how-to-plot ,
Five Ways to Kid Your Readers
By Graham Bartlett
Graham Bartlett talks about the art of tricking your reader… and no, you don’t have to write crime or thriller novels to find it useful. Drawing on his thirty years as a detective and his experience as a crime writer, he shares five practical techniques to up your storytelling game.
Back in the day, I was a detective. For nearly thirty years my job was to investigate crime and catch criminals. I was OK at it, not the best but then again not the worst. After all, they kept me doing it, even promoting me a few times, so I must have had something about me.
Now I am a crime writer which means I’m also an avid reader, I go to events, I mentor and teach other crime writers; I’m fully immersed. However, once I reveal my previous profession people bestow me with mystical powers. The number of conversations I have which go along the lines of, ‘Well if you didn’t guess the killer I must have hidden them well,’ (possibly, but I never work it out); ‘Can you be on my murder mystery team as we’ll be a shoe in then?’ (I was once on one with a former home secretary, everyone put their faith in us and we were appalling) and ‘You must have plots and twists coming out of your ears,’ (nope. I have to work as hard as everyone.)
How so, you might ask? Well, it’s a completely different task. When I was catching criminals, I relied on witnesses, forensics, technical evidence and even the odd admission (yes, there were one or two.) The job was knowing where that evidence might lie, finding it then packaging it for interview, charge and eventually court.
Finding a killer in crime fiction is far more subjective, so writing it should involve more trickery. Unless you want it all out on a plate you are unlikely to craft a fictional murder with five eye witnesses, four sources of the suspect’s DNA together with damning CCTV, phone location data and the suspect’s vehicle triggering Automatic Number Plate Recognition to and from the scene. Instead you need to seed subtle, seemingly meaningless clues throughout. You should shine a light on pointers which beef up your red herrings while having the real suspect hidden in plain sight.
S.S. Van Dine’s rules of detective fiction may not survive in the modern age but they do make the point that, as authors, we must play fair with the reader. There is nothing I like more than being surprised by a reveal or plot twist, then to go back and slap my own brow for missing all the breadcrumbs laid out for me which, even being a former detective, I had completely overlooked.
When I’m writing, I leave worrying about those clues until the second or third draft. I pepper the OMG moments only when I know for sure what’s going to happen and who’s to blame.
How do you do that then? As ever, read as a writer and see how the experts do it (yes, Agatha Christie, I’m looking at you) then try it for yourself. It takes practice and honest beta readers who will highlight any giveaways, but here are five techniques to trick your reader, but within the rules:
Bury your clue in mundane detail
Example: After the murder, your killer runs through a forest tripping over roots and snagging his clothing on branches. That is never mentioned again but a torn jacket gives them away in the final act. Then it dawns on the reader how it was ripped.
Show your clue from the wrong perspective
Example: The detective notices a suspect nervously rubbing their hands. She assumes guilt. Later it is revealed that they had a medical tremor so we discount them. But the real clue was that they never once asked who the victim was.
The “absence” clue.
Example: Classically, from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Silver Blaze, this is the famous “curious incident of the dog in the night-time,” where a dog’s silence reveals the culprit. The dog did not bark because the thief was someone it knew well, proving the theft was an inside job.
A seemingly innocuous act becomes significant
Example: The small woman is removed from the crashed car, then the scenes of crime officer moves the seat forward to examine underneath it, indicating that the seat would have been too far back from the pedals for her. Therefore she couldn’t have been driving but was placed in the car after the fact.
Want to read the rest of this article? Log in or join our free community – you’ll get the rest of our top tips, plus a truck-load of other resources. Whoever said you don’t get anything in this life for free?
Want to sharpen your writing skills?
Join our free community for instant access to:
If you’d like more invaluable insights from Graham you can join him on the next intake for Writing Crime and Thriller Novels. Fancy meeting him before you commit to taking the course? You can book a 20-minute Meet Your Tutor session for just £20, which is fully refundable against the cost of the course if you go on to study with us.
Save up to £200 when you enrol by 2 March
Use code CRIME100 at the checkout to save £100 on the Writing Crime & Thriller Novels course if you enrol by 2 March.
Premium Members save up to £200.
By Graham Bartlett
About the author
Graham was a UK police officer for thirty years, where he rose to become a senior detective and the city’s police commander. Since retiring, he has become a police procedural and crime advisor helping around two hundred authors and TV writers (including Peter James, Mark Billingham, Elly Griffiths and Dorothy Koomson) achieve authenticity alongside their drama. He is the best-selling crime writer, of Death Comes Knocking and Babes in the Wood. Graham is also a Jericho Writers mentor and tutor, running their Crime and Thriller courses.