Highlights for Children has their annual fiction contest every January. The 2015 theme is mystery writing. Here are the specifications. The submission deadline is January 31, 2015, so time is limited.
We had a discussion among the Groggers about what makes a good mystery story for children. In 2012, I submitted a mystery short story to Children’s Writer Newsletter and it won 2nd place! While I’d always loved reading mysteries as a kid, I’d never written one until this contest. It’s time to dust off the mystery writing skills again and try for a new story for 2015.
Resources
There are many articles out there about mystery writing. Here are some with great tips on what makes a good mystery.
This is a great article and perfect for this assignment.
Kristi even has an e-book on writing mysteries, if you have the time before the end of January to read it or you want to study the genre further.
Writing Mysteries with Joan Lowery Nixon at Scholastic—While this website is put together for young writers, it’s full of great information about the basics of mystery writing. Pay particular attention to her “Writing Tips” on page 2.
Mysteries in the Classroom at Carol Hurst’s website—These are not short story examples, but there are several other children’s book mysteries that will help you study the genre of mystery.
There are also a bunch of mystery genre examples and games at this site aimed at kids.
Fiction Teachers: Mysteries
Another one aimed at kids, but it covers the basics of mystery writing.
Fiction Teachers: Mysteries
Another one aimed at kids, but it covers the basics of mystery writing.
Get to Work
Mysteries have so many components and with a word count of 750 words or less, the components have to be written tightly (and depending on the type of mystery you are writing, all of these elements may not be present).
I have created a mystery story planning sheet. This should get your brainstorming (click here to download the printable).
Timeline
It’s already January 5, and the deadline is January 31. You will want to leave at least a week at the end of the month for revisions and if you can get a quick second set of eyes on it, that would be good too.
Map out your time to allow yourself time to brainstorm, draft, and let it rest, reread, and revise. I recommend actually mapping it out on a calendar for the month of January. Many times we miss deadlines because we fail to plan.
Best of Luck
Send out your very best work! Good luck on your submission.
