Young Writers Society

Really.
Here what it's about..

I have this idea I find rather interesting ~ to write about real mysteries of art and crime (don't ask why that combination), using imagined characters to tell what "really" happened and what lies behind the stage, with a touch of the supernatural (because that's, after all, what I do best)..
It came to me on my class of Art History, when we talked about the Chartres Chatedral and its mysterious architect.

So, I imagined it as a collection of relatively short stories (if I manage to make them so), and I don't know when I'd be writing them yet, but I thought of telling you anyway.

First one would be The Wizard of Chartres ~ it involves love, soul trade and a lot of dreams of art and succes, though all in my head and drafts for now

The second is Daddy's Kiss ~ this one goes around one of the never accepted children of Klimt (he really had a lot of affairs and a whole group of women asked for paternity to be proved for their kids after he died - however, not many got it), and the known mystery of who's the woman on his famous Kiss.. In that one, I have talking pictures, a married writer-lover, madness and murders

The third I have falls under the 'crimes' part ~ it's called My Lover's Victims, and it's a tale told by Jack the Ripper's young wife, who learns about who her beloved really is and why. Surprisingly, that one has murders too, and, knowing me, there will probably be some demons involved as well, lol


See where I'm heading with this? The problem is, I rarely come across mysteries of those kinds.. And I don't want to write about mysteries such as Stonehenge, the Pyramids, Atlantis and the widely known things and places that don't fall under crimes or art.
So, I'd like to hear of other mysteries, if you know any.. Can be from any time period, any place on Earth, as long as there's enough space around it to make characters that don't really exist in history books, but can be believable nevertheless

Well, if you don't, thoughts are welcomed too. This thing's been buzzing around my head for quite some time now, so I thought of sharing it to see what you guys think ^_^

Thanks a lot,
Aria

Well, you have come across the same problem I had for years. I can't give you a specific mystery that would be cool, but the trick to a great mystery is first writing a great drama.

Oh, and I can actually give you a neat mystery. My brain is functioning on three hours of sleep, so this is probably not spelled correctly, but you may want to look into the Voynitch Manuscripts. They are a series of manuscripts written in a code that has yet to be deciphered, and the author is unknown.

You probably already know this, but I want to warn you of the three mistakes I made trying to write mystery.

1. You can't write a great mystery without a great drama behind it.

2. OUTLINE.

3. Make your suspects play hard to get.

What I mean by 'You can't write a great mystery without a great drama' is, for a mystery to be interesting, you can't just have a mysterious premise. There has to be plenty of excitement and energy behind the actual crime.

What I mean by OUTLINE. is just that. Outlining is VERY important when you write a mystery. The biggest mistake I ever made was writing my first book, which is more of a supernatural mystery, was leaving out the outline. I just kind of winged it, and now I'm living an editing nightmare.

Finally, what I mean by 'Make your suspects play hard to get.' is this. When I wrote my novel, I just had characters ask questions and get straight answers. The truth is, people lie, people run, people call the police. I know this is all really basic stuff you already know, but please beware! Don't make the same mistakes idea! And best of luck!

Thanks ^^

I've heard of the Manuscript, I guess I could use that one too.. Thanks for the idea!

As for the other things.. I do have outlines, for all of them. I didn't write them here, because I wasn't really asking for someone to, well, review my idea, but I wanted to introduce it and explain what I had in mind
Also, I don't write outlines very often at all, I'm very good at keeping it in my head, I really am.. But never mind that now.

I'm not quite sure you got what I'm talking about. Neither of the stories themselves will be mysteries, the mysteries of today will not quite be something I'll go about all the time in the stories, but more of a background story. It's not going to be much talked about (except in the third one), as those weren't really mysteries at the time. They will, really, be just stories like any others, connected to the real historical mysteries by mentioned artwork, names and such. While reading them, the reader won't see historical facts listed as in a text book, but will follow the characters in what they do and catch up with what's it really about. Something like that, though I haven't slept at all and I'm not completely sure what I'm saying either

I find that, when dealing with mysteries and things like trick endings, it's easiest to work backwards.

So, you know the end point. What lead to it?

Basically, trace the chain of events and motivations like an investigator would. You might find that some of yours stories will work better that way. Your story about Jack the Ripper's wife, for instance, looks like one since it looks like she'll be doing quite a bit of investigating.

Just don't forget to trace the events forward and ask why things didn't go a different direction. Outlining in this case will be very useful to prevent plot holes from ever even forming.

Regardless of whether the stories themselves are mysteries, they gave rise to mysteries, and you'll want your stories to feel somewhat mysterious as well. Especially if you're going to be incorporating the supernatural.