7 Day Story Writing Challenges: A Brief Guide to Writing Mysteries
This guide is all about mystery fiction. What it is, tips for writing it, and a list of mystery stories you can read online for free. We also discuss the difficulties, limitations, and pitfalls of writing in this genre. This guide is a must-read for anyone assigned mystery fiction in a 7 Day Story Writing Challenge, or for anyone wanting to explore new or unfamiliar literary genres!
Looking for more writing competitions to enter? Check out our ‘Big List of International Writing Competitions’.
What is a Mystery Story?
For the purposes of our 7 Day Story Writing Challenges, we’re defining mystery as a story in which the plot centres around a character or characters encountering something that is difficult or impossible to explain. The mystery can be solved by the end of the story or it can remain a mystery throughout.
Difficulties, Limitations and Pitfalls of This Genre
We think the greatest difficulty with this genre will be coming up with a suitable mystery under pressure. We also think too much exposition might be an issue in many entries. Exposition is writing that is intended to explain. We’ve found that the biggest reason why a story doesn’t do well with the judges is too much exposition, especially at the beginning of the story. This means the writer has spent too long setting up the story, introducing the characters, giving backstory, or worldbuilding. We think that some writers assigned this genre might be tempted to begin their story by explaining or setting up the mystery. Instead, we recommend beginning with an actual scene, something happening. Don’t tell the reader what the mystery is, give them a scene to immerse themselves in and let the mystery unfold before them.
Top Tips for This Genre
We encourage you to think outside the box when it comes to your mystery. Your story doesn’t necessarily have to centre around a murder or some other serious crime. It can, but you also need to keep in mind that you only have 2,000 words and murders take time to solve. Make sure your plot isn’t too complicated by making sure the mystery itself isn’t too complicated. We always encourage participants to keep the plot of their stories simple and to make the characters, emotions, and themes complex. Stories with overly complicated plots usually contain too much telling and too much exposition. This is because these are the things that help move the narrative along. But if you keep the plot simple, you won’t have this pressure to rush through the story. Instead, you can focus on other things besides plot. Remember, plot is just one part of a story, and usually not even the most interesting part.
Your mystery doesn’t have to be super dramatic, either. A mysterious red stain on a white shirt collar isn’t as dramatic as a bloody corpse, but the implications can be highly significant, emotive, and interesting to explore. Often the thing that actually makes a story interesting isn’t what happens, but the implications of what happens for the characters in the story. This is not to say that a murder doesn’t have significant implications, just that you might not have the space to fully explore the implications for your characters, if you also have to solve the murder by the end of the story. Of course, you’re welcome to try to prove us wrong! It’s not that we think that it can’t be done, just that it will be very tricky!
Mystery Short Stories you can Read Online
NB: Most of these stories are a lot longer than 2,000 words!
‘The Little Men’ by Megan Abbott
‘Children's Day’ by Kelli Stanley
‘The Paperhanger’ by William Gay
‘Night Drive’ by Will F. Jenkins
‘The Adventure of the Sealed Room’ by Andy Weir
‘The Hanging Stranger’ by Philip K. Dick