Unraveling the Mystery Writing

So this year for NaNoWriMo, my story idea, which popped in my head while I was shelving books at the library, is a Fantasy/Mystery.

Now, I’ve never written a Mystery before. In fact, since I generally like to just start writing without planning anything and then figure it out as I go, I was intimidated by the idea. ‘I can’t write mysteries,’ I told myself.

But here I had this golden idea. I decided to plan some beforehand and give it a try! Face a challenge, get out of a rut, kick it up, and so on. I just wrote two chapters and feel fine about how they sound.

So here I am with chapter three staring at me in the face. Uh… nothing. Oh! I should introduce a Red Herring-Daring-Do! Today is officially ‘Red Herring’ day, and wondering how to go about this.

I suddenly understand why the great mystery writers tend to center their stories in a mansion, or a train, or a cruise ship. Because this allows for a convenient bank of familiar faces, from which the author can draw from to choose red herrings!

Woe is me! Oh, what have I done to myself!!!

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