Ever watch or read a mystery and think to yourself “I could do that.”?  Well, let me tell you something:  It ain’t easy.  Especially since I’m not especially adept at figuring them out from an audience point of view.  K and I could be watching a mystery, and within a few minutes, she’ll say, “Got it.  Do you want to know who did it?”  And I’ll say no, because I’d like to try and do it myself, thank you very much.  Besides, I usually stop trying around halfway through, and most of the time she’s right anyway.

This short is eating up a lot of my focus and creativity this week.  The outline’s due Monday. I’ve got somewhat of a grasp on the basics.  Guy murdered, suspects all around, and each with a valid motive for wanting to bump him off.  I think that takes me to about the halfway mark.  I’ve been working on coming up with some nice plot twists and red herrings to keep the reader/viewer guessing, so that’s what I’ll be working on for at least the next day or two.

I keep going back and forth as to who the actual killer is.  It may work better to decide that, then work backwards to where I am now.  We’ll see how it works out.  I don’t know how professional mystery writers do it.  I guess it’s just hardwired into their brains.  More power to ’em!

I got an email from the director the other night that was labeled ‘character updates.’ Basically, it was a bunch of photos of scantily-clad women, each one labeled with who they represent in the story.  I’m beginning to have some suspicions about why he’s doing this. An ulterior motive, perhaps?  But that’s not for me to say.  I’m just the writer on this thing.