#detective

[fluffy-anna]

Made another one. All hail the Richard Grayson aka Nightwing wallpaper.

He may be a man but he's the best eldest daughter I know.

I literally love this man but he gets screwed over so many times that I kind of find it funny.

I will make more.

[nerdstify]

day in

day out

likes do nothing!

[nightmaretales]

Red Riding Hood Page 16

[Links to previous and next pages will be added when next page updates]

[erosia-rhodes]

Actual Google results for “World’s Greatest Detective”:

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I was at a hospital and a old fat Italian man to my right had an entire canvas and was painting tits, and to my left was a depressed 1950s detective. Plankton from SpongeBob was the nurse.

[thatsbelievable]

[lackadaisycal-art]

Nostalgia baiting myself by continuing to act like someone is paying me to reimangine my comfort films as picture books

Also what kind of sick God made me 5'10" but had me born too late to be one of the leading women Bob Hoskins has a comical but sexuallt charged height difference with IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME

[weak-hero]

BODIES (2023)

[gulaashdemonlover]

Ok everyone, let's create toghter the primodial wet dog of a man:

[onebadnoodle]

so there is this art collab thing where we make antithesis characters for other people's ocs, here's mine meet detective snore! also yawn is @Tintinmarmar 's character

[lucoutinho-rock]

Lois Lane - The best detective

[thefoilguy]

Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Aluminum Foil Sculpture

[begemotthedog]

Something evil hides in the shadows of the night streets…and he’s the one who must find it…

Piece for StrikdasJakkals on Twitter who won the raffle i did a while ago!

[writingwithfolklore]

Following a Trail of Clues

                Lots of plots have at least some aspect of figuring out a mystery or uncovering some hidden truth. While it may not be a traditional murder mystery, writing a plot that revolves around the gathering of information and uncovering of clues can be written using a lot of the same techniques.

1. You should probably plan it

If you’re strictly a pantser, give it a shot, but I have never been able to pants mysteries like this. I would recommend planning it from the beginning and saving yourself a lot of time and headaches trying to piece it together later.

2. Start with the beginning and end

When planning a mystery, I start with the beginning, and then skip to the point that they uncover the truth or figure it out and work backwards to fill out the middle. What is the last hint they need to uncover the full truth, then, what leads to that hint, rinse and repeat until we get back to that beginning you created.

                For example, say the MC is trying to find their missing friend. The last point would be ‘they find their friend’, so that’s where we begin. Maybe right before that, they’re told the location, to get their location, they’ve kidnapped one of the bad guys who knows it, to get to him, they need to break into the evil lair, to find the lair, they need to spy on the organization, and so on.

3. Diversify the hints

I talk about this a bit in my post about written elements (here), but essentially, you’ll want to diversify how your characters get their hints. It will seem cheap if they find everything they need to know on conveniently spaced notes or journal entries (unless you can really justify that), or it’s all told to them by someone who happens to know it all (such as the ‘wise man’ trope).

                Maybe they find the last clue written down, but the one before was told to them from a key character, and the one before was puzzled out through a riddle, etc. etc. Here are some places to find clues:

Someone else knows something

This could be either an ally or an enemy. Family members, friends they weren’t aware of, a hidden partner, seemingly a stranger who knows more than they’re letting on. If they are an ally, there should be a reason they haven’t come forward yet, or justification for why their testimony is where it is in a story. Maybe they are somewhat accidentally guilty in the mystery, maybe they are afraid to be involved, maybe they aren’t aware anything has happened at all.

If they’re an enemy, maybe your protagonists need to corner them, best them in a battle, talk to them away from their boss, kidnap them, etc. Consider why this person would betray their ‘side’ to provide a clue to the protagonists.

Journal entries, notes, letters, ledgers, or otherwise written down

Physical evidence—footprints, pieces of clothing left behind, an object, photos, drawings

Biological evidence--fingerprints, DNA, hair, etc. If your character already has access to the equipment for this, great! If not, consider how they could find this out.

A prophetic dream or vision (use in cases in which it would make sense for your character to have this, obviously)

A riddle, poem, or song, if you can justify it.

An educated guess (for small jumps)

Timing—if they can figure out a timeline, they may be able to figure out something else

Something is missing or off place. That’s odd, character always leaves their book on the bedside table, so why isn’t it there?

Any other ways to get hints or clues to your characters?

[one-time-i-dreamt]

My parents owned a one-night-per-guest murder mystery hotel and people went to it quite a bit, they were able to be detectives. Turns out my dad was actually killing people and the guests all thought it was a part of the experience. They were pretty rich.

[pokianne]