So this morning while brushing my teeth, I started thinking about what keeps me reading a book. I came up with three things, and then just now thought of a fourth
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Indeed! I was thinking, "Gee, Trainwreck combines well with all the other options." And then I realized, no, it is rather opposite to Mystery.
Sometimes authors try to play it both ways, with a mysterious figure who isn't really identified, but is the Bad Guy. There will be a a few scenes from very close 1st-person POV of a mysterious figure who is watching the Protag and thinking MUAH HA HA HA or maybe Damn you, foreign stranger who will screw up all my plans, but never actually telling us anything.
I've never seen that really work to my satisfaction.
More successful is a book that starts out with a Mystery and then as the Protag figures out what's going on, we may get some of the bad guy's POV to create the anticipation of a Trainwreck for the climax.
Which now makes me realize that under my definition, solving the Mystery cannot be the end of the book. Once the protag figures out what's going on, s/he then has to figure out how to stop it. Depending on how the author is using the mystery, the "Oh, I get it!" moment might be the climax setting up the final showdown; or it might just be the end of the first act.
Sometimes authors try to play it both ways, with a mysterious figure who isn't really identified, but is the Bad Guy. There will be a a few scenes from very close 1st-person POV of a mysterious figure who is watching the Protag and thinking MUAH HA HA HA or maybe Damn you, foreign stranger who will screw up all my plans, but never actually telling us anything.
I've never seen that really work to my satisfaction.
More successful is a book that starts out with a Mystery and then as the Protag figures out what's going on, we may get some of the bad guy's POV to create the anticipation of a Trainwreck for the climax.
Which now makes me realize that under my definition, solving the Mystery cannot be the end of the book. Once the protag figures out what's going on, s/he then has to figure out how to stop it. Depending on how the author is using the mystery, the "Oh, I get it!" moment might be the climax setting up the final showdown; or it might just be the end of the first act.
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