The Mystery genre is a difficult one to write. It must be interesting, exciting, fast paced. For that reason, most mysteries involve the solving of some sort of crime, which is life- negative.
I was asked by a colleague to write a mystery for her reading group. She was specific about what she wanted:
1. Fewer than 100 pages, 3rd-4th grade reading level.
2. Should NOT focus on any crime, especially violent activity, but be exciting for the reader
3. Should contain peer and generational cooperation.
That was quite a tall order!
I finally decided to write about legendary piracy of the distant past. The focus of the story became a positive search for a treasure which was rumored to have been buried by a pirate 200 years earlier.
Though the pirate was involved in thievery and was a terrorizing threat to the ships in an area off the coast, these activities were quite long ago, and therefore reality-remote.The pirate's activities were not described in any detail.
The story is reality fiction. More and more, stories of this type have been written with an inclusion of generational conflict as a component in the plot. I needed to avoid this type of conflict, and still keep the reader interested. In order to do that, the fast -paced focus had to be on logical analysis of the clues in order to solve the mystery . At the beginning, the adults were supportive of the children's attempt to solve the mystery. By the end of the story, they had become active participants in a joint effort with the children in solving the mystery and finding the treasure. In finding the solution to the mystery, the adults and children were on an equal level--an affirmation of the children as intelligent, capable human beings.
The story was tested on the audience- 2nd -5th graders.The reaction was very positive.
Though most of my work involves the creation of picture book stories on the early childhood level, I thoroughly enjoyed writing for older children.
