5 Ways to Create Red Herrings in a Mystery Novel (via Global Mysteries)

If you're an aspiring mystery writer, or an aspiring writer in general, you should make Nancy Curteman's Global Mysteries blog a regular stop on your social media rounds. She has great topics, posts more regularly than I do, and doesn't dither like me.

Here's her latest, another ball knocked out of the park.

Red herrings play two important roles in a mystery novel. They heighten suspense and add greater challenge to a mystery puzzle by misleading the reader and/or the sleuth. A red herring is a false clue that a mystery writer uses to send readers and sleuths off in directions that do not lead to the apprehension of the real villain. Here are five strategies for creating red herrings: 1. Choose an innocent character and give him a motive that makes h … Read More