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Beginner's Guide to Writing Mystery Fiction
Rating: 3.9 out of 5(56 ratings)
339 students

Beginner's Guide to Writing Mystery Fiction

How to Create Captivating Crime Fiction Stories
Created byDebbi Mack
Last updated 10/2020
English

What you'll learn

  • Outline and write a first draft of a mystery novel.
  • Develop a story using the three-act structure plotting method.
  • Create interesting characters.
  • Understand how to write good dialogue.
  • Learn the conventions of the various types of mystery sub-genres.
  • Gain access to resources of particular benefit to mystery writers.

Course content

1 section • 7 lectures • 40m total length

  • Introduction7:22

    Introducing myself and describing the course.

  • Lesson One: Creating a Story Arc (or Plotting)3:46

    This lesson covers how to create the bare bones of a story arc, i.e., how to plot a novel.

  • Lesson Two: Creating Memorable Characters1:42

    This lesson covers how to create distinctive and memorable characters in mystery fiction.

  • Lesson Three: Writing Great Dialogue1:34

    This lesson covers the basics of writing believable and effective dialogue.

  • Lesson Four: Tips for Planting Clues and Creating Suspense7:02

    Tips for planting clues, creating suspense, and adding other elements of the mystery story.

  • Lesson Five: Resources and Tips11:12
  • Bonus Lesson: More on Mystery Tropes, Red Herrings, and Characters7:26

    More writing tips and resources. The screenplay for Knives Out and some examples from How to Write Killer Fiction are included.

Requirements

  • Students will need to have a word processing program that's capable of opening Word documents.
  • Students should have an interest in reading and writing mysteries.
  • While it is not essential, having an idea for a possible mystery will help students put the skills they gain into practice.

Description

You will learn the basic principles of good mystery writing. If you've ever wondered how mystery authors keep their readers guessing and thought of writing a story of your own, but didn't know where to start, this is the course for you!

Learn the Basics of Writing a Great Mystery Story

  • Learn great story structure
  • Create compelling characters
  • Write dialogue that sparkles
  • Learn how to plant clues and other elements of the mystery genre in your story
  • Obtain writers' resources that mystery writers find useful

This course is on mystery fiction writing for beginners.

You'll learn this topic in a short series of video lectures, with some explanatory reading. Depending on how often one takes the lessons, the course can be finished within a week or two.

I designed this course for those who love to read mysteries and have considered writing them and are seeking guidance on how to get started. By the time you finish the course, you'll have all the basic knowledge you need to start your own mystery novel or short story.

Who this course is for:

  • This course is intended for beginning writers only. It is not meant for those who've already successfully finished writing a mystery.

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