bunni
Junior Member
Posts: 55
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Post by bunni on Apr 9, 2014 2:36:51 GMT
Just read this in Writer's Digest. As a mystery writer this is fascinating in a scary way:
The more difficult the puzzle, the harder you are asking readers to work and the smaller the number of readers you'll find up to the task. - Jesse Lee Kerchval
Do you think this is true? If so, what do we do to combat this?
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Melissa S
New Member
So close to graduating I can taste it.
Posts: 35
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Post by Melissa S on Apr 9, 2014 2:45:43 GMT
It's like this: You want to keep your reader guessing, but you also don't want them to get too wrapped up in trying to figure out whats going to happen when they should be paying attention to what is. I guess we can combat this by making sure our plot has multiple possible directions that it could go in - this will keep the reader from going "that's so obvious" while still leaving room for our actual plot points to happen.
(I hope this makes sense. I am writing this while in the mentality of writing a research paper)
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bunni
Junior Member
Posts: 55
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Post by bunni on Apr 9, 2014 2:54:10 GMT
It's like this: You want to keep your reader guessing, but you also don't want them to get too wrapped up in trying to figure out whats going to happen when they should be paying attention to what is. I guess we can combat this by making sure our plot has multiple possible directions that it could go in - this will keep the reader from going "that's so obvious" while still leaving room for our actual plot points to happen. (I hope this makes sense. I am writing this while in the mentality of writing a research paper) It makes me wonder if the Sherlock Holmes mysteries would have fallen flat if they'd been released for the first time in our generation. You see, part of what a mystery is is guessing what happened and what the outcome will be -- figuring it out. It's very odd to think about diminishing returns in relation to all the research, planning, and twists that go into writing a mystery. I find that part fascinating. But also pretty scary! Make it too simple, and people complain. Too challenging, and no readers! I've played with pacing, in the past, to tweak this sort of thing. It is complicated if true, which I sort of feel (no metrics on this) that it is.
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