Most of my fiction writing has been in the murder mystery novel genre, specifically whodunits, in which there are usually four to six suspects. One of the most difficult aspects of writing whodunits is to give all of these suspects roughly equal motives for having committed the murder. The idea is to keep the reader guessing as long as possible.
I try to adhere to the doctrine of fair play in the plot. That is, I put in clues so that the reader could conceivably identify the murderer. Having said that, I bury the clues by making them hard to spot. Many of these clues are embedded in seemingly innocuous details. [In real life, most murder cases are not mysteries. However, true crime readers find them interesting because they really happened.]
Robert Goldsborough in The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists, Andrew McAleer, editor, 2008
I try to adhere to the doctrine of fair play in the plot. That is, I put in clues so that the reader could conceivably identify the murderer. Having said that, I bury the clues by making them hard to spot. Many of these clues are embedded in seemingly innocuous details. [In real life, most murder cases are not mysteries. However, true crime readers find them interesting because they really happened.]
Robert Goldsborough in The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Novelists, Andrew McAleer, editor, 2008
Mr. Fisher your work is a tremendously valuable offering on many levels. Thanks.
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