I'm working on a dective story. It's a tribute to Every female's favourite famous girl detective: NANCY DREW. The story is this: Anne's Spanish boyfriend, Frank (short for Fernando) 's asks Anne to solve a case that involves a family (Martinez) that are friends with his family. What I (the author) does know (but the dective doesn't know yet) is that the Mr. Matinez is involve with human traffercking. So far I don't have a lot of suspects and there's only one motive at the moment. So any ideas? The villain in the story when she with her "gang" is she wears men's clothing.
I'm not quite sure what you're asking for. Motives for the other suspects? That's one of the most fun things about writing a detective story -- and something that's 100 percent your job as the writer to determine. Good luck!
You could start writing. As your current characters do/say stuff, there will need to be others there too: "Where were you last night?" she asked. "Hey - I was out dancing!" Soooo, who was he dancing with? Another potential character. The cabbie pulled up beside the apartment building, let her out and took his fare. She was nearly skipping from the joy as the doorman let her in. Ahh. Two possible characters. The cab driver (unlikely, but possible) and the doorman. I've found many interesting characters doing this. -Frank
Seeing as you don't know how to spell "detective", you should just scrap the detective concept altogether and change it to a "defective" story. I kid, I kid. On a serious note, it's extremely difficult to help someone with the plotline of a detective story, because that plotline includes suspects, motives, time of crime, color of the toilet the suspect is sitting on, whether the suspect has every ravedanced naked down the street(okay, so the last one was a joke, but the second last isn't. I've seen mystery stories, GOOD ones, that rely on something as small as that), the whole thing. Bottom Line-If we comply with your request, we're writing your story. And we don't do that, we help you write your story.
Oh for goodness sake like people don't make typos or have words they can't spell. I struggle with pearson/person doesn't mean I shouldn't write about one. The advice to just write is a good one. If you have your basic story it will create characters for you - those characters will help you build the story. You are in a good position as you have a story concept and a couple of characters much more than I sometimes start a story with. With my latest one I got surprised by a character in the first line - there was a man standing at the end of my MCs bed - when my MC said he had funny ears I knew who it was lol Had assumed he would be dead. I love Nancy Drew so am interested in this one if you want to bounce plot ideas about PM me it is fun.
I agree with Elgaisma If the choice is between a good speller and a good story teller, give me the story teller everytime.
Not to mention on this forum to assume the person posting is a native English speaker is not a good idea either.
only if they're close to as old as i am, i suspect! and i have to agree with mallory and python that you should be coming up with your own ideas, if you want to be a writer, not asking others to do it for you and thus 'writing by committee'...
I apologize for my grammar comment. I never thought about the possibility that you might not have English as your native language.
English is the only language I know but I'm pretty bad speller since I didn't start talking until later than everyone else. But Nancy's not the star of this show-but she will appear as a guest star as an eldery woman.
The only advice I can offer in terms of such a complex narrative genre is to write it backwards. That's what I sometimes do with screenwriting. It's essential to know your ending, in your case, your killer. Try writing a page or two of the killer's story, and their murder. Then once you have that backstory in mind, write the actual story knowing all the details. Don't just make it up as you go along...it's a hard, and fragile line to walk, trying to hint enough but not give the game away. That also allows you to insert your "plants". The subtle clues in the right places, and certain devices that, at first seemingly mundane, are vital. A good example is Collision, in which a wasp lands on a table. At first it's meaningless, but later becomes a key ingredient in the ensuing chaos.
at least you think you do. MY experience is stories have a habit of surprising their author - my BIG BAD turned out to be a case of mistaken identity and it has turned out there is an even BIGGER BAD lol
Elg is right and sometimes your writing will take its own turn and surprise you, which is a good thing. But it's good to have one direction mapped out to the end. Don't be a slave to it, but you won't be hitting any brick walls either.
Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys at least in the UK are seeing a resugence - the 80s are back in fashion and those of us that grew up then are parents who are influencing our kids. Just like mine have seen things like He-Man and Thundercats - my seven year old is reading Enid Blyton and Nancy Drew in amongst modern bubblegum for girls. My best friend is a librarian and says there has been a big increase in them being requested.
Especially with the Nancy Drew detective computer games. Those are super popular (I'm grown and I totally play them when I have time, like during vacations). Also, there have been modernized versions of the books, etc. So I have to respectfully disagree with Maia here -- N.D. is still alive and kicking. Lots of other things that are popular to us will likely not be familiar to other generations, though..Charlie Brown for example.
Even so, mine comment was in jest. Thine grammar doth not reflect thine storytelling skills. Prithee, thou will not remember me harshly? Dost thou not accept mine apology? I have no idea why I decided to write in old english, but it's funny!
actually Nancy Drew come out in the 1930's so did the Hardy Boys (but The Hardy Boys were first) but Nancy Drew (and the Hardy Boys) were revised in 1959
The revision process continued all the way through the sixties. I have a number of the titles both original and revised.
I don't know about Nancy Drew but they have produced plenty of Hardy Boy spinoff stories and never stopped - it isn't one author but a syndicate. I love the Casefiles the new first person Undercover series took some getting used to with Aunt Gertrude becoming Aunt Trudy and getting a make over. The main series only stopped five years ago. Nancy Drew Notebooks were written from around mid nineties and again stopped in 2005 not sure if she has an undercover equivelent.
i knew nd's adventures had been 'updated' back in the 60s or so [very badly, imo!], but had no clue she is still being reincarnated up to the present, and in games and such, as well... a big 'bravo!' should go to carolyn keene [who was a man, btw] for giving birth to an immortal!
