Don’t Know How to End Your Detective Novel? Try These Techniques
Ending your mystery need not be a mystery
One of the most fun and rewarding categories of writing to ply your trade in is that old stalwart, the murder mystery. But setting up a juicy mystery is usually much easier than paying it off. But help is here! If you have started writing a whodunnit but are struggling to come up with an airtight who, try one of these methods: they usually get me unstuck, and I’ve successfully completed dozens of unpublished theoretical page turners.
Rip off the ending of the book you are ripping off
If you are already plagiarizing an existing murder mystery, the solution to your quandary is likely easier than you are making it. How did that author end it? Do that. But don’t forget to keep substituting the names you came up with so that no one gets wise. If you can’t think up names, just rip them off: but from a different book!
Seek the advice of the dead
Dead people are wiser than alive people. This is a natural extension of the truth that old alive people are wiser than young alive people. So get an ancient artifact, use it to open a channel of communication with the beyond, and contact someone dead. Ideally they were an author…
