Detective story: Some thoughts on writing

               Detective stories are one of the hardest to write. What makes one superior to another? Many elements are needed coordinated perfectly to make a detective story great. Everyone can write a bad detective story, but what makes one great?

               One of the hardest part in writing a good detective story is to appeal to all audiences. Some maybe into it for the violence, others enjoy the mysterious crime solving. Many people enjoy detective stories for many different reasons and the writer is the one who puts it all together. A writer must be able to incorporate all the things that people love about detective stories, and put it all into one story.

               Great, interesting, exciting cases must also be well planned out ahead of time. The writer's creativity and knowledge of their readers must be immense. Writers must be able to invent crazy and fun villains when needed. Be able to come up with disgusting crimes as well as puzzling ways to solve them. The author is required to plan every detail out before because of how complicated these story lines can be. In detective stories it is even more important that the writer connects us to the characters. Readers especially need a connection with the characters to have more of a connection to the tragedy and troubles.

               The plot must be planned to perfection, every twist and every detail. It all must be planned out before the writing, because every small detail could change the entire book. There must be good timings for all things including clues, red herring, explosions, and chases. These books have to be exciting at all times and never let you put the book down, if not they would be very boring because it would be more of a lecture of detection. The writer has to be smart and know what they are doing. These kinds of books cannot be dumb, if a detective novel was too easy to figure out and solve nobody would read that. The author has to have some skill in making the case challenging so that it is a challenge to solve for both the reader and the detective. The problem with that though is that it also cannot be too hard, it has to be relatable by the reader. The reader wants to read something that they can see themselves doing and not just read a completely made up and unreal book. The clues and plot have to be easy to follow, but challenge your minds when you try to solve it.

               Detective novels are so hard because they require so much from the writer. They have to be able to know and understand their readers so well. Writers need to work extra hard to form connections between the reader and character. They must perfectly balance difficulty and understanding for all who read their books. The worst part is, if they mess one small thing wrong they book could go totally wrong and be a letdown. I’ve found to appreciate the writers of detective novels more after I realized what a tall task it was to write a detective story. A writer becomes complete when they are able to write a good detective story.