A short mystery story is a difficult form to master, but the authors who do, like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe, create enduring bite-sized mysteries that continue to delight readers many generations after their deaths. In a short story you don’t have the luxury of hundreds of pages to develop the plot and characters, and have to use efficient language to build suspense while keeping the secret of who done it until the bitter end. Unlike many other forms of writing, mystery tends to follow a few rules to make sure the reader is appropriately challenged to solve the mystery before the detective does—but only just before. It’s okay if the reader doesn’t figure it out, as long as the solution makes sense and follows logically from the rest of the story.
Plot is the single most important element of a good mystery story. You are writing a sort of game for the reader, and that game is taking place in the world you create. If that world isn’t skillfully rendered, it doesn’t feel real and the story falls flat. This is a tricky balancing act because you need to keep the action moving while you establish the story’s world. Don’t worry too much about back story. In a novel you have time to explore the history of each character but in a short story you don’t. Allude to important history without spelling it out. The reader will connect the dots.
Introduce the detective and the criminal as quickly as possible. The detective is typically the main character in a mystery story. The reader will empathize with the detective, imagining herself in his place. Use his powers of observation to reveal clues, but be sure to include plenty of red herrings so you don’t make the solution too obvious. Red herrings are suspicious characters or circumstances that don’t directly relate to the crime in question, at least not in the way the reader suspects. Red herring characters can be fun to write. They can add color and context while they distract your reader from the mystery at hand.
Make the crime both sufficiently gruesome and sufficiently realistic. A gruesome crime, ideally a murder, grabs the readers attention and adds a salaciousness to your story. However, if you make the crime unbelievable, it will pull the reader out of the story, and you’ll lose her attention. Your reader will feel unsatisfied by the story if the crime is unrealistic. That’s not to say you can’t get creative with the who, what, where, when and how.
The detective should solve the case with good old fashioned cleverness. Stories that include psychic powers—visions or premonitions—are unsatisfying for a reader. The clues should be laid out such that it is possible for someone with excellent deductive reasoning skills to puzzle them out.
Lastly, wait as long as you possibly can to reveal the culprit. The longer you wait, the more suspense you build with the story. Of course, some of the best short mystery writers like Poe and Doyle bucked many of these rules and still managed to write great works of mystery. Once you master the basics, you will have the experience you need to experiment. Until then, stick with the loose formula and challenge yourself to be as creative as possible within it.
References and Resources:
John Morgan Wilson: Tips of the Craft
http://www.johnmorganwilson.com/writingcraft.htm
Mystery Writer’s Ink
http://www.mysterywritersink.com/Ink_quotes.html