Thursday, September 16, 2010

Writing Exercise: Can you Plot a Murder Mystery?

Directions: Outline three different scenarios and include the following: the murderer, the victim, the motive, how the murder happened, who will conduct the investigation, and the investigator's motives in taking the case.

Scenario #1
Murderer: a lover with a grudge
Victim: a homeless man on the street
Motive: Homeless man saw something he wasn't supposed to see: the lover beating her man with a baseball bat
How the murder happened: The woman saw the homeless mans taring into the window of the ground-floor apartment. She came after him with the same bat she used to kill her lover.
The investigator?: A hard-boiled private investigator
His motives: He recently caught his wife cheating on him with another man. This case brings up painful memories for him.

Scenario #2:
Murderer: a cop gone bad
Victim: Another cop in the same precinct
Motive: To hide his connections to the mob. His pal was about to snitch on him.
How the murder happened: During a drug bust, the victim was "accidentally" killed by "friendly fire". In reality, the murderer killed the good cop and made it look like an accidental shooting.
The investigator: someone from Homicide
His motives: He had lost several partners  in the past, so many that no one wants to be his partner. At first he believes the murderer's story (the Homicide guy identifies with the "grief") but as inconsistencies crop up, he gets suspicious.

Scenario #3
Murderer: a female ninja
Victim: a ruthless American businessman
Motive: to secure a company takeover
How the murder happened: a quick and easy assassination within the businessman's electronic fortress
The investigator: a cop of Japanese-American background
Motive: He knows people in the ninja organization: his family and theirs are rivals. He turned is back on evil, but the temptation is always there.

All original writing and art copyright A. Dameron 2000-2010

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