Kimberly Kenna
Contest: Middle Grade Mystery | 2nd Place
17 Sherlock Lane
July 7, 2023
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.
Lights! Camera! Action! Creating Dramatic Action Scenes
IFW Instructor Kris Franklin illustrates how to build more tension in your story by showing and not telling.
Mystery Elements: The Satisfying Ending
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.
Mystery Elements: Double Duty Dialogue
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.
Put on Your Mystery Thinking C.A.P.
Jan Fields shares her process for writing mysteries for readers of all ages.
Winning Mysteries
Jan Fields reveals how to write a winning mystery for readers of all ages.
How to Build a Good Mystery Part 1 – Institute for Writers
096: How to Build a Good Mystery Part 1
April 20, 2018
Where Do You Get Your Ideas?
Ideas can come from many different directions, so we’re going to look as some of the ways ideas spring up so that you can try them for your own writing.
Something Wicked, Weird, and Spooky This Way Comes | IFW
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > Examples for Building a Supernatural Mystery or Paranormal Mystery Saying a mystery is about something unknown takes on a new meaning when it comes to supernatural and paranormal mysteries. Supernatural means anything…
223: Tips for Mystery Opening Chapters
223: Tips for Mystery Opening Chapters
October 23, 2020
Mystery Sidekicks
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…
Things Are Not What They Seem
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > In last week’s post, I told you about Catherine Aird’s article “Planning and Plotting the Detective Story.†Here are the points that were lightbulbs for me, and why I think you should…
222: Planting Clues
222: Planting Clues
October 16, 2020
Mystery Detectives
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,…
All Is Revealed
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > In last week’s post, I gave you two clues. With only one accredited class in genre writing under my belt, and a dozen creative writing classes that came nowhere near 221b Baker…
Follow That Clue!
Share on facebook Facebook Share on twitter Twitter We teach our students how to write and get published! View our Course Catalog > The Clue-Theory-Test Method of Plotting Mysteries For many writers trying mystery writing for the first time, one of the things that feel the hardest is leaving clues for the reader. So let’s…
221: Interview with Kate Milford
221: Interview with Kate Milford
October 9, 2020
How to Build a Good Mystery Part 2 – Institute for Writers
097: How to Build a Good Mystery Part 2
April 27, 2018
Write the Most Popular Genre in Kidlit | IFW
021: Write the Most Popular Genre in Kidlit
October 14, 2016