eMysteries Toolkit

The European Commission's support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. [Project Number: 2019-1-DE03-KA201-060127] 59 Ideas for mystery resolution from well-known detective stories Knowing the ending of the story before writing, can be very helpful, i.e. knowing exactly what situations need to be developed in order to find that ending. The first step, then, is to start writing the story from the end. Think about how the mystery will be solved, whether it ends well or badly, whether it ends incompletely or there is closure. There are, among many others, two types of endings that encompass the others: ✓ Closed endings: those that leave the story finished and well tied up, that is, there is no loose end or possibility of a second part. These are endings that leave the reader shocked and that tie up all the loose ends that a good mystery story leaves behind. ✓ Open endings: these are very interesting, as they leave the story open for another possible part, or simply do not close the mystery. They are frustrating endings because the reader is left wanting to know the ending, but at the same time they are curious because they let the readers' imagination run wild and they make conjectures to see which ending they would have liked to read most. It also allows you to write another part of your story. Deciding on these issues before writing the bulk of your story is important, because it is what will determine the rest, the clues, the suspicious situations and characters, the behaviour of your protagonist, in fact, the whole story. 4.3. Rereading and Revising what you Wrote There are many techniques for meaningful reading. Working in groups can be interesting to re-read what has been written and revise it, based on these techniques. Collaborative writing itself can also be a technique for meaningful reading, since one must understand well what the previous person has written in order to continue with a story. The simplest and most familiar techniques of meaningful reading are; underlining, summarizing and outlining. These are very simple techniques that can help to reread what has been written. If you are able to make a good summary of the story where it says who, what and how it was done, you need to have understood the story and read it carefully. Other interesting techniques for rereading your mystery detective story perfectly adaptable to online collaborative writing tools are the following: