Established authors know rules for clues, but some novels annoy readers because of authors’ mismanagement of clues. Is it intentional? Hardly. What author would screw up their manuscript on purpose? However, authors do mismanage clues often, but it can be helped.

Defining CluesEtc

A good *play-fair mystery* involves dropping clues into the story in an obfuscated manner, but where the reader could work out the mystery if s/he chose. Clues are flexible; they can be dropped like breadcrumbs throughout the story, hidden before or after a dramatic event, buried in chatter, and hidden in plain sight.

A clue is a fact. A clue doesn’t change (doesn’t develop) but the reader’s perception of the fact (and its importance) does. This is the essence of a CluesEtc datum.

If a character’s development is essential, a statement about that character belongs in CluesEtc.

CluesEtc Types

Red herrings and misdirections are amongst the Etc in CluesEtc. I’ve also added lies, alibis, traces of evidence, mistakes made, and witnesses to my collection of CluesEtc types.

CluesEtc answer a question essential to the plot

What separates a CluesEtc statement from a listing of the entire plot? The CluesEtc fact answers a question which is essential to the story. Journalists and others are trained to ask the Five W One H questions: who, what, why, when, where, how. See the Wikipedia article about the 5 Ws.

Some examples, as follows:

• Who might have killed Z?
• Why might Z have been killed?
• What might have killed Z?
• When might Z have been killed?
• Where might Z have been killed?
• How might Z have been killed?
• Why might this person shield the murderer?

In our software prototype, we’ve called this field WhatQuestion meaning “What question does this clue answer?”. There’s no limit on the number of WhatQuestions you can add, but if you ask a new question for every clue, there is no value to grouping the clues into WhatQuestion answers. Later you can inspect your clues sorted by WhatQuestion answers which will faciliate your strengthening them.

CluesEtc status

Since a clue can’t change, only its status can. Hence CluesEtcStatus could include:

• Clue appears. (includes noticed, unnoticed, reappears, reinforced, suspected, confirmed, forgotten and remembered)
• Clue is considered by detectives and surmises made.
• Clue is understood. This could be either understanding or misunderstanding.
• Clue is resolved. (By the end of the story, it had better be. 8-) )

Tracking down CluesEtc

Part A

Here’s the task list:

1. Go through your manuscript and identify single statements of fact which are important to the story.

I found this part of the exercise quite thought provoking. The first time I did this it took about 20 hours for an 80K word manuscript to go through the story and document the important facts which occur. Some of that time was used rewriting the sentence so the single fact was true beginning to end.

An author knows that this paragraph and this and this are all about the same thing, but it’s often tough to reduce the clue to one single sentence. But it’s mandatory, because of what one learns in the process. Here’s a sample of the kind of statements I ended up with:

• J is a violent, disturbed person
• J has been seen in the park with a bag of white powder
• Fraud is easy to find when you’re looking for it
• The son speculates with stocks without his father’s brilliance
• H is very concerned with appearances
• M has many hidey-holes in her house
• M married a much younger man

Part B

The second part of this exercise is the drudgery part, and the reason why professional computer software ought to be available for fiction writers. Until there's software available, in the meantime, I’ve created some templates to assist you with this task, if you’re interested. See tracking CluesEtc with a spreadsheet and tracking CluesEtc with a word processor.

Here’s the task list:

1. Connect the CluesEtc Statement to every part of your story where it appears. It would be best if you could connect to the exact paragraph where the CluesEtc Statement appears, but that might be tough. See identify location for suggestions for how to commect to a particular place in a manuscript. [To keep this in perspective, in my software prototype, I can identify a particular block of text where the CluesEtc appears. No matter how much text I add or delete, the link stays attached to the same place].
2. Keep revising the CluesEtc Statement until a single sentence works throughout the entire story. You may find that you combine or divide some CluesEtc Statements.
3. Choose to what CluesEtcType the CluesEtc Statement belongs. I.e. clue, red herring, misdirection, lies, alibis, traces of evidence, mistakes made, and witnesses.
4. Choose to WhatQuestion the statement belongs. I.e. who, what, why, when, where, how).
5. Where the CluesEtc Statement is reflected in the story, choose to which CluesEtcStatus the text belongs. I.e Clue appears, Clue is considered & surmises made, Clue is understood or misunderstood, or Clue is resolved.

In actuality, you will do Parts A & B simultaneously.

What I discovered about CluesEtc

When you are done, or even during the process, you will be able to look at your manuscript from an entirely different viewpoint. Here’s what I found when I inspected the data:

• clues with inadequate buildup
• clues the detective never discovered
• inconsistent clues
• superfluous clues
• clues that were never resolved (don’t you hate that!)
• major characters who were too colourless
• minor characters who were too colourful
• inconsistent and/or superfluous character traits

Please come to the CluesEtc forum forum on this site the discussion about CluesEtc.