There’s always some sucker willing to bumble into the wrong part of town…or some small town willing to host something it shouldn’t. Something’s looking for trouble. Surprise, surprise, our characters are just the suckers needed–wrong place, wrong time, and distracted. Technically, the characters didn’t ask for it, although maaaaybe they tried to get a little something […]

The first signs of trouble were small.  So small that we ignored them.  Ditto the second, third, fourth, fifth… There’s a relatively minor problem. Everyone blows it off (although there might be one person who panics about the situation in an obviously useless, “it’s all in your head” fashion). Until it’s too late to do anything

The main character has a dilemma.  It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation–but there’s damnation, and then there’s damnation. The character has a problem, or is called in to deal with a problem. The character has to choose between a couple of craptastic options. They try to avoid choosing. But eventually, they

For some reason, nailing down horror plots is harder for me than mystery plots, so this is even more tentative than usual. There is a problem. The backstory* is so epic that it dominates the present or real story. Wait wait this problem comes from the epic backstory that we never talk about and didn’t

So let’s say you have a series of books, movies, TV episodes, TV seasons, etc.  Any given series of storytelling.  Doesn’t have to be linear in time.  Doesn’t even have to be about the same characters (a la romances about a number of sisters, etc.)  With or without an overarching plot.  Could just be “monster

Okay, the frame as a narrative device.  Most writers have at least heard of it.  There’s a story within a story.  But let’s look at this from a mystery perspective: A crime happens or is discovered (in the case of a long-past crime). The main action of illustrating the crime happens on another level, for