How much mystery is too much mystery?

[Deadman]

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?
 

[WarrenTheConey]

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.

Edited November 10, 2023 by WarrenTheConey

[Desiderius Price]

On 10/30/2023 at 10:38 PM, Deadman said:

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

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

[Deadman]

14 hours ago, WarrenTheConey said:

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.

Well thank you for caring enough to respond.

This is definitely what I’m struggling with in many ways. Part of the reason I worry is that the end of the mystery is something that could tip fans of the fandom off if I accidentally tease too much.

I’m just using the mystery in a different way and putting forward a pairing that didn’t officially happen in the show/fandom. It was only kinda hinted at.

The way I have thought about the end of the first chapter is that a character is alone and hears a sound. What that sound will be and what it reveals about what happens between chapter 2 through however long the story ends up being. Although from my more detailed outline, the reveal might not happen in the final chapter. The last few chapters though will be dealing with the reveal of what it is.
 

[Deadman]

14 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

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

Possibly, yeah. I just completed a general outline and might add more soon. It’s changed part of what the story happens.
 

[Desiderius Price]

23 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Possibly, yeah. I just completed a general outline and might add more soon. It’s changed part of what the story happens.

Even with non-mysteries, I find I really fill out the story on the second or third writing of it.

[Deadman]

1 hour ago, Desiderius Price said:

Even with non-mysteries, I find I really fill out the story on the second or third writing of it.

For sure, I do a lot of stuff. But for mysteries in particular, it’s a good idea to know what you’re doing before going into it. Because you have to think it through to make sure your audience wants to know what the ending is.
 

[Desiderius Price]

7 hours ago, Deadman said:

For sure, I do a lot of stuff. But for mysteries in particular, it’s a good idea to know what you’re doing before going into it. Because you have to think it through to make sure your audience wants to know what the ending is.

Even for the best mystery authors, there’s some readers who’ll likely guess it right in the opening line based on the spent cartoon-themed condom that’s hanging from the ceiling fan.  Thus, the trick is to make sure it’s a good read EVEN once the mystery isn’t no longer a real mystery.   You’ll want some red herrings, of course, along with some irrelevant details – for the lazy writer, the red herrings can be from changing the plot half-way through

[Deadman]

On 11/11/2023 at 2:48 AM, Desiderius Price said:

Even for the best mystery authors, there’s some readers who’ll likely guess it right in the opening line based on the spent cartoon-themed condom that’s hanging from the ceiling fan.  Thus, the trick is to make sure it’s a good read EVEN once the mystery isn’t no longer a real mystery.   You’ll want some red herrings, of course, along with some irrelevant details – for the lazy writer, the red herrings can be from changing the plot half-way through

Yeah, I definitely think I have some aspects of that although I haven’t worked out all of them yet. Like I mentioned, it’s more like the main character is into a gaslighting scenario. The person she’s involved with keeps saying one thing in private and then doing things in public which makes things confusing. But the reason why is the mystery.
 

[Desiderius Price]

On 11/14/2023 at 9:24 PM, Deadman said:

Yeah, I definitely think I have some aspects of that although I haven’t worked out all of them yet. Like I mentioned, it’s more like the main character is into a gaslighting scenario. The person she’s involved with keeps saying one thing in private and then doing things in public which makes things confusing. But the reason why is the mystery.

I know how it is, trying to figure out a key point to the story, and how that can stall writing until figured out.  Best advice is to pick an approach, write it, and if you don’t like it, change the approach and try again.  If you can, focus on a few key scenes so you don’t have to write the epic novel only to trash it. 

I had a similar dilemma stall my potter fanfic for well over a decade, still gives a bit of nerves when I think about it.  Consider “A” as a small party, “B” is everybody else.  I segregate off “A” from “B”, to the point that “B” considers “A” as totally dead.  (I’ve already added some foreshadowing for this bit… still coming.)

What I had wanted to do was to show everything purely from B’s POV, because that’d be maximum mystery, also read as a horror as plans keep failing and Voldemort keeps advancing.  However, it’d also make the climax/resolution read like the biggest deus ex ever, it’d rob the reader of the schism and conflict that’s brewing in A, the actions of “A”. 

If I went full “B” first to climax, “A” to climax, every scene has to be built up whenever there’s B/A crossover.   Not to mention the head-scratching by the reader to keep things sorted in a multi-million word story.

As I’m not writing a mystery, this time around, I’m going to mix the POVs together, like I’ve been generally doing for most of the story anyways.  True, while it’ll still seem dire to B, the reader will see A’s side … less mystery, horror aspect still there, but at least I’ll get it written (plan to anyways)

Nothing more horrifying than an unfinished WIP!

[Deadman]

14 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

I know how it is, trying to figure out a key point to the story, and how that can stall writing until figured out.  Best advice is to pick an approach, write it, and if you don’t like it, change the approach and try again.  If you can, focus on a few key scenes so you don’t have to write the epic novel only to trash it. 

I had a similar dilemma stall my potter fanfic for well over a decade, still gives a bit of nerves when I think about it.  Consider “A” as a small party, “B” is everybody else.  I segregate off “A” from “B”, to the point that “B” considers “A” as totally dead.  (I’ve already added some foreshadowing for this bit… still coming.)

What I had wanted to do was to show everything purely from B’s POV, because that’d be maximum mystery, also read as a horror as plans keep failing and Voldemort keeps advancing.  However, it’d also make the climax/resolution read like the biggest deus ex ever, it’d rob the reader of the schism and conflict that’s brewing in A, the actions of “A”. 

If I went full “B” first to climax, “A” to climax, every scene has to be built up whenever there’s B/A crossover.   Not to mention the head-scratching by the reader to keep things sorted in a multi-million word story.

As I’m not writing a mystery, this time around, I’m going to mix the POVs together, like I’ve been generally doing for most of the story anyways.  True, while it’ll still seem dire to B, the reader will see A’s side … less mystery, horror aspect still there, but at least I’ll get it written (plan to anyways)

Nothing more horrifying than an unfinished WIP!

Yeah, this is why I don’t post before I actually write it out or am very long way into it.

I’m not yet writing it because I’m focused on other stories. This one I’m talking about may or may not end up on AFF. It could go either way. Basically, I’ve just written down a bunch of plot points. I think I’ve outlined the overall story. Now it’s about filling in the little details. But how the first chapter ends will affect how the characters will act and how the audience might view the characters.