Write Your Own: Mystery Read Online Free
Author: Pie Corbett
needs to discover where everyone was and what they were doing. Were they with someone else who could back up their story? Good alibis are ones where other people are involved.
Examples of good alibis might be:
  being at a party;
  being seen on a train or plane;
  talking on the phone to someone;
  shopping and being seen on CCTV cameras;
Your villain will need an alibi â but it will be false. For instance, the villain might claim to have been at work with the door closed and the radio on. In the end, it turns out that the villain climbed out of the window to carry out the deed â¦!
Decide what the villainâs alibi will be and then work out what really happened.
4. Reviewing the evidence!
Your sleuth character will need to review the evidence every so often. Here are some phrases you might find useful:
I had little to go on, but I had a hunch about the old man ⦠We were no nearer discovering why â¦
Part of me still wondered whether â¦
According to her nothing had happened, but why did I still feel uneasy �
Mrs Jenkins had told us nothing new, and yet â¦
5. Detective work
Use a detectiveâs line in questioning to help channel the readerâs thinking. For example:
Had he been asleep? Where had the sound of snoring been coming from? Was it true that the parrot could speak? Did Polly really hold the key to cracking the mystery wide open?
6. Cliffhangers
Cliffhangers are a key part of mysteries. They are exciting parts of a story where something dramatic occurs, leaving the reader desperate to read on and find out what happens. Usually cliffhangers occur at the end of a section or chapter. To write a cliffhanger you need to build up to a sudden turn of events right at the end of a paragraph. For example:
Kirsty walked over the road. She was still not sure why Dr Vix had wanted her to go back for the suitcase. It was raining hard now. She had her head down and so she did not see the van pull up or the two men leap out. The next thing she knew, she was grabbed from behind and a sack placed over her head. She too, had been kidnapped!
Did you notice how Kirsty was not looking where she was going as her mind was elsewhere? A useful technique whenwriting cliffhangers is to lead your characterâs attention somewhere else before the dramatic incident takes place. Some ideas for cliffhangers are:
  someone goes missing;
  something important is stolen;
  someone is grabbed or attacked;
  the carâs brakes fail;
  the stairs collapse;
  someone yells in surprise.
7. Flashbacks
Flashbacks can be a good way of explaining events or filling in background detail. Often a character thinks back to a previous event. For example:
Tim thought bock to the previous day when he had â¦
It had only been an hour ago that they had â¦
Wasnât it only a week since they had â¦
As far as she could recall â¦
She distinctly remembered that day because â¦
Â
Writing tip!
Don't worry if your story isn't long enough to be split up into chapters, you can still use cliffhangers to grip your readers. Write your main character into a possibly disastrous situation at the end of a paragraph, so that your readers have to read on to the next paragraph to find out what happens.
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Time to write!
You are almost ready to start writing. Before you start, however, you need to map out your mystery story. Make notes in your writing journal under the following headings:
the mystery problem
What is the crime or mystery that needs solving? Is it a robbery, a kidnapping, a disappearance or some other weird happening?
the main characters
Add more information to your gallery of characters. Think about how they talk, walk, act and any special details about their appearance. Do this for:
 the sleuth      the suspects      the villain
 the setting
Decide on the
Examples of good alibis might be:
  being at a party;
  being seen on a train or plane;
  talking on the phone to someone;
  shopping and being seen on CCTV cameras;
Your villain will need an alibi â but it will be false. For instance, the villain might claim to have been at work with the door closed and the radio on. In the end, it turns out that the villain climbed out of the window to carry out the deed â¦!
Decide what the villainâs alibi will be and then work out what really happened.
4. Reviewing the evidence!
Your sleuth character will need to review the evidence every so often. Here are some phrases you might find useful:
I had little to go on, but I had a hunch about the old man ⦠We were no nearer discovering why â¦
Part of me still wondered whether â¦
According to her nothing had happened, but why did I still feel uneasy �
Mrs Jenkins had told us nothing new, and yet â¦
5. Detective work
Use a detectiveâs line in questioning to help channel the readerâs thinking. For example:
Had he been asleep? Where had the sound of snoring been coming from? Was it true that the parrot could speak? Did Polly really hold the key to cracking the mystery wide open?
6. Cliffhangers
Cliffhangers are a key part of mysteries. They are exciting parts of a story where something dramatic occurs, leaving the reader desperate to read on and find out what happens. Usually cliffhangers occur at the end of a section or chapter. To write a cliffhanger you need to build up to a sudden turn of events right at the end of a paragraph. For example:
Kirsty walked over the road. She was still not sure why Dr Vix had wanted her to go back for the suitcase. It was raining hard now. She had her head down and so she did not see the van pull up or the two men leap out. The next thing she knew, she was grabbed from behind and a sack placed over her head. She too, had been kidnapped!
Did you notice how Kirsty was not looking where she was going as her mind was elsewhere? A useful technique whenwriting cliffhangers is to lead your characterâs attention somewhere else before the dramatic incident takes place. Some ideas for cliffhangers are:
  someone goes missing;
  something important is stolen;
  someone is grabbed or attacked;
  the carâs brakes fail;
  the stairs collapse;
  someone yells in surprise.
7. Flashbacks
Flashbacks can be a good way of explaining events or filling in background detail. Often a character thinks back to a previous event. For example:
Tim thought bock to the previous day when he had â¦
It had only been an hour ago that they had â¦
Wasnât it only a week since they had â¦
As far as she could recall â¦
She distinctly remembered that day because â¦
Â
Writing tip!
Don't worry if your story isn't long enough to be split up into chapters, you can still use cliffhangers to grip your readers. Write your main character into a possibly disastrous situation at the end of a paragraph, so that your readers have to read on to the next paragraph to find out what happens.
Â
Time to write!
You are almost ready to start writing. Before you start, however, you need to map out your mystery story. Make notes in your writing journal under the following headings:
the mystery problem
What is the crime or mystery that needs solving? Is it a robbery, a kidnapping, a disappearance or some other weird happening?
the main characters
Add more information to your gallery of characters. Think about how they talk, walk, act and any special details about their appearance. Do this for:
 the sleuth      the suspects      the villain
 the setting
Decide on the
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