The Essentials of Writing Mystery and Adventure Stories for Kids
Identifying your story’s genre helps readers know what to expect. Here are the defining essentials of writing mystery and adventure stories for kids.
Identifying your story’s genre helps readers know what to expect. Here are the defining essentials of writing mystery and adventure stories for kids.
Mysteries are rarely open-ended because the very nature of how mysteries work requires closure to be successful. So let’s think about what makes for a good mystery ending.
Dialogue is important in virtually every story you’ll ever write, but in mysteries that importance (and difficulty) is compounded by the use of dialogue in relation to clues.
Jan Fields shares her process for writing mysteries for readers of all ages.
096: How to Build a Good Mystery Part 1
April 20, 2018
223: Tips for Mystery Opening Chapters
October 23, 2020
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > The sidekick, a character who supports the main character, is almost as much a part of a good mystery as the detective. The sidekick gives the detective someone to discuss the case…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Any fan of mysteries would be happy to tell you that mystery detectives come in all shapes and forms. Some are detectives because they want to be like Sherlock Holmes, Encyclopedia Brown,…
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Basically every book I write is an adventure story or a mystery, and many are both. By definition, a mystery involves a puzzle with someone trying to solve the puzzle. For adults,…
Facebook Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Advice to take your entry to the top. Have you heard the exciting news? The Institute for Writers is now accepting submissions for its Mystery First Pages Writing Contest! Every quarter, IFW hosts a contest, and this time…
097: How to Build a Good Mystery Part 2
April 27, 2018
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > At this point, I have sold well over two dozen mystery novels for adults and have written and sold mysteries for children, both as short stories and chapter books. In fact, many…
Not only does giving feedback help the writer who receives the feedback, it helps you as well. Let’s think about what makes good feedback and how to give it.
Preparing yourself to receive writing feedback is the best way to ensure you’ll improve. Let’s look at ways we sabotage our growth with unhelpful expectations.
It’s easy to underestimate the value of feedback at some point in the revision process. Here’s where to get feedback and how to use it in your next manuscript.
Let’s look at some revision tools and techniques you may not have considered including timelines, style sheets, vision boards, and playlists!
When writing for children, take a LEAP—write a story that teaches (LEARN), captivates (ENTERTAINS), AND gets the child to do something (PROVOKES).