I’m a new writer and I’m trying to write something original by making a mystery isekai novel. But I don’t know how to write a mystery. If I write without any help it’ll look like your average isekai novel but main character is a detective instead of a stupidly op swordsman.
Undoubtedly put this in the wrong forum but whatever
If it's a murder mystery type of thing, I'd suggest watching the old cop show Columbo. The show is special because the first half of it shows the criminal in the events leading up to the crime and how they plan it, as well as the murder taking place. Detective Columbo doesn't even show up till halfway into the episode. You really get to see everything unfold from start to finish.
If it's a murder mystery type of thing, I'd suggest watching the old cop show Columbo. The show is special because the first half of it shows the criminal in the events leading up to the crime and how they plan it, as well as the murder taking place. Detective Columbo doesn't even show up till halfway into the episode. You really get to see everything unfold from start to finish.
I don't know much about writing, but I can advise you to plan a bit maybe writing from the end to the beginning, but something I have to say is that you should read what you have written, so you can correct problems, if you don't want to read what you've written then just don't publish it, if you don't want to read it yourself and you think it's not worth it (because you wrote it and you know what's going to happen) then you're just writing a worse than mediocre novel.
If it's your first time writing mystery, don't insert any combat at all. Even if it makes sense to have combat, don't let your MC get involved in it. Have them warn a Knight Order or the Town Watch, and let them take care of the fighting. Don't describe said fight, either. Just a brief 'They beat up the bad guys, taking minimal losses.'
That may feel unnatural, and the resulting story may not even be good. But it should be a good experience for you.
That said, Mystery doesn't do that well on ScribbleHub. You might be better looking for help on YouTube or a site that deals in Mystery stories.
If you're looking for a basic idea to go off of, then how about... Your character doesn't have any combat skills, so they make their daily living by trying to locate hidden bandit camps and getting the bounty from turning them in. Finding criminals inside the city may be better, since they probably won't have any forestry or survival skills.
For the Main Plot though, you'll want something bigger. Something personal to the MC, something they can't solve easily. You'll want to slowly unveil pieces of the mystery without making it feel like handouts. The goal is to give the reader the chance to figure it out before you tell them the answer, so don't conceal anything the character knows- it's alright to conceal things the character doesn't know though. Basically, if the MC knows anything, the reader should as well, unless it's literally time for the reveal where they've managed to piece everything together.
You will write it, making a lot of mistakes and through this hardship, you will slowly get better that the 'write' thing. There is no magic trick to writing any genre.
Can't give specific advice to writing mystery because that's too long and too writer specific, kind of like asking how to build a house. But I can give you advice on what to look out for when writing mysteries in webnovels. Just copy-pasting my post in RR:
I can help with some things you should be aware of from my own experience. Web novel readers usually read very fast, especially the bingers, so there is a very large chance the clues you sprinkled in will not get noticed. Readers also usually don't encounter deep mystery in web novels, and will default to a surface reading of a story. The possible problem for this is that they might take clues to the mystery as writing mistakes or inconsistencies.
For example, in my first chapter, the sun was rising on the wrong side. Sufficient attention was put to it to signal it was a clue some weird stuff is going on. I got a few readers saying I got bad writing for making a mistake where the sun rises.
There is also the problem of scheduled releases. Let's say you release like ten chapters a month. You have a clue in chapter 10 that is connected to a clue in chapter 20. That's a month gap between those two clues, and it's very likely most readers would've forgotten about it, especially if they also read tons of other web novels.
It's really fine to have more obvious clues compared to a traditional mystery story, and to repeat those clues a few times. Can even blatantly draw attention to those clues once in a while. Also utilitze Author's Notes to explain stuff. You might think that it would ruin the mystery if you explain stuff, but web novel readers really don't usually read too deeply, and they'd appreciate the mystery more if you explain aspects of it in the notes of the relevant chapter. Going forward, they'll know to watch out more for clues, and they'll know what to look for. It also helps with the time in between clues I mentioned in the prior paragraph, so you can remind readers what happened ten chapters ago for example.
I’m a new writer and I’m trying to write something original by making a mystery isekai novel. But I don’t know how to write a mystery. If I write without any help it’ll look like your average isekai novel but main character is a detective instead of a stupidly op swordsman.
Undoubtedly put this in the wrong forum but whatever
There’s no teaching how to write. Honestly, when I started writing for the first time, I did a ton of research about how to write: story structure, story arc, character arc, bla-bla-bla…, but after you really start writing for a while, you’ll start to realize that the best way to learn how to write is by the actual writing itself. There’s no other way around it.
If you wanna write a mystery isekai, that must mean you like reading isekai and mystery genre and then feel an impulse to write one with the combination of the two yourself. Then all you have to do is just write it.
See the scene in your head and tell a story. That’s all you have to do. Just write what goddamn pleases you. Feel the joy when you write it. Have fun, and you’re all set.
I’m a new writer and I’m trying to write something original by making a mystery isekai novel. But I don’t know how to write a mystery. If I write without any help it’ll look like your average isekai novel but main character is a detective instead of a stupidly op swordsman.
Undoubtedly put this in the wrong forum but whatever
This is my mystery formula.
1. Think of a mystery
2. Dismantle it
3. Introduce the mystery to the MC
4. Have the MC solve it
5. Revelation
It's a rough but straightforward outline, but this is what I did in my recent fiction.
For example
1. Crying lady at the midnight, but no one knows who.
2. Think of clues that you can use as sources for your story. It might be a ghost, a psychopath, or just a delusion the MC is experiencing.
3. The MC learns of this crying lady through rumors, a request, or an encounter. We insert some subtle clues from no. 2 either through dialogues or exposition.
4. The MC confronted it by searching whatever the source but problems after problems are obstructing his way.
5. We return to no. 2 and 3 then the MC finally reveals the source of the big mystery through his eloquence or the conflict itself.
I’m a new writer and I’m trying to write something original by making a mystery isekai novel. But I don’t know how to write a mystery. If I write without any help it’ll look like your average isekai novel but main character is a detective instead of a stupidly op swordsman.
Undoubtedly put this in the wrong forum but whatever
Step 1: Identify the subject. What is the mystery? Did someone die in a locked room?
Step 2: Decide on the murderer. What motive does he has for killing that person?
Step 3: Decide on the distractions. Who are the people in the house at that time? Who has the probable motive? Who does the murderer want to make the scapegoat?
Step 4: Arrange the distractions. How does Aunt May factor into this? Why was Mr. Jackson next door in the house in the middle of the night? Why would Lady Liz be visiting Aunt May on the same day the murder took place? How come nobody noticed Jamie committing suicide with so many people in the house? Why would Daddy Doe give everyone chocolate milk when he knows everyone in the house are lactose intolerant?
Step 5: Create scenarios around the distractions. Make everyone a suspect, but always make a contradicting scene, where the scene shown earlier is only based on one character's bias or misunderstanding.
Step 6: Write the story. Consult your flowchart regularly.
