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John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
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Writing a mystery is like building a clock. While the reader only sees the hands moving steadily forward, the internal gears—the secrets, the motives, and the hidden history—must mesh perfectly for the story to "tell time" accurately.
When you are in the thick of a first draft, it is easy to get lost in the prose. However, the secret to a bulletproof mystery isn't just a clever detective; it’s a rigorous organization of time. To keep your manuscript from collapsing under the weight of its own secrets, you need to manage three distinct timelines.
This is the "Backstory" or "True History" of the event. It begins long before the first chapter and usually ends the moment the detective arrives on the scene.
What it tracks: Every move the killer made before, during, and immediately after the crime.
Why it matters: If the killer was at the hardware store buying rope at 4:00 PM, they cannot have been seen at the gala at 4:15 PM across town.
The Draft Benefit: By mapping this out, you ensure that the "truth" remains fixed. Even if your detective is confused, you never are. This prevents the dreaded "plot hole" where a culprit’s alibi is physically impossible.
This is the linear progression of the book, starting from page one. It follows your protagonist as they navigate the investigation.
What it tracks: When clues are discovered, when witnesses are interviewed, and the passage of days or hours within the narrative.
Why it matters: Mystery readers are notoriously observant. If your protagonist spends three days investigating but it’s still Monday in Chapter 10, the immersion breaks.
The Draft Benefit: Keeping a log of the Novel Timeline helps you control the pacing. If you notice five chapters have passed in a single afternoon, you might need to pick up the tempo or introduce a "timer" (like a ticking clock element) to raise the stakes.
A mystery novel isn't just a logic puzzle; it’s a story about people. This timeline tracks everything that isn’t the murder—romance, personal growth, professional conflict, or side-mysteries.
What it tracks: The evolution of relationships and personal stakes.
Why it matters: Subplots provide the emotional "breather" between intense interrogation scenes. However, they can’t just vanish. If a detective has a blow-up fight with their partner in Chapter 4, they shouldn't be acting perfectly happy in Chapter 5 without a resolution.
The Draft Benefit: Tracking subplots ensures they are woven into the main mystery rather than feeling like "filler." It helps you time the emotional beats so they hit right when the main plot needs a shift in energy.
The "X-Ray" Spreadsheet: Many authors use a simple table or spreadsheet. Column A is the Date/Time, Column B is the "Crime Fact," Column C is the "Novel Action," and Column D is the "Subplot Status."
Color Code Your Notes: Use red for the crime, blue for the investigation, and green for subplots.
Sync the Weather: It sounds small, but if it's raining in your crime timeline, it must be raining (or the ground must be wet) when your detective arrives in the novel timeline.
The Reveal Check: Use your timelines to see exactly when the reader "knows" something versus when the detective knows it.
Writing the first draft is about getting the story down and not much else. So this timeline tracking doesn't start until you have finished the first draft. The first draft is merely blurting out the story. You don't even have your writer's hat on yet. You are only the story engineer and location scout at this point.
But once the story now exists, it's time to begin to track the three significant timelines!
Happy sleuthing!
The biggest hurdle for new writers isn't a lack of ideas; it’s the pressure to be an "Author" too soon. If you sit down at a blank page expecting to produce polished, rhythmic prose on your first try, you’ll likely stall before Chapter Two.
The secret to finishing a novel is realizing that "Author" is actually the very last hat you’ll wear. To get to the finish line, you need to cycle through a whole wardrobe of different roles first.
Before the first sentence is written, you are an Engineer. You aren't worried about the beauty of the bridge; you’re worried about whether it can hold weight. During brainstorming, your job is to stress-test your concept. Does the plot have enough tension? Is the protagonist’s motivation strong enough to power 300 pages? You are building the foundation.
Next, you become the Location Scout. Writers often forget that a setting is more than just a backdrop—it’s a silent character. You must decide where your scenes take place and how those environments "speak." A tense conversation feels different in a crowded elevator than it does in a vast, empty cathedral. Scout your locations and make sure they are working for your story.
If you are writing a mystery or a thriller, it’s time to put on your Investigator’s hat. You are working backward, looking at the "crime" and deconstructing it. You need to know exactly how the deed was done before you can hide the truth from your readers.
It's important to pick clues that wll point to no one or everyone in the beginning. It's important to know what will give rise to each suspect. This is all part of the spine of the story.
Often, this stage will look like a maze, with each suspect dead-ending at a different point, until only the True Culprit is revealed.
Once you have the skeleton, you become the Producer. This is where you organize the elements. Where will the clues drop? Who will they point to? As the Director, you decide the "camera angles" of each scene—whose perspective we follow and how the information is revealed to the audience.
This is the most critical phase. Now, you put on your Town Crier hat. Your only job is to blurt out the story as fast as you can.
Ignore the Grammar: The Town Crier doesn't care about commas.
Forget the Spelling: If you know what the word meant, move on.
Don't Look Back: If you realize you changed a character's name in Chapter 4, don't go back to Chapter 1 to fix it. Just keep going.
You are simply shouting the story onto the paper. It will be messy, it might be loud, and it will definitely be "rough," but it will be done.
It is only when the draft is finished—when the "The End" is typed and you finally sit back to review the context of the entire journey—that you finally put on your Author hat.
Now, you can worry about the cadence of the sentences, the perfect metaphors, and the correct verb tenses. You can’t "author" a vacuum. You can only author a story that actually exists.
The goal of a first draft isn't to be good; it's to be finished. Keep writing, stay in character, and don't let the Author in the room until the Town Crier has finished his job.
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
Click on the coloring page above to download a high resolution image from Google Drive.
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
There is a high resolution design that is backwards and ready to be ironed on right away. Click here to download safely from Google Drive.
<pstyle="text-align: center;">Christian/Catholic Friendly Private Investigations Series
A Vampire Saga with Mayhem & Satire
Ready to Learn How to Write Your Own Mystery Novels?
To do the puzzle online, click here. If the website asks for a password, type in " showthepuzzle" without quotes, all one word.
To download a printable puzzle from Google Drive, including the answers, click here.
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
PI Ryan Mallardi is crazy about the beautiful and statuesque Angelica. Colleen Kessler is married for nine months but something doesn't feel right.
Will PI Mallardi find out what is really going on in her life? Will this truth
change Colleen's life or both of their lives?  Some journeys are painful but well worth the effort.
There are two designs: One is okay for white or light-colored T-shirts or bags. The second design is outlined in white so it shows up well on black or dark-colored T-shirts.
Click below to download whichever one you want.
<pstyle="text-align: center;">Christian/Catholic Friendly Private Investigations Series
A Vampire Saga with Mayhem & Satire
Ready to Learn How to Write Your Own Mystery Novels?
Click above to go to the high resolution download
at Google Drive.
John Walsh is a successful funeral director with a loving family but he has a weakness for other women. The modern world thinks cheating is a victimless crime, but is it?
Click above to download a high resolution graphic file from Google Drive.
Great Bookmarks for your favorite mystery readers.
They can double as gift tags too!
