Mysteries

 I ran across Build Mysteries Around Whether characters will succeed or fail on Nathan Bransford's site. I decided to read out of rather selfish reasons - I wanted to see if he would back up something I picked from a particular Victorian novel. He did so, with examples of a proper mystery, and this overarching advice.

Motivation is everything in a novel, and this extends to mysteries too. If you can connect your mystery to the things your protagonist wants, the reader will be far more invested in the outcome and feel those stirrings of suspense.

What was the Victorian novel that put it in my head that literary fiction can also utilize a mystery? Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge. He published serially, so had to give his readers a reason to come back to his story. Something to think about when publishing serially. I am.

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