{"id":563,"date":"2026-03-12T01:23:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/?p=563"},"modified":"2026-03-12T01:23:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T01:23:20","slug":"writing-a-memorable-mystery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/12\/writing-a-memorable-mystery\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing a Memorable Mystery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since mystery writing is often formulaic in structure, how can we beat AI and present a more unique experience for our readers? My latest workshop and webinar\u2014here\u2019s a bare bone outline about writing and marketing a memorable mystery. To get the full workshop, join one of my workshops offered through festivals or organizations like Mystery Writers of America or Sisters in Crime.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><u>Basic outline<\/u><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Popular Guides:<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jessica Brody\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/save-the-cat-writes-a-novel-the-last-book-on-novel-writing-you-ll-ever-need-jessica-brody\/debe7560e220d8b7\">Save the Cat! Writes a Novel\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hallie&#8217;s Ephron&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/writing-and-selling-your-mystery-novel-revised-and-expanded-edition-the-complete-guide-to-mystery-suspense-and-crime-hallie-ephron\/31026fe80a01e69a?ean=9781440347160&amp;next=t\">Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel Revised and Expanded Edition: The Complete Guide to Mystery, Suspense, and Crime<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Carolyn Wheat\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.overdrive.com\/media\/534561\/how-to-write-killer-fiction\">How to Write Killer Fiction<\/a> (out of print)<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mystery Writers of America\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/how-to-write-a-mystery-a-handbook-from-mystery-writers-of-america\/d00df004958b0b27?ean=9781982149444&amp;next=t\">How to Write a Mystery<\/a> handbook<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What if you explored outside of these guides?<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WRITING<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Do research on places and people that are not yet documented that well.<\/li>\n<li>Make our characters as human as possible.<\/li>\n<li>Dig deeper and take more time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ol>\n<li>Be more thoughtful with names.<\/li>\n<li>Read more foreign mysteries.<\/li>\n<li>Work to get more human emotion in your mysteries. (It may have to be nuanced.)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li>Fear<\/li>\n<li>Pride<\/li>\n<li>Anger<\/li>\n<li>Insecurity<\/li>\n<li>Obedience<\/li>\n<li>Shame\/guilt<\/li>\n<li>Amazement<\/li>\n<li>Delight<\/li>\n<li>Relief<\/li>\n<li>Infatuation<\/li>\n<li>Intelligence<\/li>\n<li>Creativity<\/li>\n<li>Courage<\/li>\n<li>Passion<\/li>\n<li>Comfort\/discomfort<\/li>\n<li>Laziness<\/li>\n<li>Depression<\/li>\n<li>Grief<\/li>\n<li>Compartmentalism<\/li>\n<li>Chauvinist\/Discrimination<\/li>\n<li>Confusion<\/li>\n<li>Empathy<\/li>\n<li>Impatience<\/li>\n<li>Admiration<\/li>\n<li>Desperation<\/li>\n<li>Hunger<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>4. Pay more attention to dialogue<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\">MARKETING MYSTERIES<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Create experiences<\/li>\n<li>In-person<\/li>\n<li>Online<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Since mystery writing is often formulaic in structure, how can we beat AI and present a more unique experience for our readers? My latest workshop and webinar\u2014here\u2019s a bare bone outline about writing and marketing a memorable mystery. To get the full workshop, join one of my workshops offered through festivals or organizations like Mystery [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-resources","tag-writing-mysteries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.naomihirahara.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}