What can you write about in a detective story? Typical mistakes when writing detective stories. How to write a brilliant detective story

Despite its relative youth as an independent literary movement, detective fiction is one of the most popular genres today. The secret of such success is simple - the mystery captivates. The reader does not passively follow what is happening, but takes an active part in it. He predicts events and builds his own versions. Grigory Chkhartishvili (Boris Akunin), the author of the famous series of novels about detective Erast Fandorin, once told in an interview how to write a detective story. According to the writer, the main factor for creating an exciting plot is a game with the reader, which needs to be filled with unexpected moves and traps.

Be inspired by example

Many authors of popular detective stories do not hide the fact that they received inspiration from reading the works of outstanding masters of this genre. For example, the American writer Elizabeth George has always admired the work of Agatha Christie. Boris Akunin could not resist the charades of the great author of detective prose. The writer generally admitted that he adores detective stories in the English style and often uses techniques characteristic of them in his works. It’s probably not worth saying much about what contribution Arthur Conan Doyle made to the detective genre with his famous character. Because creating a hero like Sherlock Holmes is the dream of any writer.

Become a criminal

To write a real detective story, you need to invent a crime, since the mystery associated with it is always at the heart of the plot. This means that the author will have to try on the role of an attacker. To begin with, it is worth deciding what the nature of this crime will be. Most famous detective stories are based on the investigation of murders, thefts, robberies, kidnappings and blackmail. However, there are also many examples where the author captivates the reader with an innocent incident that leads to the solution to a larger mystery.

Turn back time

After choosing a crime, the author will have to think it over carefully, since a real detective story contains all the details that will lead to the denouement. Masters of the genre advise using the reverse time technique. First you need to decide who committed the crime, how he did it and why. Then you need to imagine how the attacker will try to hide what he has done. Do not forget about accomplices, evidence left behind and witnesses. These clues build a compelling plot that gives the reader the opportunity to conduct their own investigation. For example, the famous British writer Pee Dee James says that before she begins to create an exciting story, she always comes up with a solution to the mystery. Therefore, when she is asked how to write a good detective story, she answers that you need to think like a criminal. A novel shouldn't feel like a boring interrogation. Intrigue and tension are what matters.

Plot construction

The detective genre, like any other literary genre, has its own subgenres. Therefore, when answering the question of how to write a detective story, professionals advise first to decide on the choice of method for constructing the storyline.

• The classic detective story is presented in a linear form. The reader investigates the crime committed together with the main character. In doing so, he uses the keys to riddles left by the author.
• In an inverted detective story, the reader witnesses a crime at the very beginning. And the entire subsequent plot revolves around the process and methods of investigation.
• Often detective writers use a combination storyline. When the reader is asked to look at the same crime from different angles. This approach is based on the effect of surprise. After all, the established and harmonious version breaks down in one moment.

Get the reader interested

Bringing the reader up to date and intriguing by presenting a crime is one of the main stages of creating a detective story. It doesn't matter how the facts become known. The reader can witness a crime himself, learn about it from a character’s story, or find himself at the scene of its commission. The main thing is that leads and versions for investigation appear. The description must have a sufficient amount of plausible details - this is one of the factors that should be taken into account when understanding the question of how to write a detective story.

Keep the suspense

The next important task for a novice author will be to retain the reader’s interest. The story should not be too simple when it becomes clear at the beginning that everyone was killed by the “scuba diver.” A far-fetched plot will also quickly get boring and disappointing, since a fairy tale and a detective story are different genres. But even if you plan to create a wildly twisted plot, you should hide some clues in a heap of seemingly unimportant details. This is one of the techniques of the classic English detective story. A clear confirmation of the above can be the statement of the popular Mickey Spillane. When asked how to write a (detective) book, he replied: “No one would read a mystery story to get to the middle. Everyone intends to read it to the end. If it turns out to be a disappointment, you will lose the reader. The first page sells this book, and the last page sells everything that will be written in the future."

Traps

Since detective work relies on reason and deduction, the plot will be more exciting and believable if the information presented in it causes the reader to come to the wrong conclusions. They may even be mistaken and follow a false line of reasoning. This technique is often used by authors who create detective stories about serial killers. This allows you to confuse the reader and create an intriguing turn of events. When everything seems clear and there is nothing to be afraid of, it is at such a moment that the main character becomes most vulnerable to an impending series of dangers. An unexpected twist always makes a story more interesting.

Motivation

Detective heroes should have interesting motives. The writer's advice that in a good story every character should want something applies more to the detective genre than to others. Since the hero’s subsequent actions directly depend on motivation. This means they influence the storyline. It is necessary to trace and then write down all the causes and consequences in order to firmly hold the reader in the created situation. The more characters with their own hidden interests, the more confusing, and therefore more exciting, the story becomes. Spy detective stories are mostly full of characters like this. A good example is the detective thriller Mission: Impossible, written by David Koepp and Steven Zaillian.

Create a criminal identity

Since the author knows from the very beginning who, how and why committed the crime, all that remains is to decide whether this character will be one of the main ones.

If you use a common technique, when the attacker is constantly in the reader’s field of view, then it is necessary to work out in detail his personality and appearance. As a rule, the author makes such a hero very likable in order to inspire confidence in the reader and avert suspicion. And in the end - you will be stunned by an unexpected outcome. A striking and clear example is the character Vitaly Egorovich Krechetov from the detective series “Liquidation”.

In the case where the decision is made to make the criminal the least noticeable character, a detailed depiction of personal motives will be required to a greater extent than appearance in order to ultimately bring him to the main stage. These are the types of characters that authors who write detective stories about serial killers create. An example is the sheriff from the detective series “The Mentalist”.

Create the identity of a hero investigating a crime

The character who opposes evil can be anyone. And not necessarily a professional investigator or private detective. Agatha Christie's attentive old lady Miss Marple and Dan Brown's Professor Langdon cope with their duties no less efficiently. The main task of the leading character is to interest the reader and evoke empathy in him. Therefore, his personality must be alive. Authors of the detective genre also give advice on describing the appearance and behavior of the main character. Some feature will help make him extraordinary, like Fandorin’s gray temples and stutter. But professionals warn novice authors against being overly enthusiastic in describing the inner world of the main character, as well as creating an overly beautiful appearance with figurative comparisons, since such techniques are more typical for romance novels.

Detective Skills

Perhaps a rich imagination, natural flair and logic will help a novice author in creating an interesting detective story, and will also captivate the reader in drawing up an overall picture of the case from small pieces of information provided. However, the story must be believable. Therefore, the luminaries of the genre, when explaining how to write a detective story, focus on studying the intricacies of the work of professional detectives. After all, not everyone has the skills of criminal investigators. This means that for the authenticity of the plot it is necessary to delve into the peculiarities of the profession.

Some use specialist advice. Others spend long hours and days sorting through old court cases. Moreover, to create a high-quality detective story, you will need not only the knowledge of criminologists. At least a general understanding of the psychology of criminal behavior will be necessary. And for authors who decide to spin a plot around a murder, they will also need knowledge in the field of forensic anthropology. You should also not forget about details specific to the time and place of action, since they will require additional knowledge. If the plot of the crime investigation takes place in the 19th century, the environment, historical events, technology and behavior of the characters must correspond to it. The task becomes much more complicated when the detective is also a professional in some other field. For example, a strange mathematician, psychologist or biologist. Accordingly, the author will have to become more skilled in the sciences that make his character special.

Completion

The most important task of the author is also to create an interesting and logical ending. Because no matter how twisted the plot may be, all the mysteries presented in it must be solved. All the questions that have accumulated during the course of the action must be answered. Moreover, through detailed conclusions that will be clear to the reader, since understatement is not welcome in the detective genre. Reflection and construction of various options for completing the story are typical for novels with a philosophical component. And the detective genre is commercial. In addition, the reader will be very interested to know where he was right and where he was wrong.

Professionals draw attention to the danger hidden in mixing genres. When working in this style, it is very important to remember that if the story has a detective beginning, its conclusion should be written in the same genre. You cannot leave the reader disappointed by attributing the crime to mystical forces or an accident. Even if the former occur, in the novel their presence must fit into the plot and course of the investigation. And the accident itself is not the subject of a detective story. Therefore, if it happened, someone was involved in it. In short, a detective story may have an unexpected ending, but it cannot cause bewilderment and disappointment. It is better if the conclusion is designed for the reader’s deductive abilities, and he solves the riddle a little earlier than the main character.

1) The reader should have equal opportunities with the detective to solve the mystery of the crime. All clues must be clearly identified and described.

2) The reader cannot be deliberately deceived or misled, except in cases where he and the detective are deceived by a criminal according to all the rules of fair play.

3) There should be no love line in the novel. We are talking about bringing the criminal into the hands of justice, and not about uniting yearning lovers with the bonds of Hymen.

4) Neither the detective himself nor any of the official investigators should turn out to be a criminal. This is tantamount to outright deception - the same as if they slipped us a shiny copper coin instead of a gold coin. Fraud is fraud.

5) The criminal must be discovered deductively - using logical conclusions, and not due to chance, coincidence or unmotivated confession. After all, by choosing this last path, the author quite deliberately directs the reader along a deliberately false trail, and when he returns empty-handed, he calmly reports that all this time the solution was lying in his, the author’s, pocket. Such an author is no better than a fan of primitive practical jokes.

6) A detective novel must have a detective, and a detective is only a detective when he tracks and investigates. His task is to collect evidence that will serve as a clue, and ultimately point to who committed this vile crime in the first chapter. The detective builds his chain of reasoning based on the analysis of the collected evidence, otherwise he is likened to a careless schoolboy who, having not solved the problem, copies the answer from the back of the problem book.

7) You simply cannot do without corpses in a detective novel, and the more naturalistic the corpse, the better. Only the murder makes the novel interesting enough. Who would read three hundred pages with excitement if we were talking about a less serious crime! In the end, the reader should be rewarded for their trouble and energy.

8) The mystery of the crime must be revealed in a purely materialistic way. Such methods of establishing the truth as divination, seances, reading other people's thoughts, fortune telling, etc., etc. are completely unacceptable. The reader has some chance of being as smart as a detective who thinks rationally, but if he is forced to compete with the spirits of the other world, he is doomed to defeat ab initio.

9) There should be only one detective, that is, only one main character of deduction, only one deus ex machina. To mobilize the minds of three, four, or even an entire squad of detectives to solve a crime means not only to distract the reader’s attention and break the direct logical thread, but also to unfairly put the reader at a disadvantage. If there is more than one detective, the reader does not know which one he is competing with in terms of deductive reasoning. It's like forcing the reader to race a relay team.

10) The criminal should be a character who played a more or less noticeable role in the novel, that is, a character who is familiar and interesting to the reader.

11) The author should not make a servant a murderer. This is too easy a solution; choosing it means avoiding difficulties. The criminal must be a person of a certain dignity - one who does not usually attract suspicion.

12) No matter how many murders are committed in a novel, there must be only one criminal. Of course, the criminal may have an assistant or accomplice, but the entire burden of guilt must lie on the shoulders of one person. The reader must be given the opportunity to concentrate all the fervor of his indignation on one single black character.

13) In a true detective novel, secret gangster societies, all sorts of Camorras and mafias are inappropriate. After all, an exciting and truly beautiful murder will be irreparably spoiled if it turns out that the blame falls on an entire criminal company. Of course, a murderer in a detective story should be given hope of salvation, but allowing him to resort to the help of a secret society is going too far. No top-notch, self-respecting assassin needs such an advantage.

14) The method of murder and the means of solving the crime must meet the criteria of rationality and science. In other words, pseudoscientific, hypothetical and purely fantastic devices cannot be introduced into a detective novel. As soon as the author soars, in the manner of Jules Verne, into fantastic heights, he finds himself outside the detective genre and frolics in the uncharted expanses of the adventure genre.

15) At any moment, the solution should be obvious - provided that the reader has enough insight to figure it out. By this is meant the following: if the reader, having reached the explanation of how the crime was committed, re-reads the book, he will see that the solution, so to speak, lay on the surface, that is, all the evidence actually pointed to the culprit, and, even if he, the reader , as smart as a detective, he would be able to solve the mystery on his own, long before the final chapter. Needless to say, a savvy reader often reveals it this way.

16) In a detective novel, long descriptions, literary digressions and side themes, sophisticated character analysis and recreation of atmosphere are inappropriate. All these things are unimportant to the story of the crime and its logical solution. They only delay the action and introduce elements that have nothing to do with the main goal, which is to present the problem, analyze it and bring it to a successful solution. Of course, a novel should include enough description and well-defined characters to give it credibility.

17) The blame for committing a crime should not fall on a professional criminal. Crimes committed by burglars or bandits are investigated by the police department, not by a mystery writer and brilliant amateur detectives. A truly exciting crime is one committed by a pillar of the church or an old maid known to be a philanthropist.

18) A crime in a detective novel should not turn out to be suicide or an accident. To end a tracking odyssey with such a drop in tension is to fool the gullible and kind reader.

19) All crimes in detective novels must be committed for personal reasons. International conspiracies and military politics are the property of a completely different literary genre - for example, a spy or action novel. A detective novel should remain within a cozy, homely framework. It should reflect the reader's daily experiences and, in a sense, give vent to his own repressed desires and emotions.

20) And finally, the last point: a list of some techniques that no self-respecting author of detective novels will now use. They have been overused and are well known to all true lovers of literary crime. To resort to them means to admit your incompetence as a writer and lack of originality.

a) Identification of the criminal by a cigarette butt left at the crime scene.

b) Arrangement of an imaginary spiritualistic seance in order to frighten the criminal and force him to give himself away.

c) Forgery of fingerprints.

d) An imaginary alibi provided by a mannequin.

e) A dog that does not bark and therefore allows one to conclude that the intruder was not a stranger.

f) At the end of the day, placing the blame for the crime on a twin brother or other relative who is like two peas in a pod like the suspect, but is an innocent person.

g) Hypodermic syringe and drug mixed into wine.

h) Committing a murder in a locked room after the police broke in.

i) Establishing guilt using a psychological test for naming words by free association.

j) The mystery of a code or encrypted letter, eventually solved by a detective.

Choose in which era the action will take place. This could be any time, from Ancient Egypt to the distant future, and even a fictional planet in a new galaxy.

• Do a little research about what happened in a particular country - murders, mysterious cases. If the crime has not been solved, you can come up with any solution.

Create the image of a detective. He may be a tough guy, an intellectual, a victim of circumstance, or even the source of trouble in your story. It is not necessary to answer all of the questions below. However, being thorough at this stage will help you write a believable story with a lively and complex central character.

• Come up with the most basic things. Is it a man or a woman? Name? Age? Appearance (skin color, eyes, hair)? Where is he or she from? Where does the hero live at the beginning of the story? How did he get involved? Should he be the victim? Is he the cause of what is happening?
• Give the hero a family. Parents? Brothers and sisters? Significant other? Children? Other relationships? Social groups? Someone who has mysteriously disappeared... Let the circumstances be as real or as unusual as you wish.
• What kind of life does the hero lead? Is he a celebrity or is he still a newcomer? Does he have an exceptional mind? What crimes does it solve - murders, thefts, kidnappings?
• Think about what your hero loves. What's his favorite phrase? Favorite color, place, drink, book, movie, music, dish? What is he afraid of? How practical is it? Do you use perfume, and what kind - strong, weak, pleasant or not so pleasant?
• Think about religion. Is your main character religious? If so, what faith does he belong to? Perhaps he invented it himself or chose from different religions what suited him personally? How do beliefs influence his actions? Is he superstitious?
• Decide how the hero behaves in relationships. Does he have many friends? Do you have a best friend? Is he a romantic by nature? What first impression does he make? Does he love children? Does he read a lot? How do you feel about smoking?
• How does the hero dress? If this is a woman, does she use cosmetics or dye her hair? What about piercings or tattoos? Is your character attractive, and how attractive does he consider himself? Is there anything he would like to change or something he is particularly happy with? How much time does he devote to his appearance?
• It may seem that this is too much for a short story, but it is necessary to develop the image of the main character as deeply and in detail as possible for a good story.