In today’s episode, Fable and the Verbivore dig into all things mystery from the art of building questions in your reader’s mind to the basic elements that make up stories within this genre.

Mysteries are intriguing to us as readers and we’ve found the study of the techniques that mystery authors use to craft their stories fascinating as writers. We start by breaking the concept of “what is a mystery?” free from its genre and explore the dictionary definition that says it’s “something that is difficult to understand or explain - a puzzle, an enigma, a conundrum, a riddle, a secret, or an unsolved problem.”

In this episode, we delve into how stories from all genres can contain mystery elements that create tension, uncertainty, and help the readers become more invested in finding out what happens next. We discuss how mystery writers are masters in strategies of misdirection. They cloak clues by hiding them in paragraphs of setting description, buried in lists of information, and quickly move focus away by directing the reader’s attention to character interactions where the reader is invested in the outcome.  

We also discuss examples of where books outside the mystery genre used mystery elements to great effect as in Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and The Magnolia Sword by Sherry Thomas, and how writer/director Rian Johnson intercut thriller plot beats within the who-dun-it film Knives Out to create a fascinating story that challenges the assumptions of what mystery stories can be.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore