What do you do, if you know how a story is supposed to end, but you are afraid that the reader will see it coming from the third chapter of your mystery?
Yeah, well, I'm doing an amnesia patient mystery right now, and am about 40k into the thing. (Both of my first two novels hit around 100k, so I'm not quite halfway yet. Plus, I think this one might be longer than both the others.)
And anyway, I introduced my bad guy (who is acting like a good guy right now), and because of who he is calling himself, I know that he has to end up being the bad guy. Now, I have a plausible reason for why my FMC can't help but believe that he is as good as he seems, but my MMC keeps wanting to distrust the guy; and that's making it difficult! *urg*
So my question is this: is it possible to salvage an ending from being too obvious? Well, scrap that question, I know it should be possible. But can I do it? Who knows.
Okay, I know how I could possibly fix this. See, two different groups of people come to claim my amnesia patient, and they both claim that she's someone else. So she has to figure out which person she is. Now, she (THINKS she) remembers one of the people, (my bad guy), but the other group actually has her right name, and know who she is. So while group A (bad guy) is who she wants to trust, only group B can really tell her about herself.
So my problem is that my FMC wants to believe A, but also B, and she has to choose one or the other. What I really need is a way to make group B look really bad, so that she can fall into A's hands long enough to pick me up a climax for my story. I just don't know how I can discredit the people who actually know her, though. I like them. lol
I need to set them up for some mysterious crime, I suppose. Maybe they get framed for that murder of the next patient who uses FMC's hospital room? How in the world....oop, idea. Bazzam! I got it. Now I've got to go write it down before it's gone. lol
See ya.
And if you're also having trouble tweaking obvious-ending problems, OEP syndrome, feel free to rant your woes here. I hope I'm not the only one currently in this position. (Though, I realize I may be the only mystery writer actually writing a mystery this month. *tear* lol)
*~*Laura*~*
By the way, I just found out that Agatha Christie wrote "romance" novels under a psuedonym. o_O Now I want to check them out. See wiki for more info.
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Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.
Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)
23,200 / 50,000
Mär 20, 2008 - 07 11
Let FMC catch one or two of Group B in a lie. There's nothing like lies to discredit a person. Another thing--let her see one of them steal something that belongs to her. Stealing also discredits another.
Lucille
----------Lucille Perkins Robinson
http://lucilleperkinsrobinson.com
http://blog.lucilleperkinsrobinson.com
67,584 / 50,000
Mär 24, 2008 - 19 19
Thank you!!!
I spent a day or two just thinking up ways for them to be caught in a lie. It took me a while, but it finally got done; and it worked so well!
*~*Laura*~*
----------Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.
Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)
50,025 / 50,000
Mär 27, 2008 - 19 01
I've been hoping that I'm somehow going to be able to avoid the whole 'Since you're the one I'm targeting I'll tell you my motives in one huge dramatic, angry, tearful (on your part) speech!' thing with my villain. And I'm still debating whether or not the villain is going to die. I know he's going to get stabbed, but I'm not sure whether it'll be fatal or not.
Now I'm going to tell you a story, without giving it all away. To make things simpler, I'm going to give a pseudonyms to my characters.
MC = John
MC's best friend = Paul
Villain = George
MC's mother = Ringo (sorry, Ringo <33)
So, at the very beginning of my novel George kills John's parents and younger sister with the intention of John also being home so he could kill him too. But John slept over Paul's house unexpectedly, so he wasn't home. Throughout the novel George stalks John, and at the very end he tries to kill him (and succeeds, but that's for the novel ^_~), and Paul walks in. Paul stabs George when he realizes that he's killed John.
Now... should George die, or should he live? If he dies, then I'm going to have to have the confession given to John. If not, then he'll confess to the police. Which one should I go with?
----------The Fear - NaNoWriMo 2008
67,584 / 50,000
Mär 30, 2008 - 20 01
On one hand, I feel like George should live so that Paul won't feel any future guilt for having become a murder. And yet, revenge sounds like something that Paul would have desired after seeing his best friend killed.
(By the way, how old are John and Paul? Just out of curiosity) Age could make a difference in what Paul does. Would he stab George again if the first time didn't kill him?
Now, you said if George died, you'd give the confession to John. Did you mean Paul? Because I thought you meant you killed off John.
My answer: I think Paul would probably kill George. However, it seems like more novels kill the villians, so maybe you want to be different and say he lives...?
So actually, I think Paul would find it hard to resist the urge to kill George (but you're the only one who knows if he could or not); yet, I think George should live. Final answer. lol
Sorry I rambled so much to find my answer. Writing my thoughts out helps me decide things. ; p
*~*Laura*~*
----------Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.
Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)
50,025 / 50,000
Mär 31, 2008 - 18 32
Thank you so much ^_^
Now for a little explanation, and some added details that I probably should have mentioned before.
Paul is... an odd child. Very odd. He's not the violent type, but under the circumstances he might be capable of murder. And again under the circumstances, he probably wouldn't feel guilty for it. See, Paul throws his cactus at George first, and he is very very very fond of said cactus. And when the cactus sticks to George and comes out of its pot, well... Paul loses it. Depending on how much of the cactus is sticking to George, he might stab him again. (Oh, Paul is 18, and John is 17).
If George died, he would tell John everything before he killed him, because Paul isn't really the listening type. He barely pays attention to his surroundings, and in fact, if I ever killed someone he would be the one I would tell to relieve my guilt because he probably wouldn't hear me. XD
Now, I was talking to my friend today, and she gave me another suggestion: maybe Paul thinks that George is dead and then leaves to call the police or something, but George isn't dead and escapes once Paul leaves.
----------The Fear - NaNoWriMo 2008