The mystery genre employs many tropes and tactics to craft a clever and intriguing narrative. Mystery novels also take quite a bit of planning, especially if the author intends to throw out a genius plot twist or craft a perfect plot.

That being said, what can the mystery genre teach us about writing in other genres? There is valuable things to be learned from reading and writing in other genres. I think mystery is especially one of these genres. Let's discuss . . .

A mystery novel can prove to take a great deal of planning! From the basic plot to the tiny details that come back to haunt the characters later. The more planning that goes into plotting a mystery novel, the better.

Crafting a plot for any book can be incredibly difficult. You draft a first vague idea of what you want the novel to look like. By the time you're finished with that, you need to change details to make the end work. Having recently crafted a plot for my own novel, I realized how much work goes into this. I definetely didn't take a traditional approach to plotting, either.

What I found helpful was to start by writing scenes. Scenes I wanted to happen, ideas I wanted to include, and the characters that needed to be there. Then I would go back and choose settings. Then I'd write about the details, all sorts of details. Relating to characters, the settings and the things occuring in the scenes.

Plotting, if done right, should come to the point where the actual writing is just filling in between the lines. It's not always that pretty, but it does make the actual writing easier. At least in my experience. And plotting is something I only came to appreciate through reading so many mystery novels.

There's truly a great deal of planning that goes into bringing back a minor detail from the thrid chapter. A feat I strive to achieve myself one day. Now, having begun to actually utilize plotting before writing, I'm truly starting to appreciate the work that goes into it.

I have always wrote based off of ideas for a character. I came up with a character, their backstory, and essentially write out from there. I built my stories off of characters.

In trying to write a mystery novel once, I realized how much that has tended to harm my writing. It's much easier to plug characters into a narrative, not to write a narrative around a character. At least in my experience. Because you can craft the characters specifically to the narrative. You can make them as complex as you need. Without needing to worry about making every detail from the narrative bend to a character.

This is all apart of the thought that goes into crafting a narrative. It's great to have a good character idea in mind! Most stories start with a small idea and are built from there. This is great! I believe it's important to also remain flexible when crafting a plot and defining the details of scenes.

Overall, it's most important to utilize whatever techniques work best for you and your writing style. However, I think it is valuable to study other author's works-or other genres outside of your own-and learn from these other works.

Look out for some book reviews related to the mystery genre. I intend to review many books from many genres. There is so much to learn from each genre and so many techniques to be employed from each! I think there is value to analyzing other author's works and learning how to craft a book from those.

The best way to learn how to write a book may just well be reading one! Reviews from the mystery genre are coming soon. Stay tuned for more!