Date: Fri, 25 Apr 1997 10:07:16 EDT From: mo-tinking! Organization: Only the DNA knows for sure... Subject: EXERCISE: Plot #7: The Riddle: 20 Master Plots [Based on the book "20 Master Plots (And How to Build Them)" by Ronald B. Tobias. ISBN 0-89879-595-8. previous exercises are available to the web-enabled at http://web.mit.edu/mbarker/www/exercises/exercises.html ] Master Plot #7: The Riddle Riddles, puzzles, brain teasers, conundrums. Surely you have heard of them? [want to see a collection? try http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/puzzles/faq/faq.html ] "A riddle is a deliberately enigmatic or ambiguous question." The answer should have both surprise and cleverness. This has evolved into the mystery. "A challenge to the reader to solve the problem." (p. 113) "Your mystery should have at its heart a paradox that begs a solution. The plot itself is physical, because it focuses on events (who, what, where, when, and why) that must be evaluated and interpreted (the same as the riddle must be interpreted). Things are not what they seem on the surface. Clues lie within the words. The answer is not obvious (which wouldn't satisfy), but the answer _is_ there. And in the best tradition of the mystery, the answer is in plain view." Clues! Not too obvious, and ambigious ones do well...avoid the red herrings, the clues that don't add up, the throw-away clues...work on clues that must be understood _correctly_. Give the reader a chance. The Purloined Letter--with a thoughtful protagonist, with all clues revealed to the reader, and the riddle clearly visible from the beginning. Will the reader solve the riddle first, or will the protagonist? Frank R. Stockton's The Lady or The Tiger--the unresolved paradox! Where the reader learns something about themselves in considering which way they would resolve the dilemma. So what are the phases, the drama of the riddle? Phase one -- introduce the problem, the riddle. Who is the victim? What is the crime? Who is the protagonist that will try to solve the crime? Who are the major players? In general, pose the question--Who Killed Cock Robin? Phase two--specifics! as good bloodhounds, let us sniff at the clues, and follow paths...camouflage information and let the readers read right past those critical clues. Action, lights, cameras...keep us squinting, keep us blinking, and make us wonder just who really is telling the truth. Phase three--solve the riddle. confrontation and chase. maybe a mob scene, with your very own detective first making us think it was the butler, then the maid, then the victim...and the son of the victim really did it, didn't you, Alfred? Who would ever have suspected that you had come back after twenty years in the sewers? Don't forget that somewhere in this scene we need to find out that one piece of the puzzle is upside down or backwards, the key to understanding the whole deadly picture... Note: Kafka and others have explored another flavor of riddle, the open-ended ones which are impossible to solve. These are sometimes called "symbolic" riddles, which challenge the reader to think about a situation or event outside the ordinary. Be aware that these are not usually considered mass market pieces. Checklist! 1. Is the core of your riddle cleverly hidden in plain sight? 2. Is there a tension in your riddle between what seems to be happening and what is really happening? 3. Does your riddle challenge the reader to solve it before the protagonist does? 4. Is the answer to the riddle always in plain view without being obvious? 5. Does your first dramatic phase lay out the generalities of the riddle (persons, places, events)? 6. Does the second dramatic phase lay out the specifics of the riddle (the details of how persons, places and events relate to each other)? 7. Does the third dramatic phase provide the riddle's solution, explaining the motive(s) of the antagonist(s) and the real sequence of events? 8. Have you decided on an audience? 9. Does your riddle clearly choose between an open-ended and a close-ended structure? (open-ended riddles have no clear answer; close-ended ones do.) I think I shall cheat! Pick a number from one to six, if you would? [no, don't sneak ahead without picking a number...I saw that. Pick your number, then read on. That's better....:] 1. A human diplomat is found murdered in an alien embassy. Seventeen aliens are present. Each claims to be the sole murderer, and because of their psychological makeup, each passes a lie detector test. - Are any of them telling the truth? - Why was the human killed? - How do you question aliens who are congenital liars? 2. An alien whose planet is at war with Earth turns up in one of our embassies, claiming sanctuary. The embassy is staffed with only twelve humans, all loyal to earth. Before the alien can be debriefed, it is found murdered in its quarters. The embassy's state-of-the-art security system has been circumvented, and what should have been a clear holograph of the killing is nothing but a three-dimensional black blur. - Who killed the alien? - How was the murder accomplished? - Why was it killed? 3. A wealthy alien falls ill on Earth, and is taken to a hospital. The orderly in charge of it gives it a human-normal oxygen tent, and it dies, as it cannot handle such a dose of oxygen. The orderly claims that the alien requested more oxygen, and that he was merely catering to its wishes. Further investigation shows that distant members of the orderly's family will gain control of many of the alien's holdings upon its death. Was it incompetence, negligence, or murder? 4. An alien, visiting Earth, takes out an ad offering a huge sum of money to the man who can solve its murder--and, sure enough, it is killed within hours of the ad appearing. - How did it know it would be murdered? - Given its foreknowledge, why could it not avoid its killer? - Who killed it, how, and why? 5. An alien, here to study our native animal life, is killed by same. To people who know animals, the attack may even have been justified. A detective from the alien's race now arrives on Earth, determined to prove that this attack by unthinking animals was murder. The men in charge of the animals--game rangers, lab scientists, whatever--must prove to an alien who cannot even differentiate between a simian and a human that their animals are innocent. Handle it straight or funny, as you wish. 6. Mood piece. A private eye is hired by a wealthy family to find their daughter, whose arranged wedding to a man of comparable wealth and position is pending. Far from being kidnapped, she is living with an alien male. A sexual relationship is hinted at but never explicitly stated. She explains that she is happy here, and that she is of age to make her own decisions. The private eye must weigh this against the fact that he took a fee to deliver her...and must make a decision. (my note: feel free to rearrange the sexes in this last one as you please...) [Scenarios taken from Whatdunits, edited by Mike Resnick, Copyright 1992 by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenburg, DAW books] How did I cheat? These are six of the mystery "seeds" used in this anthology (and More Whatdunits, the second in the series) written by Mike Resnick. He handed out these little fragments to authors, and they wrote... So I know that these can be the seeds for successful mystery stories! All you have to do is add the details, the scenes, the little things. Come on, you know you want to... [Quick start? The first body was behind the door when we opened it. This sentence is available for starting your story with, if it strikes your fancy. Avoid being stuck with a blank screen--start with this sentence, and go on to the end!] Go ahead and make my day-- WRITE! tink