Friends,
A good clue in a fair mystery has to mean two things at once. It shows the reader something true and lets it be taken the wrong way first, so the right reading is still there to be found later and never lands as a trick. Making a clue work in both readings at the same time is most of the plotting, and it is the part of the work I enjoy most. There is a longer piece on it below.
Delilah
From the Bench
The Clue With Two Readings
A clue that can only mean one thing gives the case away. The craft is an innocent reading a careful reader would prefer, until the evidence rules it out.
Also in the notebook
- The Solution Comes First Before I draft a page I know who, how, why, and what the crime left behind. Everything else is built to put that trace in my detective's path.
- What Maintenance Records Taught Me The written entry outlasts everyone who was there. That lesson became a way to plot a mystery.
People will tell you a toaster stopped working. The toaster will tell you it was dropped.
From Fixed to Death