Desiderius Price

To be a good mystery, you’re likely at least outlining it once and writing it twice.

I Literally made an account, specifically to reply to this post, so I hope you see this.
I would say if you’re attempting to play with your reader’s minds, then it would be best to keep the mystery a surprise for the end.
I would also suggest, leaving a few very small hints of things that seem out of place, but not drawing any real attention to them, hiding the ground work for the real story, in plain sight.
If you do it like that, you can wrap up the first chapter as a fun, false start, for the mystery at hand.

Keurig whimpers in terror.  Little did it know that Halloween only marked the beginning of the spooky season, it was going to be enslaved for another grueling thirty days, without a prayer of overtime pay.

Keurig whimpers in terror.  Little did it know that Halloween only marked the beginning of the spooky season, it was going to be enslaved for another grueling thirty days, without a prayer of overtime pay.

Having done 156.6k in September, and 138k last month, going to set my NaNo goal to 150k… maybe it’ll happen, maybe not.  It does move the story along nicely.

Once again I’m coming up with stories and starting to outlining them while working on other stuff.

It’s rather fun, but I could use a suggestion.

The fandoms under which I usually write aren’t mysteries. This new one is more mystery oriented.

Now I’m trying to figure out how much mystery is too much mystery. The fandom is sorta famous for seemingly random mysteries. For showing the audience just enough to be curious but not enough to really tell you anything until the end.

What I’m writing is sorta like a gaslighting scenario. I introduce the idea of a mystery at the end of the first chapter but don’t reveal that the mystery is even happening until the very end. Although I wonder how much I should tease that there’s an ongoing mystery. Or if I should just go along as if the mystery isn’t happening.

Thoughts?
 

I guess a better question… would a reader get upset about reading and having to imagine graphic human/dog sex even if the dog had a human mind/brain?   If so, then I’d think the warning ought to be there.

Tough question.  My first thought was whether the other could articulate consent.
However, when it comes to tagging… it’s better to (slightly) over-tag even if you’re unsure as these are warnings to the reader.   You can qualify it too, at least at the top of the story with  [Beast] (werewolf).

I agree with @InvidiaRed on this one. If it’s a demon with the ability to think in human terms, then it’s not bestiality. If it’s an animal with the thought processes of an animal, it’s bestiality.

https://original.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600110337

Ack!   Run hide, it’s coming!  

I’m on too good of a roll on my potter fanfic to take a break… maybe on my next burnout/switch, whenever that comes.

And a reading of later bits of that older draft, name is now needed to connect dots, so that doctor got his name restored.  Introduced, but then kept to “the doctor” for most of the rest to signal it’s less...necessary, more about the role being played.

Lets not totally derail this topic
Names… yep, size of the role dependent.  Whether it’s sexual or not.  When reworking the potter fanfic, noticed I had removed a doctor’s name between two (earlier) drafts today, kept the name out simply as it’d be more distracting than helpful.  Guess that’s a better measure for your gang of boys & girls the MC is going through – name helpful or distracting to the narrative?

Lets not totally derail this topic
Names… yep, size of the role dependent.  Whether it’s sexual or not.  When reworking the potter fanfic, noticed I had removed a doctor’s name between two (earlier) drafts today, kept the name out simply as it’d be more distracting than helpful.  Guess that’s a better measure for your gang of boys & girls the MC is going through – name helpful or distracting to the narrative?

One thing I appreciate here on AFF  is that we don’t have to consider sexuality a gift of the 18th birthday, that it’s part of the human condition from the day we’re born. 
Stuff I write is usually underdogs, their development, which tends to include youth, teenagers, and college-aged characters because its these early years that tend to set them up – sure, can happen later too, but way more likely with early indoctrination.  Jeff?  He’s eight, in the middle of taking a bath, when the father comes to execute a custody order in the middle of a divorce, thus Jeff’s leaving his family home in his birthday suit, and gets relocated to a nudist environment as that’s a good hiding spot from the ex … that’s got underage all over it.
Nah, I’d totally understand it if you had minors doing those acts… happens today with teenagers, how many “wait” until they’re 18 to get frisky if given the chance?  Some do, but not most, and I try to write with a fair bit of realism to it.  And even if the teens aren’t actually getting frisky, they’re dreaming/joking about it.
Even in star trek, most red shirts had a name, maybe added to the captain’s log “Death of Lt Smith”.  So, if the character’s around for most of an episode, a name’s likely the right thing to give them.  If you’re having difficulty with names, try a random name generator, that’ll suggest names fast.  (I tend to use http://random-name-generator.info/random/)

Yep, both agree here.  A sidecar/backstory also does way better justice to the character than “flashback short”.  Take Jeff, briefly mentioned in a flashback, is now a fully fleshed character, and the reader will be rooting for him when he competes in the Olympics (swimming), in what’s likely going to be a multi-installment type of back story.
One thing I fight in my potter story rewrite… I did a lot of retcon before, so it’d be like Hermione going “Yesterday Snape talked to me...”   On this rewrite, I’m changing it to showing that conversation when it happens.   Thus, what had been revealed later to be SeamusFinnigan/LadyAuror relation, is now being shown (added a new character on this rewrite, and his POV is able to witness SeamusFinnigan/LadyAuror banging on the sofa in the Gryffindor Common Room).

Hi, Desiderius Price, and all.
Yes, there truly is a point where you have to write a separate story to tell the backstory of a character in the “other” story.  Or two different stories actually intersect for a short space.  Those are the “sidecar” equivalents to the prequel and the sequel.  Before Disney destroyed Star Wars, they had an entire cottage industry writing those stories to the three, and later the six core canon stories.  The last three movies were basically stewed pig feces, though there was the occasional gem to float up, but I digress…
Cheers!

My disastrous mistake with flashbacks… In my first original fic I posted here, because it was a huge group of people, I started inserting chapters of flashbacks, one after another, covering how the different characters got there.  Reviewers were getting confused “isn’t he dead?”  Once I realized I had basically had multiple stories in it, I started to peel them off as SEPARATE stories, and it’s way, way better.  Of course, haven’t finished those backstories, still working on them, and plan to get back to the main story… eventually.
For instance, Jefferey is backstory that delves into the subversive underground group trying to counter the strong religious push/indoctrination of the main society.  Alaska Trekkers shows how two join up to the main story.  Dale’s Game is intended for one of those too (though it derailed, so it’s eventual rewrite will fix that).  Once I start clearing out the backstory & rewrites, I do intend to get back to the main story    In the meanwhile, this potter fanfic isn’t going to write itself.
Overall, I minimize flashbacks, as it’s usually a symptom of planning issues.  However, they can have a place. 

For a character thinking back to an earlier moment in time, those would tend to be short.  If the character is relating an incident that happened to them before the “main” time of the story itself, or relating an incident through their own perspective that did not happen in the “view” of the main story perspective to one or more of the “main” characters, they can be far longer.  When doing this “longer” flashback, you can also “come up for air” in the “present moment” of the story to get reactions from the characters being told or reading the story.  And in some cases, you might need to.
Cheers!

One thing I appreciate here on AFF  is that we don’t have to consider sexuality a gift of the 18th birthday, that it’s part of the human condition from the day we’re born. 
Stuff I write is usually underdogs, their development, which tends to include youth, teenagers, and college-aged characters because its these early years that tend to set them up – sure, can happen later too, but way more likely with early indoctrination.  Jeff?  He’s eight, in the middle of taking a bath, when the father comes to execute a custody order in the middle of a divorce, thus Jeff’s leaving his family home in his birthday suit, and gets relocated to a nudist environment as that’s a good hiding spot from the ex … that’s got underage all over it.
Nah, I’d totally understand it if you had minors doing those acts… happens today with teenagers, how many “wait” until they’re 18 to get frisky if given the chance?  Some do, but not most, and I try to write with a fair bit of realism to it.  And even if the teens aren’t actually getting frisky, they’re dreaming/joking about it.
Even in star trek, most red shirts had a name, maybe added to the captain’s log “Death of Lt Smith”.  So, if the character’s around for most of an episode, a name’s likely the right thing to give them.  If you’re having difficulty with names, try a random name generator, that’ll suggest names fast.  (I tend to use http://random-name-generator.info/random/)

Felt like digging…
Definitely sage advice there!
I tend to keep the flashbacks short, focus on the one thing needed, and usually to show the character dwelling on something.  Because a “flashback” to add in something earlier into the story’s time-frame tends to hint that I failed to simply put it in at the appropriate time.  If I “flashback” to right before the story started...why didn’t I open up with that instead?  (Obviously with fanfic, sometimes you do have to retcon something into canon, so your hands are a bit more tied.)

Well to give you an example, I have a story featured in Scooby Gang Time about a single cheerleader involved with multiple men. However, when I wrote it I specifically had minor characters who had names in the canon of Buffy. However, the characters maybe appeared in one or two episodes. Some of them were exes of the female cheerleader character.

Whereas using the naval officer example, I don’t ever name any of the naval officers. I don’t think I even mentioned the name of the main female character. The only way you know who the character is because I labelled the chapter with the name of the character. The naval situation isn’t canon to the series or universe as far as I’m aware. So none of the characters are canon and are entirely created for the story.

In the story I’m writing now in the Riverdale space, I do mention the main female character’s name. She’s definitely not a minor, and I make a specific attempt to ensure that they’re not a minor. I think almost all the characters are from later in the series when they had graduated high school and were adults. There’s maybe one character where their age is not clear, something that I did with Scooby Gang Time story.
 

Something interesting has percolated up from the past.  Hmm…
The most important thing in my personal opinion when writing a flashback is this:  Never use the actual word “flashback,” unless your protagonist is a psychedelic drug user who is reminiscing or remembering when they were having either more or less “flashbacks” to suffer from.
Otherwise, the length or shortness of a flashback isn’t entirely a fixed quantity, at least in my opinion.  But, like anything else in creative writing for an audience, it does has its place, and its limits.

I don’t follow Riverdale… but yeah, given the author set on this website, especially as most of my stories have the underage warnings on them, “minor characters” has dual meanings.  Suppose even primary & secondary could in a school setting.
Suppose a good hint for names is “love interest” vs “sex object”.  If it’s simply another hole (or dick), then names are less urgent.  If it’s in the name of romance, then a name would be more important.