READER’S FORUM

May 30, 2024 at 01:45 am Reply

Jack W

Hi there!

I'm a fan of your books and I've always been curious how you plan a mystery. I would assume that you figure out the solution to the mystery first and then come up with clues leading to it, but in a lot of your books, like Notorious, what the characters figure out ends up not being the solution at all, with a different answer that wasn't on the initial list of suspects. I'm just curious about what parts of the mystery get planned first and how the planning process looks.

Thanks,

Jack W.
May 30, 2024 at 03:36 am Reply

object(stdClass)#893 (23) { ["ID"]=> string(5) "25286" ["post_author"]=> string(1) "3" ["post_date"]=> string(19) "2024-05-30 03:36:56" ["post_date_gmt"]=> string(19) "2024-05-30 03:36:56" ["post_content"]=> string(764) "
Hi, Jack,

Thanks for posting.

Mystery isn't exactly my specialty, but I plan it theway I plan every story -- from beginning to end, so I know exactly what I'm writing toward. So even if you find the culprit wasn't on your list of suspects, you can be sure he/she was on mine, right from the get-go. I like surprises, but I don't want to be the one who is surprised.

The planning process itself is a detailed outline of the book, sometimes as long as 6 or 7 single-spaced pages. Sometimes I deviate from it, but not in any big way. It's the template.

OK? Thanks again, Jack. -----Gordon Korman-----
" ["post_title"]=> string(5) "reply" ["post_excerpt"]=> string(0) "" ["post_status"]=> string(7) "publish" ["comment_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["ping_status"]=> string(6) "closed" ["post_password"]=> string(0) "" ["post_name"]=> string(10) "reply-8529" ["to_ping"]=> string(0) "" ["pinged"]=> string(0) "" ["post_modified"]=> string(19) "2024-05-30 03:36:56" ["post_modified_gmt"]=> string(19) "2024-05-30 03:36:56" ["post_content_filtered"]=> string(0) "" ["post_parent"]=> string(5) "25285" ["guid"]=> string(49) "https://gordonkorman.com/uncategorized/reply-8529" ["menu_order"]=> string(1) "0" ["post_type"]=> string(5) "reply" ["post_mime_type"]=> string(0) "" ["comment_count"]=> string(1) "0" }

Hi, Jack,

Thanks for posting.

Mystery isn't exactly my specialty, but I plan it theway I plan every story -- from beginning to end, so I know exactly what I'm writing toward. So even if you find the culprit wasn't on your list of suspects, you can be sure he/she was on mine, right from the get-go. I like surprises, but I don't want to be the one who is surprised.

The planning process itself is a detailed outline of the book, sometimes as long as 6 or 7 single-spaced pages. Sometimes I deviate from it, but not in any big way. It's the template.

OK? Thanks again, Jack. -----Gordon Korman-----