This series gives you no plot. It asks questions, the way a novelist who teaches writing might sit with you and draw the story out. You choose the place, the victim, the killer and the reason. Answer the questions that spark something and ignore the rest. Write one prompt a day, 200 to 400 words. Days 1 to 6 in any order. Day 7, the Reveal, comes last.
You don't need any of this before day 1. Let the days fill it in.
Day 1
Somebody has found a body. Before you decide who it is, decide who finds it, because their eyes are the reader's first way in. Where are they, and what were they doing a minute before? What do they notice that a stranger wouldn't?
Tip: One exact detail, like a shoe or a cold cup of tea, does more than a paragraph of horror.
Day 2
Who in your story can't leave this alone? They don't have to be a detective. Think about what they're good at in ordinary life, and how that might help. Now give them one flaw that could lead them astray.
Tip: Show us the character doing something, not a list of traits. A habit tells us more than a description.
Day 3
Bring your suspects into one room. How many are there, and why are they all here? Each of them is hiding something, though not always the murder. What is each one afraid we'll find out? Let one line of speech give each of them away a little.
Tip: People rarely say what they mean. Let them talk around the thing that matters.
Day 4
Every mystery has one detail that the ending will explain. What is yours? It could be an object, a word, a mark, or something missing. Write the scene where it first appears, and hide it in plain sight.
Tip: Put the real clue in a list with two ordinary things, and the reader will skim past it.
Day 5
Someone lies to your sleuth. Who, and what are they really protecting? Write their account in their own voice. Make it convincing, and let one small detail be wrong in a way a careful reader could spot.
Tip: The best lies are mostly true.
Day 6
Something happens that changes what your sleuth believes. It might be a second death, a confession, or a discovery. What did they get wrong, and what do they suddenly see? Write the moment it lands.
Tip: Let the turn make sense of something already on the page.
Day 7
Save for last
Read back over your six scenes. Who did it, and why? You may find the answer is already hiding in what you wrote. Write the scene where your sleuth explains it. Where are they, who is listening, and how does the guilty person react?
Tip: A good reveal feels surprising and then obvious. Point back to the clue from day 4.
Each day asks about one part of a mystery, not about a set plot, so no day needs another day's answer. Whatever you write first teaches you something about your story, and the next day builds on it. The Reveal waits until the end because by then you've planted clues without knowing it, and your ending gets to make sense of them.
Lay out your seven scenes in story order. Read them aloud once. Between each pair, write one or two lines that carry us from one scene to the next. Cut anything the Reveal proves wrong, and sharpen anything that now looks like a clue. Give your story a title, and you've written a murder mystery.
If a blank page is daunting, borrow this starting point and change anything you like: a small guest house on a Scottish island, cut off by a winter storm, and a hall clock that stopped in the night. The rest is yours.
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