The First Story I Ever Wrote
The first story I ever wrote and published was entitled, “Mystery at the Ball!! (Dun, Dun Dunnnn).”
By “published,” I printed onto 8x11 paper and stapled it into a red folder. The title (Dun Dun Dunnn included) was handwritten in an illegible scrawl on the front. My brother got it for his Christmas present, I think.
It wasn’t very good.
For one thing, the cast of characters, complete with a description of each one, included the killer’s identity. Talk about foreshadowing done poorly.
Secondly, an entire page was taken up by “———”. Why, you might ask?
Well, at some point during my writing, I wanted to replicate an action (it was running), and my mother said she had seen an author use a few of those dash marks to indicate the action’s continuation.
So, in my first attempt to hit a page count, I used an entire page of dashes to imply that the main character (was his name Tom?) ran a looooong way.
Move over, Victor Hugo. There’s a new word-count crime boss.
Now, there are a lot of other failures I could mention, like Tom, a wannabe detective, removing the knife with a towel, so as not to remove the fingerprints, or… well, that might be it, actually. It was a very short story.
Regardless, another nail in the coffin, though I didn’t recognize this until much later, was the lack of motivation for the murder. Tom, or whatever his name was, wanted to be a detective, so following the clues, it fit the character. A+ for Tom’s character motivations. But the murder of the “Top Detective” (yes, that was title I used) just… happened.
Thinking back, it must have been that the brother was under investigation and was about to be found out. Though why that would cause him to murder someone and thereby create a bigger mess for himself instead of just fleeing the country, I will never know. I doubt even childhood me would know.
Maybe he would, though. I was pretty precocious.
Learning From my Failures
You only learn from mistakes. Well, and from a teacher, I suppose. But without one of those, mistakes are a great way to learn.
I know a lot more about character motivations, though I still forget to use them. I still struggle with how to write an interesting passage about running. But if I get stuck, I can just go back to Drums Along the Mohawk by Walter Edmonds. Or I guess I could dive into the area that the character is running through and give you the entire history of the founding, along with every single person who’s ever stepped foot on it.
But without the opportunity to write and to fail, I wouldn’t have the tools in my kit that I do now.
One of the best pieces of advice I have received or will ever give is this: Just Write. First drafts are made to be messy. If they’re perfect, you might be doing it wrong. Or you might have too high an opinion of your ability.
And, on a similar note, you need to write badly before you can write good. You will write a ten bad stories until you finally write one good one. Don’t get discouraged if you’re looking at what you write and realize it’s nasty. That’s just one more bad story you’ve gotten out of your system.
Just Keep Writing and you’ll get there.
And as you go, make sure you pick up lessions from your failures. They’re there to teach you. And, if you’re like me, haunt your last moments before you fall asleep. But I’ve forgiven myself for Mystery at the Ball.
Mostly.
(Dun Dun Dunnnn!!!!)
For some book recommendations that do much better at the mystery thing (and
some options to buy them!), check out https://scribeofworlds.com/who-dun-it-my-childhood-mystery-favorites