Plotting

I am thinking today about plotting as a most necessary component for the work in developing a mystery story. Is it a chess game to plot, where you look at a board and use defined plays which are estimated to be ten to the fiftieth power? Are there more possibilities for the author in plotting than in a chess game? I think maybe there are. It is not just the simplicity of a victim and a perpetrator from which we develop plots and write. There are the millions of creative writers who see a plethora of ideas and express them as no other writer would. So interesting plotting requires creativity. It does not mean writers cannot look to other writers' works to help with the spark of imagination. We all learn from each other. We do not copy. We get inspired. I have read over two thousand 'who dunnits' and other mysteries. But, in addition, I have read multiple works in psychiatry, sociology, criminal justice, personal stories of pain suffered from an attack, domestic abuse, elderly crimes, etc. My brain is alive with plots. However, which plot? What characters? And off I go.
K. B. Pellegrino, Author