WriteHive Panel: Breadcrumbs in Fiction: Building a Mystery
Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay
One of the panels I watched from the WriteHive online conference was Breadcrumbs in Fiction: Building a Mystery. Having written a mystery novella, and wanting to write more in that series, I was particularly interested in learning how to do it better!
The panelists talked about the differences between breadcrumbs, red herrings, and facts, and also the differences between foreshadowing and breadcrumbs. They noted that in all cases, readers can’t necessarily be counted on to catch the various things that are seeded through the story, but careful readers and return readers (reading the book a second or subsequent time) will spot the clues that you leave throughout the text.
They also talked about various ways to put breadcrumbs in your stories. The breadcrumbs don’t always necessarily need to be there in the first draft, because you can go back and insert them in subsequent drafts. But it is important to keep the breadcrumbs in mind and commit to them, because even though you know the story and the truth of the mystery, the readers will need those breadcrumbs to help them feel like they are also solving the mystery.
In addition to talking about how to use breadcrumbs effectively, the panelists also discussed some pieces of media that they thought did a good job with breadcrumbs, including The Good Place (TV show), the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir, Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood, and The Fall (TV show featuring Gillian Anderson). On the other side of the spectrum, they mentioned Lost (TV show) as having way too many breadcrumbs and getting muddled to the point of incoherence. So if you’re looking for good and bad ways to use breadcrumbs, these shows and books can be helpful.
The panel covered way more than I’ve mentioned here, so be sure to check it out! And you can also find many other panels from 2023 and earlier on the WriteHive YouTube channel.
Comments