1) Decide On a Twist

Whether it be that a character who appears good is secretly a murderer or someone was roped into helping to steal a priceless artifact, you’ll need to figure out what the twist of your story will be. The key thing to remember, though, is that the information itself isn’t the ‘twist’, it’s a crucial piece of action that is backed up by the information.

So, for example, let’s say your twist is that the murderer of your story is secretly a close friend of the protagonist. You must have them reveal themselves through a choice like killing someone in front of your protagonist. Having them monologue the information isn’t a twist, this is what backs up and supports a twist that has already occurred.

Ultimately, before you begin writing your story, you’ll need to decide what the twist will be, the story behind the twist, and how it will be revealed through action.

2) Plot Out Your Story

Next, you’ll need to plot your story in order for it to make sense both from the perspective of knowing and not knowing what the twist will be. You have to make sure the story is logical while your readers are still in the dark, and then also when the shocking twist reveals itself.

If your twist involves a certain character in the story being unlike their outer persona, you’ll need to plot the whole story from both your protagonist’s perspective and theirs. What do they do throughout that alleviates them from suspicion until the end? Why are they doing what they’re doing? Who are they really?

3) Scatter Clues Throughout

As you’re going into writing your story, it can be helpful to leave tiny little almost imperceptible hints throughout. For example, let’s say the murderer is murdering people he feels are responsible for the death of his brother. The protagonist could notice him always wearing a certain gold chain around his neck and later this could be revealed to have come from his brother and serves as a symbol of his dedication to avenging him.

This is a detail that doesn’t feel suspicious in the slightest upon reading so your readers would have no reason to be suspicious, but it also aids the later reveal and shows that you put thought into it if you included this detail early on.

4) Focus On the Choices

As we stated earlier, choice is the key to executing a twist. Therefore you must not only focus on the choice that will eventually reveal the twist, but also the choices being made throughout. This is tricky because it involves a balancing act of sorts. You want the character surrounding the reveal to not be someone under suspicion because otherwise, the twist won’t feel very surprising. At the same time, however, you want their behavior and choices to make sense from the POV of the twist reveal.

It can be helpful to perhaps have a scene that shows them at one scene while the ‘killer’ is on the loose, thereby making it seem as though they’re beyond suspicion. And then you’d later reveal that they did this to throw the police off the scent. Make sure you’re plotting your story well and making sure that all of this person’s movements make sense from every POV while also not allowing them to become an obvious object of suspicion.

5) Revise

As much as you want to believe you’ll nail this on the first try, something this intricate takes multiple drafts. Don’t beat yourself up when the threads inevitably get too tangled or when you hand your first draft to your editor and they notice several areas with plot holes. You need all of the threads to fit together perfectly in order to execute that moment that combines surprise, awe, and satisfaction known as the twist.

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The Plant

The first part of foreshadowing is ‘the plant’ or putting in the relevant information in a subtle way. Foreshadowing is a balancing act; the information needs to be sprinkled throughout the novel, but not in such an obvious way that it tips the reader off about your ending. One great example of an author who is a master of foreshadowing is J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series. There are countless examples to choose from, but one is (spoiler alert) about finding Ravenclaw’s diadem (crown). Though this item doesn’t become significant until book seven, back in book six Rowling makes a brief mention of the item when Harry is in the Room of Requirement. He simply notes seeing a crown among other miscellaneous items in this room. This wasn’t an obvious detail at the time of ‘the plant,’ but knowing the author was already planning out its significance a book ahead of time is a fantastic payoff.

There are other ways to create a plant outside the world of fantasy. For example, your protagonist can notice a coworker looking for jobs online, foreshadowing a violent act at work. Your detective protagonist could be investigating a house and a drawer got stuck while they were trying to open it- maybe because it has a secret compartment hiding a gun that is later found. Though it’s cliche, it could be as simple as a protagonist’s close friend telling them, “Be careful who you trust.” The plant must be something small that will later pertain to the climax or resolution of the novel. This involves planning, outlining, and technique. If the plant occurs toward the beginning of your book, make sure you remind your readers of it either throughout the book or at the payoff.

The Distractions

In order to prevent your foreshadowing from being obvious, make sure you’re creating other suspicious circumstances and threads that your protagonist will follow. No matter how subtle you think you’re being with your plant, astute readers will likely pick up on it. This is why you need to create other plot points for them to follow. This way, their suspicions will likely be swayed or they may forget about the small detail entirely- until the inevitable reveal. When ‘the payoff’ finally occurs, you want to create this sense of, “Aha! Of course, it had to be [insert circumstance]!” You want the payoff to make sense to the readers, but still be unpredictable. So they should have that ‘aha’ moment, even though the story could’ve very easily could’ve ended in several different resolutions equally plausible.

The Payoff

This is the final part of masterful foreshadowing. If you’ve done your job correctly with ‘the plant’, all you’ll really need to do here is let the scene unfold and let the action play out as you’ve planned. This will be an ‘aha’ moment for your readers, so don’t be afraid to create the drama. Just remember to explain all of the plot points you used throughout the story. So don’t just explain the ‘payoff’- make sure the distractions are explained as well (whether that be in your climax or resolution).

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The post How to Use Foreshadowing appeared first on Dorrance Publishing Company.

1) Introduce your Detective, Culprit, and Crime Early On

One of the most important aspects of a mystery novel is the payoff. Your protagonist needs to go on a journey, search for clues, and it needs to amount to a satisfying climax. It’s made satisfying when the reader can go back and find the clues you left them throughout the book. That may seem tricky, but the first step to getting there is making sure you’re introducing all the key elements to the story as soon as possible.

The protagonist of the story must always be ‘the detective’. Not to say that they have to work in law enforcement, but rather that they need to be the one trying to piece together the clues. Then there’s the culprit, who should also be introduced in the beginning. The longer the audience has seen that character in the story, the more shocking and satisfying the payoff at the end. Finally, experienced writers recommend introducing the crime within the first three chapters of the book (at least). That may seem tricky, but waiting longer would risk losing some readers. Mystery fans are reading for the crime. Give the people what they want.

2) Believability

Another key element to weaving the mystery novel web is believability. One of the biggest ways to ruin a mystery novel is getting to the climax and realizing the crime wouldn’t physically be possible. Your readers will feel cheated by this. It’s your job to make the crime real. This may require some questionable google searches on disemboweling and knife wounds, but we promise your readers will thank you for it. Make sure you know every detail of how the crime occurred, as though you’re a lawyer presenting to a jury in a court of law. Think of the timing, the murder weapon, the perp’s movements, motives, fingerprints, blood, hair- everything.

The other facet of believability is in the solving. Make sure your protagonist isn’t having suspicions or drawing conclusions out of thin air. Every time they get a step further in the mystery, there should be something tangible that they experienced, saw, or remember that led them there.

3) Don’t over explain, leave clues

Now, this may seem contradictory to what we just said, but hear us out. While the reader should always be able to see clearly where your protagonist’s head is, make sure you’re not over-explaining. For example, say there’s a vase in an apartment that is (eventually) going to be the place where the murder weapon was stashed. Don’t write a whole paragraph about the vase- write a sentence. You should be merely leaving clues for the reader throughout your novel. Some clues your protagonist may notice, but others your readers may notice first. Don’t make it too obvious where the reader should be looking. Otherwise, you’re taking the mystery out of mystery novel.

4) Use Red Herrings

This is possibly the best tool for the mystery novel writer. The toughest part of writing a mystery novel is trying to make the reader surprised and satisfied with your ending. It involves a very tricky juggling act between leaving clues while also not making the clues too obvious. That’s not an easy balancing act. Your best tool to achieve this is to use what are called red herrings.

A red herring is a clue or a piece of information which is intended to be misleading or distracting. In order to surprise your readers by the end, you have to lead them down some false trails, distract them, and make them miss some of your clues. You could include a character that is initially acting suspiciously. You could have your detective find a clue, only later to realize it was placed there by the villain to lead them the wrong way. You could even have an object that seems to have more significance than it really does. Whatever route you choose, distraction is the key.

5) Create Suspense through Dialogue and Character

The other tricky part of crafting a mystery novel is creating suspense. Creating a good crime is part of that, but there are a few other facets to keeping suspense consistently high throughout the novel. The first is character and character development. While the plot of a mystery novel is crucial, in order for readers to care about the journey, they have to care about the character. You want your reader to love your protagonist- to care about their safety, desires, and overall success on their journey. This will only happen if your character is well-written, so spend time really fleshing out who your detective is (as well as other important characters in the story).

The other facet of this is dialogue. Every second of your story must keep the reader on edge, so use dialogue to further engage your audience. Have a character lie, while your protagonist knows they’re lying. Have another say or do something unexpected or out-of-character. Your detective should be pulled in a lot of different directions and, once the mystery starts, virtually every conversation they have should make them feel uneasy in one way or another.

Though the prospect of tackling a mystery novel may seem monstrous, if you work hard at mapping out your plot and characters it becomes a lot less terrifying. Much like a Scooby Doo episode, the monster isn’t ever as scary as it first appears.

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