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Mystery novels

Introduction to creation, the allure of layout

By Liston FlowersPublished 2 years ago 9 min read
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To create a mystery novel, first decide what kind of maze you want to build, which means to determine the type of mystery novel. Mystery novels are mainly divided into three schools, the following I will simply say the characteristics of the three schools respectively.

The first is called Bungue reasoning, which is the authentic classical tradition. This type of mystery novel is characterized by a love of challenging the reader and valuing the pleasure of solving puzzles. The reader is on the same plane as the detective in the article, focusing on fairness and rational logic. The representative writers of Bunge's reasoning are Edogawa Fusbu and Ellery Quinn. Bengal reasoning is not so much a novel as a reasoning contest between the reader and the writer -- a "race" with equal amounts of information. The reader's pleasure is to get out of the maze before the detective, find the truth, and thus gain self-satisfaction. But the game is not fair, the reader can lose, but the writer can't afford to lose, just as no one wants to play chess with a bad chess basket. The author's job, then, is to set a bizarre puzzle at the beginning of the novel, and generously provide clues that will unravel it -- inviting the reader to a duel. Set traps in the middle to confuse the reader -- increase the difficulty of solving the puzzle and stimulate the reader to think. Completing the grand reversal at the end makes the truth both logical and unexpected. That is to say, the author should not only win, but also use superb means and unrestrained imagination to make the reader lose.

The second is called variational reasoning, and the style tends to be absurd and terrifying. They are still riddle-solving, but they are more entertaining, and their plots often deviate from reality. It was tense and scary and bloody. It is usually supported by elements of weirdness, curiosity, magic and science fantasy, depicting the darkness of human nature and the world, as well as the author's inner nightmare. Variational reasoning is more like a freak show, focusing on the description of abnormal hearts, mostly using the group image to show the dark side of society and the sinister of people's hearts. For example, we can feel the treacherous atmosphere of the mutational school by taking the masterpiece of Mutational school, "Hell in the Brain". There is an important object in the book: the painting scroll. After Wu Qingxiu killed his wife, he painted 20 sets of pictures of his wife from the time of her death to the time of her turning into white bones. However, before the painting was half finished, his wife turned into white bones. To complete the picture, he began digging up women's bodies. It's a strange story for an object that appears and disappears throughout the novel, not to mention all the bizarre sleaze that Masaki and Wakabayashi, the two main characters, do to complete their academic studies. The novel is long and depressing, and it is this mysterious quality that keeps the reader working through the messy clues.

The third, social reasoning, emerged in the 1950s and is the one chosen by most current authors. Social reasoning is mainly to explore the plot into a broad social background, pay attention to the description of human nature. Special attention should be paid to social issues worth thinking about, to go into the mental world of criminals, and to explore the social causes of crime. At the same time, it retains rigorous reasoning, places more emphasis on motivation, and is set in social reality, interspersed with stories of love or adventure. The most familiar writer of social reasoning is Higashino Keigo, who is currently very active, and his representative work "White Night" is a typical social reasoning work. At the beginning of the novel, the reader is informed of the murderer, so the detective's pursuit of the truth only becomes a clue to promote the development of the story. What really attracts the reader is the struggle of Ryoji and Snow Sui, which is the author's analysis of human nature and thinking about the society. I think most readers can relate to me. The most moving episode is not the revelation of the truth, but the sacrifice Ryoji makes for the people he loves.

After determining the type of novel we want to write, we need to determine the length of the novel.

In other words, after we have decided what kind of maze to build, we have to start thinking about the size of the maze. Mystery novels are generally divided into short stories and novels. During the development of mystery novels for nearly 200 years, there is an interesting phenomenon that mystery novels are mostly short in length at the beginning of their birth, but with their own development and maturity, mystery novels are almost longer and longer. This may be because what began as a mere pastime was mostly published in newspapers and magazines. With the increasing aesthetic demand of readers, as well as the continuous reform and innovation of many excellent mystery writers, and the pursuit of the "seriousness" of the connotation of the novel, the length of mystery novels has gradually become longer. But length is not the hallmark of a good novel. The short story is well conceived and short. POE and Conan Doyle were masters of the short story. Long novels often have large backgrounds, complex relationships between characters, and long reasoning writers, the most well-known is Agatha Christie. Choose the appropriate space to be able to create easily.

Having chosen both style and length, I would like to talk in detail about the plot-building techniques of mystery novels

Now that we have finally finished the "drawing" of the maze, it is time to discuss how to build the maze. In fact, this question has long puzzled mystery writers. Knox's "Ten Commandments of Reasoning" and Van Dyne's "Twenty Rules of Reasoning" seem to provide the answer in a long process of exploration, but like any other genre of fiction, no art form is imprisoned by rules. Therefore, I will briefly summarize the views of the above two people for you.

First, all clues must be accounted for

As we have mentioned before, a mystery novel is a kind of intelligence game in which the author must play a fair match with the reader, so the author must lay out all the clues that can solve the puzzle in front of the reader.

Second, we need to use logical reasoning to find the killer

When we talk about logical reasoning, we have to mention the famous Sherlock Holmes and his "deductive method". The most fascinating thing about Sherlock Holmes is that he can pick up clues from the clues and use his great powers of logic to piece them together and find the truth. The importance of logical reasoning comes not only from the requirements of modern social laws, but also from the fact that the plots of such realistic works must be reasonable and credible. Finding the killer without proper logical reasoning is like trying to figure out the answer to a math problem. It's not really solving the puzzle.

Third, the case should be solved in a natural way

On the basis of following the above principles, the mystery writer needs to let the real culprit fall into the law legally and reasonably, which comes from the requirement of the motif of "good triumphs over evil" : the means by which justice wins must also be just or legal. Chinese traditional "case" type of work is often a lack of this kind of natural "legitimacy", "the case-solving shi", for example, male often by shi deities appeared or divination to catch those responsible, even has punished the plot of a confession by torture, this may be written by the Dutch "DE case-solving" "shi case-solving more famous than local.

Fourth, the murderer must have weight in the work, not random strangers, serial murders must be the same person

The murderer must be someone the reader is interested in and knows something about. To wait until the last chapter to blame a stranger, or an insignificant character, is to admit that the author is incapable of competing with the reader. Only if the serial murders are committed by the same person or group can the reader gather his anger into a single point.

The novel does not allow the use of pseudoscience, pure fantasy, or speculative devices, for example, the victim of a murder is killed by a poison that is extremely rare, even imagined by the author, this is not acceptable. A mystery writer must limit his imagination in the use of poisons to the limits of the ordinary pharmacopoeia. If the author is unrestrained in the world of imagination, and flies in nonexistent space and time, then the limits of the mystery novel are escaped. It is worth mentioning that Agatha Christie herself was a medical student, which made her very familiar with poisons and used them in her works with ease.

Sixth, the truth must be clear and organized, and the foregoing foxy clues corresponding

If the reader rereads the novel after the facts have been revealed, it becomes clear that the key to solving the case has always been in front of him, and that all the clues point to the same murderer. If he was as smart as the detective, he wouldn't have to wait until the last chapter to solve the case himself. Isn't that what makes this game fun?

Seventh, skillful writing, do not play with the text, distracting

Mystery novels should mainly describe the facts that appear in the book and the process of analysis, and can spend a certain amount of ink on the necessary characters. Van Dyne puts it this way: "Excessive atmosphere building, or the manipulation of words for some side effects, should not be in mystery novels." This is done because mystery novels are very rigorous, and if they do not serve the plot, flowery words and flowery descriptions will spoil the reading experience for the reader, whose primary purpose is to enjoy the mental movement that mystery novels stimulate. Wordplay or deep academic jargon can make readers restless.

Maybe the process of writing mystery novels was painful, or Conan Doyle wouldn't have let Holmes fall off the cliff, but I believe that the process was also wonderful, and Holmes came back in the end, didn't he?

Oh, and last but not least: Enjoy writing.

The imagination question for this lesson: find a room you are familiar with: bedroom, living room, meeting room, etc., build it into a secret room, and describe it.

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