Sea of Genres: Mystery

Today, as the second installment of the Sea of Genres series, I will be covering mystery. This is definitely one of my favorite genres.

The advice I'm giving you in this post is going to be both from a reader's perspective and a writer's perspective. I think you'll find that a reader's perspective is just as important, if not more important, than that of a writer's.

So, without further adieu, let's dive in.

One of the most important parts of a mystery is the reader having to guess who the villain is. This is the key to a mystery novel. The thrill of a guessing game.

As the writer, we have to disguise our villain and weave a plot that shocks the reader at the end, but when they go back and reread the book, they see the signs were there all along.

There are lots of ways to do this and I am going to give you the best 5.

1. Side characters.

One of the best ways to confuse your reader and disguise the villain is to bring in lots of side characters.

Often times, I can spot the villain in movies or books because they’re a character that just doesn’t really have a purpose other than just existing. I’ll think, “Why else would this character be in this story unless they’re the villain?”

Yes, making your villains a side character that the main character knows and trusts is a great way of hiding the villain. But, don’t make them the only character your main character knows.

A good way of making it harder to find the villain is adding several side characters and giving them all a purpose. I’m not even talking about a direct job relating to an investigation of murder or something. Give them a place in building the story. Maybe one of them could be the comic relief character who’s always spouting out jokes. Maybe one of them could be the eccentric dog groomer who takes care of the main character's mini schnauzer. Maybe one of these characters could even turn into the villain.

You decide. Make your own unique, likable side characters. The whole point of this is to make sure your villain isn't the only one.

In addition, try not to make the villain a character who is just there, who just kinda hangs around without any purpose or reason to be in the story. This is the biggest no-no in my book. Make sure your villain characters are beneficial to the plot as a normal, non-villain character.

2. Make your villain a likable character.

Have you ever gotten to the end of a book, and when the villain was revealed, it was just so unexpected because they seemed like a genuinely good guy?

This is an amazing way to disguise your villain.

I consider myself pretty good at solving mysteries. But there's this one movie that stumped me. The very first time I saw it, I did not figure out who the villain was.

You know why?

It wasn't because the mystery was impossible to solve, although the creator of the movie did weave an amazing tale. It was because the villain was someone who—even though I'd only met them for a few minutes—was actually quite likable.

They had wit, they were kind of funny, and they seemed to actually care about the main character.

I have to say, if you make your villain someone who is humorous, I am probably going to have a harder time figuring out that they're bad.

What can I say? I love a bit of humor.

So, if you make your villain humorous or actually rather nice, it's going to make it harder for your readers to think of them as a villain.

You could also have the villain help the main character somehow.

Maybe they could get them out of a jam or help them put together some clues.

They could even just provide emotional support if the main character was going through some struggles.

Making the villain likable helps the reader not suspect them.

3. Throw the suspicion to other characters.

This is probably a given, but if you throw the suspicion to lots of other characters it keeps the reader guessing.

Have the main character continually questioning who they trust. Have suspicious occurences happen to several different characters.

Make the mystery one big guessing game where the reader is constantly examining their choices.

These are the hardest mysteries to solve because even if the reader is almost 100% positive they've figured it out, they'll start questioning it again once another character is thrown under the bus.

4. Make your villain a victim.

This can prevent the reader from being suspicious of your villain: if your villain is a victim of something.

It could be related to the mystery or it could be completely different. It could even be that someone in their family is a victim and it's wearing on them. For example, the villain's brother has cancer.

The "bad thing" happening to the villain could also turn out to be the reason they are the villain. So if it was true that the villain's brother had cancer, they could've needed money to pay medical bills so they decided to kill a relative, knowing they'd get money in the will.

If you write your villain in such a way that the reader feels sympathy for them, your reader is going to be less likely to suspect them.

5. Make your villain an obvious one.

You probably just read this over a few times to make sure you didn't read it wrong. And you're probably thinking I'm crazy.

But there are times—granted I'd tell you to probably only use this technique once—when the biggest shock would be making the villain the most obvious choice.

In a book where you have lots of side characters and have thrown the suspicioun around a lot, often times readers will rule out the most suspicious characters.

Why?

Because making the villain obvious is a terrible strategy.

Or is it....

There comes a time, when sometimes, the best play is the most obvious one.

I'm not saying this is the best strategy. It could either work really well or fail really miserably.

For once though, I'd love to read a book where the most obvious choice for the villain, the one everyone brushes aside thinking it's too obvious, turns out to actually be the villain.

Wouldn't that be good?

Moving on from my little top five segment, I have a tip I'd like to leave you with. This could be applied to any genre of writing, but it's most prominent, in my opinion, for mystery/crime fiction. So if you like writing crime fiction, keep this in mind as well.

Don’t forget that the book is about characters, not words and facts.

One common mistake I see in both mystery and crime fiction is that the writers will be so concerned with making everything factual and accurate—which is very important, mind you—that they forget to make the characters actually sound like real humans.

I started a particular book and still have not been able to finish it because the characters just fell flat. The author got the facts and everything so accurate and amazing, but they forgot to give the characters a personality.

Developing character personality and giving each character their own, unique voice are the most important parts of helping your reader connect with your characters.

If your reader doesn’t connect with your characters, what is the point of reading the book?

Whether your book is plot-driven or character-driven, the story is centered around your main characters. If those main characters aren’t resonating as actual people—which can be what happens when they are written in a lackluster way—what’s the point of reading it? If you don’t care about the main characters, what’s the point of hoping you’ll figure out the mystery or being worried for the characters' safety.

Basically, don't focus so hard on facts that you forget to make the characters realistic and likeable.

I hope you all enjoyed the second installment of the Sea of Genres series. I wish you all luck on your mystery writing endeavors.

Next week, I'll be posting my tips for paranormal and fantasy genres so supernatural, imaginative writers be ready!

If you have any questions, just message me in the contact bar below.

Happy writing!

-Jocelyn