Tag: Mystery writing

It’s a Mystery to Me

Dear Liza,

I am writing a new story!

You might remember that my last story was about a girl who lived in Portland in 1903. She overcame many difficulties and was in a parade for Teddy Roosevelt.

Mouse helps with my map of 1903 downtown Portland

I had so much fun doing the research for it, I sort of hated having to make up a plot. I just wanted to keep learning about the city. I didn’t want to change any of the history, so I couldn’t commit to the story. With that sort of mental conflict, it’s no wonder it didn’t go anywhere.

My new story isn’t taking any research at all, because it is a mystery story that happens right here, right now. All of the action happens in our condominium building as the Covid pandemic is winding down (fingers crossed).

The mystery being solved is a series of thefts from our very own porches, porch pirates style. The Amazon packages go missing and no one knows who is doing it or why. Since I am not being limited by history, I am getting to make it up out of my own silly brain, and I am having so much fun!

The story was suggested by our neighbors John and Stacy and their three legged dog, Trevor. Trevor is in the story, of course, but the hero of the whole thing is our own brave detective, Mouse.

Her natural curiosity is important, because the story is told from her point of view. I am spending a lot of time trying to get into her furry little head. What does she think about things? What are her motivations? What skills does she have that would make a good detective?

Needless to say, this is going to be a very silly story. But I hope it will be fun, too.

I will let you have a read when it is ready.

Love,

Grandma Judy

The Process is Progressing

Dear Liza,

As you know, I have been working on my children’s history story about Portland for a little over a year now. For the first six months I read about Portland history so I know how it became a city and what sort of interesting things happened here. The Oregon Historical Society and Belmont Library became my favorite hangouts.

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A Young Lady in 1903

I chose to put my story in the spring of 1903, when President Theodore Roosevelt came through Portland on a country-wide tour. There was a parade, a ceremony in what is now Washington Park, and a banquet. It was a very big deal and I think it would make a good backdrop for a mystery story. But as I told you, I don’t know much about mysteries.

So, I studied that, too. For a few weeks, I read Nancy Drew books and articles about mystery story plots, character development, and clues.

But as a teacher, I never really understand something until I need to teach it. So I pretended I was teaching someone about how to make a mystery story.  I cut shapes out of paper to show everything that happened in the story: action, characters, description, distractions.

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A new way of seeing a story

I practiced using these pieces to map out the first eight chapters of The Bungalow Mystery, #3 of the Nancy Drew books. I could see when action happened, when characters were introduced, how the chapters alternated between action and description, and how each chapter ended in a new mystery or dangerous situation.

This took some of the mystery out of writing my mystery! I am now working on my own story, using these paper pieces to  make the characters move to solve the riddles of the story and come to a happy ending. If I don’t like the way it is going, I just move the pieces around! I feel organized, less confused, but flexible enough to create and re-create the story until it is right.img_9480.jpg

Of course, once I have this visual outline done, I still have to write the actual words….but that’s the fun part! I am happy to have found a way of working that works for me.

Love,

Grandma Judy