The Story Pirates Present

by STORY PIRATES

  The problem with having secrets is that sooner or later, you tend to run into someone who wants to find out what they are.

  In a mystery story, that someone is the detective character. A detective can be anyone. There are mysteries where the detective is a kid, a police officer, a grandmother, a dog, a robot, a magical talking doughnut machine—the possibilities are endless. As long as they’re trying to dig up secrets and solve a mystery, they’re a detective.

  Usually, the detective is the main character of the story—and you may have guessed by now that in Digging Up Danger, Eliza is our detective. Since the reader is going to be spending a lot of time with the detective, it’s important to think about this character in detail, so you know them inside and out. One way to do that is by writing out your ideas in an organizer, like our Detective Dossier on this page.

  On the dossier, there are a bunch of questions to get you thinking about the detective character. Let’s take a look at each one!

  Who is your detective?

  What’s their name? Are they a kid? An FBI agent? A vampire? A talking piece of cheese?

  Why are they solving the mystery?

  There are two main possibilities:

  1. They were hired. In this case, it’s the character’s job to be a detective. For example:

  They might work for the police, or the FBI, or a secret agency from your imagination, and are always on the lookout for mysteries that need solving.

  They might be a private investigator. That means they don’t work for the police, but people pay them for their help solving mysteries. Private investigators are very popular in mystery stories, because it can be a lot of fun to make your detective a total weirdo who would never fit in working for the police, but who solves cases in their own strange way.

  Or maybe your character isn’t exactly a detective, but is still getting paid to solve a mystery. For example: a scientist hired to figure out what’s happening with a mysterious plant, a reporter hired to write a news report about a mystery, or a professional treasure hunter hired to find lost pirate gold.

  OR

  2. It’s personal. For Eliza, the mystery is personal. In this case, the detective isn’t getting paid to solve a mystery; they’re solving it because they want to. Here are some more examples:

  Maybe something weird is happening in the setting (like the plant store where they’re spending the summer, or the school where they go every day, or the spooky castle down the street from their home) and they decide to investigate.

  Maybe something important to them goes missing, and they decide to find it themselves. It can make for a very exciting story if your detective is searching for their own missing diary…or missing treasure…or missing ray gun with mysterious powers that they’d been hiding under the bed.

  Your character could just be really nosy, and decides to solve a mystery that has nothing to do with them, even though everyone keeps telling them to mind their own business. Some folks just can’t stand it when people are hiding secrets, and will keep digging around no matter what, until they figure out what’s going on.

  What else do they like to do (besides solving mysteries)?

  Detectives don’t spend every hour of every day solving mysteries. Learning about what they do in their spare time can make them more believable, interesting characters. They might enjoy chess, or playing the violin, or walking their dog, or challenging their little brother at video games. There isn’t really a wrong answer, as long as you think it would be an interesting choice. Sometimes the thing they like to do will also wind up helping them solve the mystery. For example, Eliza spends her spare time ghost hunting, and as you keep reading, you’ll see that the skills she’s picked up while doing that come in handy.

  What fears or weaknesses do they have?

  Giving a character a weakness is very important in any story, and is definitely important for a detective. If the detective has no weaknesses, solving the mystery will be too easy, and the story won’t be very exciting! Think carefully about your detective’s weakness as you work on your story. If they’re afraid of frogs, will the mystery involve a missing frog? If they don’t know how to swim, will they wind up looking for clues on a boat? For Eliza, her main weakness is that she doesn’t like new places—or change of any kind. This is going to make solving the case extra challenging for her, since she’s going to be in a place that makes her nervous and uncomfortable the whole time. (Plus, she’s just a kid, and as you’ll see soon, she’s about to stumble into some serious, adult problems….)

  What skills make them a good detective?

  How does your detective go about solving a case? What are some of their strengths that make them the right person for the job? Again, there are no wrong answers to this, but here are some popular choices:

  Powers of observation. Is your character someone who notices tiny details and can see clues where nobody else thinks to look for them? Eliza is good at this kind of thing: She has a lot of practice listening for far-off sounds, or noticing faint movements or changes of temperature, because she’s always on the lookout for ghosts.

  Puzzle solver. Just finding clues isn’t enough, of course. You also have to be able to figure out what they mean. Some stories about private detectives start when a police officer walks in with a bunch of clues and says, “I need your help! I can’t figure out what all this means!” A very good puzzle solver can help make sense of even the weirdest clues that nobody else knows what to do with.

  Master of disguise. Some detectives are good at putting on disguises and pretending to be someone else. If the mystery takes place in a grocery store, for example, the detective might have a better chance of finding clues if they dress up like someone who works there. Or maybe they have a secret plan to get inside a mysterious mansion by pretending to be a plumber, there to fix the pipes.

  People person. Some detectives are just really good at talking to people. They get people to like them and convince them to share important clues…or make people afraid of them, and scare them into sharing important clues…or trick people into giving away clues by asking just the right questions.

  Uncontrollable curiosity. Sometimes the most important thing for a detective is that they just really, really want to find out about secrets. This can lead them to take big risks, travel to dangerous places, sneak around where they might be discovered, and go on secret missions that leave the reader on the edge of their seat, almost saying out loud, “Don’t do it! You don’t know what’s behind that door! It could be anything!” (As you’ll see, this also describes Eliza extremely well.)

  What else should the reader know about this character?

  This is for any other details that you think are interesting or important. What does the detective look like? Draw it! What is their personality like? Write a little bit about it! Do they have any weird habits/clothing items/friends/anything else you want the reader to know? In Eliza’s case, whenever she’s nervous she takes a break to stretch!

  IDEA STORM: CREATE A DETECTIVE

  Create a detective for your own mystery! Decide if they’re hired to solve the mystery or if the case is personal. Then decide what kind of character they are, what kind of skills they have that make them a good detective, and all the other interesting details that will bring them to life for the reader. If you want to use a Detective Dossier like we used for Eliza on this page, draw your own and get started!

  Don’t forget that you definitely have PERMISSION TO GET WEIRD. Some of the greatest detectives in the history of mystery writing are extremely weird people. That makes them all the more fun to read about.

  One final important note: A while back, we said that in the beginning of the mystery story, a mystery is discovered, and a character decides to solve it. Now we know that Eliza has decided to solve the mystery
in Digging Up Danger, so congratulations! We are almost to the middle of the story! Buckle up, because this is where things get really wild. There’s just one more piece of unfinished business to deal with first….

  DETECTIVE’S NOTEBOOK: WHODUNIT?

  Before we get to the middle of the story, there’s one last secret to decide on. It’s probably the most important secret in the whole mystery: whodunit?

  Sometimes mystery stories are actually called “whodunits.” As in: Who “done” it? Who caused the mystery?

  The character who “done it” is called the culprit. In many stories, this character is a criminal: They stole the diamonds, or committed the murder. But they don’t have to be a criminal, and sometimes it can make for a more interesting or surprising story if they have unusual reasons for causing the mystery. Maybe all the water is missing from the pool…because the culprit was searching for buried treasure under the pool, and the water came out when they dug through the bottom. Maybe the tiger is in the restaurant…because the culprit is training tigers to be guards at her mansion, and this one got away!

  The reader should have no idea who the culprit is until the end of the mystery. It’s usually the biggest secret the writer is hiding. You want to keep the reader guessing for the whole story about who the culprit is, as you drop little hints here and there along the way. If you do this well, when your reader finally gets to the end, they should look back at the whole story and see that it fits together like pieces in a puzzle, and suddenly all the weird things that happened will make sense. Which is why, once again, you need to decide on the end of the story while you’re still writing the beginning.

  To create a culprit, it can help to write out your ideas on an organizer, like our Culprit Case File. Take a look at one we put together for the culprit in Digging Up Danger on the next page.

  Hey! Why is that thing blank?

  You didn’t think we were going to give away the culprit that easily, did you? Like we already said, it’s the biggest secret in the book! It says TOP SECRET right there on the Case File! The culprit in Digging Up Danger is going to have to remain a secret for now—the same way you’re going to be keeping the culprit a secret from your readers in your own mystery story.

  Let’s look more closely at the Culprit Case File, and talk about how to make your own culprit.

  Who is your culprit?

  What’s their name? Are they human/animal/other? Are they a character we meet right away in the story, who is secretly the culprit the whole time? Or are they an outsider who came into the setting and caused the mystery?

  What did the culprit do to cause the mystery? How did it happen?

  This is very important. Get as specific as you can about what the culprit did and how it happened. When your detective is trying to solve the case, figuring out how the mystery happened is sometimes just as important as figuring out “whodunit.”

  Why did they do it?

  Did they want to get rich? Was the mystery a way to hide an even bigger secret? (If there’s no Ferris wheel to ride, nobody will be up high enough to see what’s hidden on the roof, down the street.) Maybe it was an accident. (They didn’t mean for the tiger to get loose in that restaurant.) Or is the reason much weirder? (Their spaceship ran out of fuel, so they had to land it in the park. They’ve been in hiding ever since.)

  What will happen if someone finds out this person is the culprit?

  Usually the culprit doesn’t want to get caught—that’s part of why it’s a mystery! They’re afraid of what might happen if anyone finds out they did it. Think carefully about why your culprit might want to keep things a secret. (Here’s a bonus challenge for you: The most common answer to this question is that they’ll go to jail. But that’s been done a lot, so you will make things more interesting if you can think of a totally different reason they might not want someone to find out.)

  What about the details?

  Finally, there’s a whole other sheet to plan out a RIDICULOUS number of details about the culprit. Why should you ask yourself all these little questions? This is all about helping you come up with clues for the detective to find. Stay tuned for more on that very soon.

  IDEA STORM: CREATE A CULPRIT

  Now you try it! Use the Culprit Case File from this page as a guide and create a culprit of your own. Think carefully about what they did to cause the mystery, and why they decided to do it. Then think up as many details as you possibly can about this character. Seriously, TONS and TONS of details. So many details it’s almost RIDICULOUS. This will give you a lot of choices when you’re making up clues later to help your detective.

  Be sure to remember the culprit is usually a HUGE secret from the readers. After you make the Culprit Case File, you might even want to fold it in half and write the words TOP SECRET on the back, just to remind yourself how big this secret is. Even if the readers meet the character early in the story (in some mysteries, the readers meet the culprit right on the first page), they shouldn’t find out that this character is the culprit until the end of the story.

  We probably don’t even need to tell you by now, but you have PERMISSION TO GET WEIRD when you’re making up this culprit. Let your imagination run wild!

  If you got here by flipping forward from this page, flip back and keep reading!

  * * *

  THE MIDDLE: THE INVESTIGATION

  DETECTIVE’S NOTEBOOK: THE INVESTIGATION (KEEPING TRACK OF CLUES)

  We’ve arrived at the middle of our mystery story! The middle is all about the investigation, when the detective will be looking for clues to solve the mystery.

  What is a clue?

  A clue is basically a hint about your mystery. The detective will need to find lots of these hints before being able to solve the case—and your readers will be very interested to see these hints as well, to try to figure out the secret for themselves.

  Eliza is a natural detective, so she’s already started trying to keep track of the clues in her ghost notebook (even though she hasn’t found any really important clues…yet):

  June 10. ES (Eliza Stahl). Potential ghost sighting: dark figure in front of shop. Approx. 2:00 p.m.

  June 10. ES. Potential ghost activity (creaking sound): attic. Approx. 2:30 p.m.

  How do you put clues into your own mystery?

  This is a big reason why the writer needs to know who the culprit is while they’re still writing the beginning of their story. In order for your detective to find a clue, you have to know all about the culprit, so you can pick a clue that makes sense! Go back to your Culprit Case File and look at the RIDICULOUS number of details you planned out. What is something about your culprit you’d like to turn into a clue? Do they have huge shoes, and leave a trail of huge footprints wherever they go? Do they love pizza, and the detective finds a long string of cheese across the floor? Do they wear a yellow coat, and someone saw a person in a yellow coat near the mystery? There’s no wrong answer, you just need to think about a clue that’s right for your culprit.

  When you’re coming up with clues, it’s also a good time to think about the five senses again. For example, in Digging Up Danger, Eliza is very tuned in to using her senses to search for clues. She keeps a lookout for shadows (or shadowy figures), listens carefully for sounds (like the creaking in the attic), and is always trying to feel for changes in temperature, which might indicate a ghost. If your culprit is sneaking around somewhere in the setting, does the detective see or hear anything? Is there a certain kind of sound, smell, or even taste that could be a clue about your culprit. (“Why does this salad taste like butterscotch? It’s almost as though someone who works in a butterscotch factory was leaning over it and accidentally dripped butterscotch on it….”)

  While you’re working on your mystery, it can help to plan ahead and think about the clues you are going to want the detective to find. You can use an Investigation Record, like the one on this page, to org
anize your thoughts.

  Eliza’s investigation has barely begun, so we won’t give away any of the big clues she’s about to dig up! But later on, we’ll look at a completed Investigation Record, so you can see how Eliza’s whole investigation looks.

  So far, Eliza didn’t have to try very hard to find clues. She was just observant as she went about her daily life, and the clues landed right in front of her. But as the mystery goes on, she’s going to have to work harder and put herself in more danger to find the clues she really needs to solve the case. Get ready—this story is about to get taken up a notch….

  MYSTERY WRITER CHALLENGE: THE RIGHT CLUES FOR YOU

  If you’ve filled out a Culprit Case File, then you’ve already started thinking about clues, but choosing just the right clues is important for a mystery writer. Let’s get in a little bit of practice looking at clues and trying to guess what they’re hinting at, in a game we call “Who Left the Clues?” Turn to this page to play.

  Below are some clues from a few different cases. Take a look at each, and see if you can figure out what kind of culprit they’re giving you hints about.

  1.

  When I tried to smell the flower, it squirted water in my face.

  The footprints were huge—at least two feet long.

  The footprints stopped in front of a brightly colored tent. There was a round red fake nose on the ground.

  Too easy? Here’s one that’s slightly harder: