A New Endeavour; Detective Fiction (Pun Slightly Intended)

I didn't think I'd ever do it. But it just grabbed me, and something clicked in my brain that allowed me to do the pre-planning and preparation necessary to create something as complex and planning-intensive as a detective story.

Mystery is the one genre where I just can't do what I usually do with writing; work from a rough sketch and ideas and then write as I go while using later proofreads to pick up continuity or other errors. Mysteries require extensive planning, otherwise they'll fall apart under scrutiny. And when it's a reader, that scrutiny can be both hard and harsh.

There's still a way to go. I'm only two chapters in, and while I've got the central mystery and cast worked out, anything could go wrong. Especially as I'm still a complete novice at this, and I've decided to set it in a world without human characters. It's a strange world after humanity, where a new species has risen in its place, achieved civilisation as many would consider it, and navigate a world that to us may be unrecognisable. This is set in a fantasy world, but the story and workings themselves are firmly grounded in the scientific and logical world of detective fiction.

It's not the first time I've toyed with a detective story. I had a rather neat "hydrogen-punk" noir set during the post-WW2 era, and shortly after the death of Al Capone, when the criminal underworld began reforming into its next phase of existence. The story would've had a fictionalised version of Eliot Ness and his (fictional) daughter -- the main protagonist -- going up against a new alliance of criminal syndicates during the early days of the Cold War and amid rising ethnic and gender-based tensions. But that's a story for another day, even though it's one I'm not going to just abandon. It's got scope.

This one is my second attempt, and it's going much better. Basically I've taken all I've learned from reading some of the greats of detective fiction and applied it with a writing method which combines my own skills with the planning necessary for crafting a complex and devilish mystery. Guess reading all that Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Colin Dexter, Ngaio Marsh, G. K. Chesterton and others paid off in the end. Also, my recent and very personal encounter with death gave me some impetus to write about it.

Well, here's hoping it goes alright.