.300 --> 00:27:57.180 Lori Puma: Okay. 173 00:27:57.390 --> 00:28:02.110 Lori Puma: so that was how. And now let's talk about when 174 00:28:02.120 --> 00:28:07.779 Lori Puma: and when is really important, because you have to know when the 175 00:28:07.950 --> 00:28:18.430 Lori Puma: victim died. Otherwise you do not know what time your suspects need alibis for, and that may sound obvious. But I see 176 00:28:18.470 --> 00:28:21.419 Lori Puma: mysteries that skip that step. 177 00:28:22.120 --> 00:28:38.710 Lori Puma: And so that's why this. See, this slide is in here, so you can establish time of death with medical evidence. That is what your coroner, our medical examiner, will will figure out, or one of their colleagues like a forensic entomologist. 178 00:28:38.960 --> 00:29:01.119 Lori Puma: And you know, if you don't have access to people with that that forensic training, you can also figure out time of death with non medical evidence. So interviews any kind of records and stuff with Timestamps, especially if it's also got a location. 179 00:29:04.484 --> 00:29:29.969 Lori Puma: So that was when and now we're at where and there are 2 big questions about where. So you want to know within a crime scene where exactly the death occurred, and how the victim and their killer moved within that crime scene prior to the death that helps you figure out how to make sense of the clues from the crime scene. 180 00:29:30.020 --> 00:29:50.970 Lori Puma: So that's question one. How did they move within the crime scene? And then the second question, what happened to the body after death? So post mortem where they moved, and if they were moved, you know, if the body was dumped, and then there's gonna be another site out in 181 00:29:51.590 --> 00:30:02.210 Lori Puma: in the world where the death actually occurred, and it would be very interesting to our investigator to find that site and look for more clues. 182 00:30:02.520 --> 00:30:03.230 Lori Puma: And 183 00:30:05.280 --> 00:30:13.900 Lori Puma: they can use, you know the stuff at the crime scene, and they can look for information about the victim 184 00:30:14.030 --> 00:30:18.939 Lori Puma: to try to figure out where that second crime scene might be. 185 00:30:19.040 --> 00:30:33.309 Lori Puma: and I didn't add this to the slide, but once you have plausible suspects you would try to get the same. You might try to get the same kind of information out of them to try to locate any secondary crime scenes. 186 00:30:33.710 --> 00:30:36.569 Lori Puma: So that is where 187 00:30:36.790 --> 00:30:39.929 Lori Puma: and now let's talk about why. 188 00:30:39.970 --> 00:30:55.429 Lori Puma: So again, this shouldn't be a big surprise to anybody that reads mysteries. So on the left, I've got a list of motives. The 1st 3 are bolded because they are the most popular ones in real life. As reasons for murder. 189 00:30:55.450 --> 00:31:19.011 Lori Puma: And then on the rep on the right. I've got the list of clues to figure it out. So again, it's what characters say, how they behave, and it's not just how they behave, you know, when the detective interviews them, but it also is, how did they behave in the past which you might learn from other suspects? And you might learn from 190 00:31:19.660 --> 00:31:20.650 Lori Puma: you know. 191 00:31:21.349 --> 00:31:28.200 Lori Puma: their social media or news reports or anything that tells you. You know they're 192 00:31:28.570 --> 00:31:30.216 Lori Puma: chat history. 193 00:31:31.120 --> 00:31:37.350 Lori Puma: you want to look both net now and in the past, and then, of course. 194 00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:44.470 Lori Puma: you know the bureaucratic records, the wills and the insurance policies, etc. 195 00:31:45.760 --> 00:31:46.800 Lori Puma: Okay. 196 00:31:47.390 --> 00:32:00.060 Lori Puma: okay. So finally, we are at the last of our 5 h's or 5 w's in one H. So who we need to know who the victim was? If it's not obvious, and who is the culprit? 197 00:32:00.170 --> 00:32:26.660 Lori Puma: And to do that we are going to use all of the clues that we talked about on the previous slides in this section, and then the one piece that we haven't discussed so far is we want to be looking for secrets in a good mystery. Your victim will have 2 to 3, ish, 3, maybe 4 secrets, and at least one of those secrets is going to be something that helps the detective 198 00:32:27.930 --> 00:32:31.819 Lori Puma: find out the identity of the culprit. 199 00:32:36.230 --> 00:32:38.230 Lori Puma: So to recap. 200 00:32:38.360 --> 00:32:45.280 Lori Puma: This is a list of the universe of clues that you want for your mystery. 201 00:32:45.500 --> 00:32:50.469 Lori Puma: If you want to do a simpler mystery, you can make something on this list 202 00:32:50.600 --> 00:32:56.358 Lori Puma: a stated fact that the mystery, or that your detective doesn't really need to. 203 00:32:57.070 --> 00:33:00.309 Lori Puma: you know, find a trail of clues to figure out 204 00:33:00.430 --> 00:33:10.849 Lori Puma: if you want to make your puzzle harder. You can make the stuff on this list. Take more steps for your detective to figure out. 205 00:33:13.400 --> 00:33:15.540 Lori Puma: So those are 206 00:33:15.610 --> 00:33:22.650 Lori Puma: the clues. And now, how do you make them interesting in the moment within a scene 207 00:33:24.270 --> 00:33:25.120 Lori Puma: so 208 00:33:25.540 --> 00:33:38.629 Lori Puma: clues have a life cycle. You don't just pick one up and immediately know what it means. First, st you have to collect it. In some cases you might have a extended process of searching for it. 209 00:33:38.750 --> 00:33:43.700 Lori Puma: and then you have to process it which can be separate. 210 00:33:43.780 --> 00:34:02.300 Lori Puma: and then you have to understand what it means for your puzzle. So let's say the clue is a bicycle left at the scene of the crime, and your detective is law enforcement. So you don't know who the bike belongs to. But you know you tag it. You send it to the evidence locker 211 00:34:03.030 --> 00:34:05.280 Lori Puma: that is collection. 212 00:34:06.390 --> 00:34:31.090 Lori Puma: When you try to track down who the bike belongs to that is processing. So you might take fingerprints. You might talk to witnesses or other people of interest about the bike. You might Google, the bike brand online and call up the local box shop and ask them if they sold a bike with the serial number, all of those activities are processing. 213 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:39.550 Lori Puma: And then, when you finally know where the bike came from, and whether or not, it has anything to do with your case. 214 00:34:39.590 --> 00:34:44.060 Lori Puma: That is understanding what the clue means. 215 00:34:44.650 --> 00:35:03.110 Lori Puma: And the reason that I point this out is because, as the author. You don't just have clues and suspects to build your puzzle. You can also manipulate the life cycle of the clue so that you can control when a clue is understood within your plot 216 00:35:03.190 --> 00:35:06.830 Lori Puma: so that you can make the most of that clue. 217 00:35:08.660 --> 00:35:10.080 Lori Puma: Okay, so 218 00:35:10.420 --> 00:35:21.509 Lori Puma: let's look at each of those stages of the lifecycle of a clue. So on the left I've got a list of what counts as search and collection. 219 00:35:21.710 --> 00:35:23.469 Lori Puma: and then on the right 220 00:35:23.720 --> 00:35:24.500 Lori Puma: got 221 00:35:25.670 --> 00:35:32.520 Lori Puma: when to show that clue in a scene, and when to just tell the reader in a summary statement about 222 00:35:32.770 --> 00:35:44.950 Lori Puma: the search and collection and the gist of it, is you want to show whenever something unexpected happens, and you want to tell when it's predictable. 223 00:35:48.940 --> 00:36:02.420 Lori Puma: Okay? So similarly, for processing, I've got what counts as processing on the left, and then when to show the processing within the scene on the right. 224 00:36:02.650 --> 00:36:07.339 Lori Puma: And again, if something unexpected happens, you want to show it. 225 00:36:07.530 --> 00:36:24.119 Lori Puma: or if you want to have a background action, a background activity like, say, your police detective is needs to have a fight with her boss. They could have that fight 226 00:36:24.140 --> 00:36:28.339 Lori Puma: in the lab while someone is processing. 227 00:36:29.080 --> 00:36:32.179 Lori Puma: you know, DNA samples from the crime scene. 228 00:36:35.710 --> 00:36:38.519 Lori Puma: So understanding. And again, I've got 229 00:36:38.750 --> 00:36:41.529 Lori Puma: counts as understanding on the left. 230 00:36:41.610 --> 00:36:44.729 Lori Puma: and when to show understanding. 231 00:36:44.790 --> 00:36:49.049 Lori Puma: or when to show absence of understanding. 232 00:36:49.620 --> 00:36:50.470 Lori Puma: So 233 00:36:50.570 --> 00:36:51.830 Lori Puma: basically. 234 00:36:52.640 --> 00:37:00.169 Lori Puma: you want to show when your character figures something out that's new. So there's change. 235 00:37:00.410 --> 00:37:19.510 Lori Puma: And if you want to show that your character is really struggling, that's when you can show them just being like, Oh, my gosh! I have no idea. You know, I'm never gonna figure this out expressing doubt in some way about their ability to solve this mystery. 236 00:37:22.250 --> 00:37:31.319 Lori Puma: So that's using clues and scenes. Now let's talk about using clues in the plot. 237 00:37:32.740 --> 00:37:36.689 Lori Puma: So this is a 4 238 00:37:36.710 --> 00:37:56.800 Lori Puma: part process that represents our mystery plot. So you know, back in anatomy. We had 4 equal sections of our story. And so in Act one, we're gonna introd. We're going to meet our sleuth and learn about the crime in 239 00:37:56.920 --> 00:38:04.840 Lori Puma: 2 we are, or the 1st half of vacuum. We are going to continue our investigation, and we're going to 240 00:38:05.020 --> 00:38:16.309 Lori Puma: keep going until we form some kind of expectation that is going to turn out to be wrong. In the second half of Act 2, our investigations. 241 00:38:16.690 --> 00:38:22.019 Lori Puma: scope and focus is going to change. And then in the 3rd act. 242 00:38:22.310 --> 00:38:29.930 Lori Puma: the last section of our story, we're going to get the solution to the story, and our culprit will face justice. 243 00:38:30.830 --> 00:38:33.600 Lori Puma: And obviously this is 244 00:38:33.900 --> 00:38:56.029 Lori Puma: one way to structure a mystery. It is not the only way to structure a mystery, but we needed to have something to talk about, so that we could talk about the puzzle. So if this particular structure doesn't fit your mystery definitely ask, you can ask in the Q&A. About how to adapt. 245 00:38:59.900 --> 00:39:02.369 Lori Puma: Do I want to say? Oh, right. 246 00:39:02.580 --> 00:39:03.330 Lori Puma: yes. 247 00:39:05.920 --> 00:39:06.850 Lori Puma: so 248 00:39:07.420 --> 00:39:09.770 Lori Puma: alright. So in. 249 00:39:09.800 --> 00:39:29.229 Lori Puma: So here we've got on the left the ingredients or the elements that you would typically include in Act one and then on the right ideas for adding more uncertainty. So in Act one, the detective is collecting collecting clues. 250 00:39:29.550 --> 00:39:42.350 Lori Puma: but they don't have a sense of how all these clues fit together. So there is a lot of uncertainty, a pretty high amount of uncertainty at this part in the story. 251 00:39:42.800 --> 00:39:47.300 Lori Puma: And I gave you this list because a lot of times 252 00:39:47.876 --> 00:39:53.229 Lori Puma: authors make this part of their story too easy for their detective. 253 00:40:03.370 --> 00:40:26.560 Lori Puma: Okay, so that was part or act one. And now we are on to the 1st half of Act 2. And this is a section where there is a lot of progress on the case. Typically, so we've got the ingredients on the left of the slide and the challenges that occur in this section on the right, and 254 00:40:26.740 --> 00:40:45.159 Lori Puma: you'll notice that pretty much. All of the ingredients on the left are things that we called progress. Back in the Anatomy section of this presentation. You know, all of these mean that our detective is making progress toward solving the mystery. 255 00:40:46.260 --> 00:40:52.249 Lori Puma: and we know that we want to give readers and our detective enough 256 00:40:52.840 --> 00:41:04.210 Lori Puma: information at this point of the story, so that they can form a theory about what happens, and make guesses as to what 257 00:41:04.580 --> 00:41:06.689 Lori Puma: you know who might be guilty. 258 00:41:07.440 --> 00:41:09.710 Lori Puma: How they did it, why, they did it. 259 00:41:10.290 --> 00:41:15.110 Lori Puma: and that can be a partial theory, or it can be. 260 00:41:15.160 --> 00:41:34.150 Lori Puma: I know exactly who did it, how they did it, and why they did it, or it can just be, you know. I think it's 1 of these 2 people, but I'm not sure why any any combination works. We just want it to be something that is wrong and helps us create a plot twist. 261 00:41:39.480 --> 00:41:45.629 Lori Puma: And so once you have that plot twist leading into Act 2. 262 00:41:45.760 --> 00:41:51.239 Lori Puma: You know, our sleuth is going to realize that they've been going down the wrong track. 263 00:41:51.420 --> 00:42:06.869 Lori Puma: and they're gonna backtrack to figure out their mistakes. So all the stuff that they're gonna do ingredients on the left and then on the right. This part of the story. They are going to face the biggest amount of challenge. 264 00:42:07.370 --> 00:42:12.769 Lori Puma: And the consequences of the challenge are going to be big. 265 00:42:12.930 --> 00:42:22.850 Lori Puma: So they're going to pursue different kinds of leads. Then, in the 1st half of X 2. They might and investigate a different motive. 266 00:42:23.432 --> 00:42:26.810 Lori Puma: And they might look at different suspects. 267 00:42:29.430 --> 00:42:44.560 Lori Puma: Yeah. So I already told you, you want the consequences of not solving the mystery in this section to be pretty high, and to have an increased sense of urgency, because you want to get your readers to make it 268 00:42:44.660 --> 00:42:49.449 Lori Puma: make make them feel really worried that this case needs to get solved. 269 00:42:49.720 --> 00:42:50.500 Lori Puma: So 270 00:42:51.170 --> 00:42:54.939 Lori Puma: and then finally, we are going to move on to act 3. 271 00:42:55.140 --> 00:42:57.980 Lori Puma: So this is where we get the solution 272 00:42:58.360 --> 00:43:01.240 Lori Puma: and bring our culprit to justice. 273 00:43:01.390 --> 00:43:04.140 Lori Puma: In this act we've got our 274 00:43:04.340 --> 00:43:06.069 Lori Puma: ingredients on the left. 275 00:43:06.260 --> 00:43:10.009 Lori Puma: and then how to make the end exciting on the right. 276 00:43:11.030 --> 00:43:11.730 Lori Puma: And 277 00:43:12.050 --> 00:43:22.140 Lori Puma: our sleuth isn't just going to, you know, have their own thoughts about who is guilty. They are going to look for positive proof about. 278 00:43:22.640 --> 00:43:33.640 Lori Puma: so that they can convince other people that they are correct, and bring the culprit to some kind of justice. So in this part of the story, the 279 00:43:33.920 --> 00:43:34.880 Lori Puma: you know. 280 00:43:36.540 --> 00:43:39.010 Lori Puma: the detective is going to have 281 00:43:39.250 --> 00:43:40.719 Lori Puma: have progress 282 00:43:41.224 --> 00:43:48.010 Lori Puma: in figuring it out, and they are gonna resolve all of the underlying uncertainty. 283 00:43:48.070 --> 00:43:55.039 Lori Puma: and I gave you the ways to make the end exciting, because we want to leave readers. 284 00:43:55.170 --> 00:44:06.919 Lori Puma: But we want to show readers a confrontation between our culprit and our sleuth, and these are some of the strategies that you can use to make that confrontation 285 00:44:07.020 --> 00:44:21.639 Lori Puma: more exciting because it's not gonna be so much about uncovering clues at that point, but really about the danger that this the culprit poses to the detective and to any other characters around 286 00:44:23.400 --> 00:44:24.190 Lori Puma: so 287 00:44:24.910 --> 00:44:26.059 Lori Puma: to recap 288 00:44:26.580 --> 00:44:36.299 Lori Puma: building the plot and the puzzle. So creating a good puzzle is really about striking a balance between progress and uncertainty. 289 00:44:36.350 --> 00:44:58.970 Lori Puma: And you don't want that balance to be static throughout the story. You want it to be dynamic and changing. Sometimes there's progress, sometimes there's more challenge and uncertainty, and then we come back to progress, and then uncertainty. You want those ups and downs to feel like a natural progression with a plausible number of twists. 290 00:44:59.720 --> 00:45:11.280 Lori Puma: and everything listed on the right side of this slide is a lever that you can pull to create more doubt in your readers minds about the solution to the mystery. 291 00:45:14.550 --> 00:45:18.309 Lori Puma: So what have we learned so far? Today? 292 00:45:18.560 --> 00:45:26.789 Lori Puma: We have learned that a satisfying puzzle has 3 ingredients, progress, expectation, and uncertainty. 293 00:45:27.030 --> 00:45:35.170 Lori Puma: that our mystery needs somewhere between 3 and 10 suspects exactly how many depends on you and your story. 294 00:45:35.530 --> 00:45:46.789 Lori Puma: 3. We want our puzzle to be challenging, but not impossible. With a plausible number of twists and reevaluations of clues. 295 00:45:47.410 --> 00:45:53.780 Lori Puma: We want those clues to cover the 5 w's and one h of the deaf. 296 00:45:55.920 --> 00:46:06.189 Lori Puma: We've learned that clues have a three-stage life. Cycle, search and collection is stage one, stage 2, processing stage 3, understanding. 297 00:46:08.020 --> 00:46:19.830 Lori Puma: When you are thinking about clues. When you're writing your scenes, you want to show the clue at whatever life cycle stage it's at when something unexpected happens. 298 00:46:20.270 --> 00:46:26.709 Lori Puma: And if something is predictable, you just want to tell readers the results. 299 00:46:27.230 --> 00:46:30.529 Lori Puma: Finally, when you're working on the plot. 300 00:46:30.540 --> 00:46:33.140 Lori Puma: you want to have the 301 00:46:33.200 --> 00:46:48.100 Lori Puma: blend of progress, expectation, and uncertainty be dynamic so that things are always changing, and you're kind of always going back and forth. It's like one step forward, 2 steps back 302 00:46:48.110 --> 00:46:50.109 Lori Puma: in your puzzle. 303 00:46:52.370 --> 00:46:59.550 Lori Puma: Sometimes you want progress to be dominate, other times you want uncertainty to be dominant, but always 304 00:46:59.600 --> 00:47:00.750 Lori Puma: shifting. 305 00:47:04.340 --> 00:47:19.069 Lori Puma: And the last thing I had before Q. And a. Was, I wanted to tell you about the resource list, which is just give. Get you a couple more tips about crafting your puzzle, your scenes and your plot. 306 00:47:19.390 --> 00:47:20.400 Lori Puma: So 307 00:47:20.410 --> 00:47:36.730 Lori Puma: on the resource list. There are items that relate to writing your novel. And then there are links to articles. I referenced. In making this presentation, that talk about how real-life investigations happen. 308 00:47:37.888 --> 00:47:53.019 Lori Puma: If you want to get these extras, you can go to this website, Lori puma.com slash, mystery, dash extras and type your name. And email, into the little box and click 309 00:47:53.090 --> 00:47:55.989 Lori Puma: the thing, and you'll you'll get it. 310 00:47:56.120 --> 00:48:13.660 Lori Puma: And I also wanted to give a shout out to Kate Jackson of cross-examining crime. She is a book reviewer, and she helped me identify a couple example novels that showcase concepts that we talked about in this presentation. 311 00:48:15.290 --> 00:48:17.340 Lori Puma: And that's it. 312 00:48:17.370 --> 00:48:20.030 Lori Puma: So I'm ready for Q. And a. 313 00:48:20.490 --> 00:48:35.519 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Great. Thank you so much. There's so much amazing feedback in the chat right now. Everyone loved all the information, and the theme is, they can't wait to dive into it deeper and study it and apply it to their own work. So. 314 00:48:36.190 --> 00:48:37.590 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Absolutely fantastic. 315 00:48:37.810 --> 00:48:39.930 Lori Puma: Thank you so much. I'll turn. 316 00:48:40.100 --> 00:48:47.689 Lori Puma: Turn my video back on so I can. So I can give you the heart sign. Thank you so much. Everybody. 317 00:48:48.020 --> 00:49:05.800 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: To start out. We have some just a fun idea from Jim Lewis. He says. It occurs to me this system would make a great computer app. That would be a far greater plot, outliner for mysteries than anything else out there. It remains to remains to build your characters and write your story. This is just brilliant. 318 00:49:06.380 --> 00:49:07.952 Lori Puma: Oh, thank you! 319 00:49:09.000 --> 00:49:10.528 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Neighbors. Lori, you could. 320 00:49:10.910 --> 00:49:16.925 Lori Puma: No a bunch. I used to work at tech startup. So I do know a bunch of techies. 321 00:49:19.182 --> 00:49:32.960 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Let's see, we'll start with. Susan asks. Does it add too many suspects if the guilty party is a group like a group of fraternity brothers, a bridge club foursome, or a crime boss posse, for example. 322 00:49:34.015 --> 00:49:41.899 Lori Puma: That is a good question that I would really need to think about, and I think it might also. 323 00:49:42.210 --> 00:49:44.269 Lori Puma: it might also depend. 324 00:49:45.520 --> 00:49:48.608 Lori Puma: It kind of depends on the execution. 325 00:49:49.764 --> 00:49:55.020 Lori Puma: And so can I respond to stuff in the crime writing hub 326 00:49:55.290 --> 00:49:59.859 Lori Puma: later, I'd like to think about this question and get back to you. 327 00:49:59.860 --> 00:50:12.989 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: So what we can do. I can even send you a list of all the QA. Questions, and you can respond with your answers. On a document or something, and I can post that to the hub. 328 00:50:13.340 --> 00:50:18.059 Lori Puma: Okay, yes, we will figure out some way to do that, cause that one 329 00:50:18.150 --> 00:50:21.810 Lori Puma: I have to think through. I don't have an answer off the top of my head. 330 00:50:23.030 --> 00:50:32.579 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Yeah, we can definitely do that. We've done that in the past. And it worked out well, we can also answer questions in the community. So we we will figure something out. 331 00:50:33.973 --> 00:50:35.399 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Let's see. 332 00:50:36.870 --> 00:50:43.129 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Catherine asks, would the structure be different for a missing person? Historical family drama, mystery. 333 00:50:45.369 --> 00:50:52.380 Lori Puma: I would say the details of it would almost certainly be a different 334 00:50:53.260 --> 00:51:07.700 Lori Puma: it also depends. I think the you want to think about this, I think about the spirit of what I presented rather than the exact. So if you're just thinking like you're gonna have a big plot twist at at the middle. 335 00:51:07.760 --> 00:51:19.119 Lori Puma: That's probably true. But what your plot twist might be might be that, you know. By that middle they finally identify where the missing person was the last 336 00:51:19.700 --> 00:51:23.559 Lori Puma: the last day before something terrible happened. 337 00:51:23.660 --> 00:51:25.295 Lori Puma: you know. So 338 00:51:26.510 --> 00:51:28.910 Lori Puma: yeah, that's another one that 339 00:51:29.310 --> 00:51:34.490 Lori Puma: the principle applies. But the specifics will probably be a little bit different. 340 00:51:36.780 --> 00:51:43.589 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: We have an anonymous attendee who asks, how does the finding and use of clues apply to an amateur sleuth? 341 00:51:45.760 --> 00:51:48.420 Lori Puma: The I'm not exactly sure 342 00:51:49.340 --> 00:51:50.500 Lori Puma: what 343 00:51:51.430 --> 00:51:55.490 Lori Puma: what that questioner is asking. Do you know. 344 00:51:56.462 --> 00:52:00.890 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: I'm not sure if you asked this question. Can you please? 345 00:52:01.338 --> 00:52:07.200 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Submit a little bit more info on that, and we will move on to another question. In the meantime. 346 00:52:07.470 --> 00:52:20.150 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Sandra asks, Do I have to introduce all of my suspects in the 1st act? Currently I have it. So we see things from my stalker's perspective without revealing my suspects popping up in the start of Act 2. 347 00:52:20.740 --> 00:52:25.110 Lori Puma: No, you do not have to reveal all of your suspects in Act One. 348 00:52:26.750 --> 00:52:28.902 Lori Puma: That's the short answer. 349 00:52:30.830 --> 00:52:40.478 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Patricia asks, do you use any type of tracking app such as a mind map to track all of your twists and turns, not to mention all of the characters. 350 00:52:41.340 --> 00:52:47.970 Lori Puma: I have people make a table of the clues and a table of the suspects 351 00:52:48.240 --> 00:52:49.109 Lori Puma: and 352 00:52:50.450 --> 00:52:58.620 Lori Puma: I don't think I can access it easily, but I can give I can include that in the QA. 353 00:52:59.750 --> 00:53:13.499 Lori Puma: It were when I respond, if you, if Michelle sends me the QAI can give you at least a screenshot of what? What I have writers do to keep track of their clues and their suspects. 354 00:53:14.880 --> 00:53:20.329 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Desiree asks, how would a missing person fit into this? Though murder is suspected. 355 00:53:22.020 --> 00:53:23.100 Lori Puma: So 356 00:53:23.520 --> 00:53:35.630 Lori Puma: the basically you would similar to the historical mystery question, is that your you know what happens? How is the 357 00:53:35.780 --> 00:53:50.680 Lori Puma: how is the missing in this discovered is the discovery of the crime right? How do you know that a person is missing? And then you would be tracking down more about like, where were they? And you just want to split. 358 00:53:50.980 --> 00:54:12.099 Lori Puma: You want to split everything into smaller chunks so that your detective can make progress because you don't. What you don't want to happen is like they keep working and working and working, and then everything happens at the end. You want it to be spread out. So that progress happens throughout the story so hopefully. That answers your question. 359 00:54:13.950 --> 00:54:21.759 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: I'm kind of piggybacking on that. Maggie asks, how much would this translate to crime novels that don't focus on murder as the crime. 360 00:54:22.960 --> 00:54:25.180 Lori Puma: Yeah. So again, it's like 361 00:54:25.700 --> 00:54:43.469 Lori Puma: the general principle applies. But the details are going to change. So you know, you want to have the discovery of the crime. You want a big plot twist in the middle, maybe probably a smaller plot twist at the end of Act One and the end of Act 2. 362 00:54:44.256 --> 00:54:48.639 Lori Puma: It's just you're you're chunking of the 363 00:54:48.950 --> 00:54:52.029 Lori Puma: how to track the crime is going to be different. 364 00:54:54.140 --> 00:55:05.680 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Nancy asks in a cozy mystery, the sleuth usually helps to save an innocent suspect from being found guilty. Would you consider this part of the challenge process in the act 2 stage. 365 00:55:06.110 --> 00:55:06.680 Lori Puma: Yeah. 366 00:55:10.182 --> 00:55:17.669 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Linda asks, does any of this change if the real crime comes in later in the story, and the inciting incident is another crime. 367 00:55:19.930 --> 00:55:23.919 Lori Puma: Okay, so you have one crime, and then there 368 00:55:24.150 --> 00:55:28.570 Lori Puma: is a second crime that is like the main mystery. 369 00:55:29.089 --> 00:55:34.549 Lori Puma: So similar to what I said to the people that asked about missing person. 370 00:55:34.560 --> 00:55:49.590 Lori Puma: you're still going to want to chop up the information. So the clues, you know, throughout the story, even though you, your detective, might not realize their clues at that point. And you want to have 371 00:55:49.750 --> 00:55:55.130 Lori Puma: have things so that it feels like the progress is happening throughout the story. 372 00:55:55.630 --> 00:56:02.689 Lori Puma: and not just all happening at the end, or all happening, you know, at 1 point in time, at somewhere else in the story. 373 00:56:04.420 --> 00:56:10.009 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Will asks, could the story end with the real culprit not known to anyone but the reader? 374 00:56:14.440 --> 00:56:16.170 Lori Puma: probably 375 00:56:16.390 --> 00:56:30.849 Lori Puma: it could. Would mystery readers be upset about that? I mean, it kind of depends on like what your subgenre and what are the expectations. If you were writing a cozy mystery, I would say, no, don't do that. 376 00:56:31.425 --> 00:56:39.360 Lori Puma: If you're writing a more like noir gritty, dark thing, then that might be totally appropriate. 377 00:56:41.570 --> 00:56:48.279 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Milo asks, What if you have 2 culprits? The second one kills the 1st one, but the 1st one deserved it. 378 00:56:50.500 --> 00:56:54.580 Lori Puma: I love it so I'm not sure 379 00:56:54.660 --> 00:56:59.912 Lori Puma: wh what to respond to with that. So if you had 380 00:57:01.620 --> 00:57:03.560 Lori Puma: one kills the other. 381 00:57:03.820 --> 00:57:04.950 Lori Puma: and then. 382 00:57:05.020 --> 00:57:06.570 Lori Puma: And so. 383 00:57:07.100 --> 00:57:09.900 Lori Puma: yeah, I'd have to know which one 384 00:57:09.960 --> 00:57:30.309 Lori Puma: which one is still alive is the really guilty one still alive? Or is it the innocent one that's still alive and you know again, the same advice that I give give to everybody is, you just always want to make sure that you're making progress, and having challenges at every step of the process. Not just all. 385 00:57:30.370 --> 00:57:33.680 Lori Puma: all piled up at 1 point in the story. 386 00:57:35.390 --> 00:57:37.469 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Harry asks, oh, sorry! I thought you. 387 00:57:37.470 --> 00:57:43.419 Lori Puma: I was gonna say that one is another one where I might have some more thoughts. To add. 388 00:57:44.330 --> 00:57:46.999 Lori Puma: as do I get a chance to think about it. 389 00:57:47.000 --> 00:57:57.479 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Okay, Harry asks, how do you deal with clues that require specialist knowledge on the part of the investigator to interpret how much explanation is manageable. 390 00:57:58.390 --> 00:58:01.680 Lori Puma: Yeah, that really depends on what the clue is. 391 00:58:01.700 --> 00:58:02.385 Lori Puma: And 392 00:58:03.250 --> 00:58:04.699 Lori Puma: I think that 393 00:58:04.860 --> 00:58:06.440 Lori Puma: if you it it. 394 00:58:07.310 --> 00:58:10.013 Lori Puma: I'm not sure it. 395 00:58:10.900 --> 00:58:28.138 Lori Puma: I so there's a bunch of strategies that you can use. You can have, you know, the clue. The the detective consult with other characters. You can use analogies can often be really helpful in making something clear. 396 00:58:29.020 --> 00:58:47.579 Lori Puma: I'm trying to think of some other strategies off the top of my head, I mean, and then and if you have a lot of information, if it's information that you split up into pieces throughout the story, that can also make it more palatable to readers so hopefully hopefully. That answers your question. 397 00:58:48.410 --> 00:59:04.270 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: We have an anonymous attendee who asks if you can't think of a plausible explanation for the mystery that you want to include? Does it mean that this particular idea is dead, and it's time to move on? Oh, or will readers let you get away with an explanation? That is a stretch. 398 00:59:05.290 --> 00:59:10.710 Lori Puma: I would say, move on or figure out a plausible explanation. 399 00:59:15.475 --> 00:59:21.334 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Let's see, we only have time for maybe one more 400 00:59:21.990 --> 00:59:29.879 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Terry asks. I'm doing a cozy mystery in which there are certain rules. How many rules can you break and still be within the genre. 401 00:59:31.300 --> 00:59:49.769 Lori Puma: There is no hard and fast rule to that, and I mean, like Agatha. Christie broke all of the mystery rules, but she also was Agatha Christie. So it really depends on execution, and which so-called rules you're trying to break 402 00:59:49.770 --> 01:00:02.860 Lori Puma: like for cozy mystery. Some of the rules are like you don't want to be graphic in that kind of a mystery. I would never break that rule. Right? So 403 01:00:03.670 --> 01:00:12.110 Lori Puma: you know, I think it depends. If you have more details on what rules you're thinking of breaking, I can give more feedback. 404 01:00:14.280 --> 01:00:35.959 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Alright, we are out of time. We had a couple of people ask about transcripts. Yes, we are going to post the audio Transcript to the Hub page as well as the replay. As soon as those are done processing by zoom, Lori's links. Pdf, file of the mystery quiz and slides are already on the hub for you now, so you can go there and access those. 405 01:00:37.710 --> 01:01:01.100 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: so those links are in the chat, and we have another session coming up in just 1 h. So thank you again. Lori. This was a fantastic presentation, and I will get those QA. Questions to you, and we'll get the file uploaded to the Hub at a later date for anyone who didn't get their question asked today. I know there was a lot to cover. So thank you for being here, everyone, and we'll see you soon. 406 01:01:01.530 --> 01:01:03.899 Lori Puma: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. 407 01:01:04.790 --> 01:01:06.090 Michelle @ ProWritingAid: Bye, everybody!