NaNovel
Ship Pumpkin 2
Originally uploaded by nodigio
I guess my novel this year is a mystery novel. It's not a crime novel or a murder mystery, it's simply amystery. No one dies in it, no one gets seriously hurt, the mystery isn't a crime, and the "deed" that has everyone in a panic never happens. And I do mean everyone - all the employees and performers at this amusement park are frantic to escape it and afraid to leave because of a rumor, but it takes the two main characters most of the novel to discover there's no crime and to discover the truth of the rumor. The wrap-up is short and simply satisfying. It's not often that a novel comes to me full-blown, full of slap-stick humor, fake gore, panic, mis-direction, and lots of opportunities to use puns and obsolete words. I can play with veriloquy in this novel and get away with it.
Yes, I am taking my own dare to use an obsolete word dictionary and have one MC use words from that dictionary as if the words should be in common usage. The other MC will repeat the obsolete word and offer a modern word substitute. It will seem as if those obsolete words are clues to the mystery, and readers may assign more importance to the meaning of the words than there really is. It's a misdirection, of sorts, because there are words that are utterly meaningless as far as the mystery goes, and yet, perversely, the words will spell out the solution.
I'd give a better hint, but then I'd probably spoil the story.