On Writing Detectives

Today, more of a brain dump than a post, but I wanted to congeal my thinking into a list of everything I like about detective stories, which I do not normally like. Hence, I do not normally write them. Alas, I am now joining in a detective plot line to review what's been done and write several of the next scenes for the video game. Before that, I mostly wrote dramatic scenes, but the previous one was with the Chief of Police, tackling corruption, so it makes sense to move onto murder investigations.

Pacing—I believe this is the most important part of a detective story. The way you lay out facts and bring them to light at certain beats.

Backstories—I like these more than any sort of twists or deus ex machina. It's cool to develop your characters through pieces like a letter to one's daughter which explains part of the motive, or a dramatic event from the past which puts this murder in perspective and context.

Red herrings—a necessary tool to sidetrack the reader's/player's suspicion.

Foreshadowing—linked to the previous one, you foreshadow "true" and "false" lines, all to make the revelations that much more satisfying. This is my favourite part to do while I'm outlining stage, nothing beats this.

Lies—sometimes someone lies. You think they are speaking the truth under oath, even despite the general suspicion of everyone and everything. You want to believe.

Making your audience do their work—giving enough information in a sequence that would lead them to believe they induced something from all that plot. They play detectives, the writer plays an accomplice. The writer is like David Bowie in The Labyrinth, seeing everything that's happening. You kind of want them to win, but not too fast.

Revelations—it is problematic to make those satisfying, they would only work if you did everything right, successfully avoided all the cliches, avoided avoiding the cliches, and still managed to make the story unpredictable enough and dramatic in its core. Instilling meaning onto made up horrible acts—which I would not like to dig deep into in real life, nor be close to any sort of investigation—the allure of the mystery, of playing a detective yourself... It's a puzzle for everyone!

In games

I am thinking about how narrative game format can enhance this genre, give the thrill of exploration, of investigation—either through the added agency of a player to choose which thread to pull next or through extra materials eg the aforementioned letter, newspaper articles, and other formats we have in our arsenal of game mechanics. I think it excels as a combination of the dramatic narrative and a quest with puzzles to solve.