Light Bulb Moments

Here's my first one for 2008, and its a biggie. I know what is going on in my story.

This is a biggie for me, because usually I freestyle wildly, and often end up wallowing in chaos as plot bunnies explode all about me (I am aware this metaphor is dangerously mixed). But this time I've a clear idea what is happening.

Up until now, I've been struggling to work out who is getting kille din my story, and why. My rough plan for the first 'act' - estimated to take me to 20K, didn't include a murder, which wasn't promising for a murder mystery. Try as I might, I couldn't work ina slaying that wasn't simply a gratuitous exercise in corpse provision.

And then, last night, the light bulb went on.

know who is getting killed. I know why. I know who. And - this is the important bit - it fits even explains why there is no killing in the first act. Or the second. Or te third, or even fourth acts.

Actually, there is, but it is a 'disguised' killing - even the reader won't know a murder place. Until the last few pages, the murder won't be discussed. Because the victim was a nondescript, unimportant person, their death is a non-event to everyone - even the reader. Only the PI is driven on to bring the killer to justice. But this won't be clear until the end. Until then, it will be a murder mystery without an apparent murder.

Do you mean that the PI is detecting in secret all along? Now I got interested in how you are going to have a death that the reader doesn´t think about.

In my story they don´t understand that the first death was a murder (poison) until the third day, even though the investigor suspects it earlier.

It is complicated. The murder happens before the action described in the book. So there isn't a body that is sitting in the corner of a room unnoticed. The PI won't be detecting in secret, it is just the full significance of what he's doing won't be obvious unless the reader is really acute - this assuming the novel is half way competently written, which is another matter.

Basically, he'll uncover the fact that the story about what supposedly happened to the victim is false, but neither the falseness, nor the full implications of the false story won't be apparent until he does the whole "I accuse Col. Mustard in the ballroom ..." routine.

That's the idea, anyway.

That does sound like an interesting way to tell a murder mystery story; I think that I'm going for a murder mystery this year too (last year I had a stab at noir), but I don't have the murder in mind yet, just the setting that I want it to take place in.

Hopefully the light bulb will come on for me soon!

I had my first light-bulb moment yesterday:

In my novel, the MC discovers a secret. I had everything else planned, but the problem was: What could the secret be?
It was complicated because of the way in which I want the timing of my novel to be, it's one of those ones where the time period isn't obvious, or is intentionally hidden (in this case, the latter)
So for instance, I couldn't have this secret be A computer virus, because that'd pigeonhole my novel in the mid 90's to the present day.
Which was annoying.

But it's ok now, because I worked out my secret and it's perfect
*Devillish laugh*

Here was me thinking I was being clever just concealing a murder. You go and conceal your whole novel's setting. Good on yah!

My wonderful lightbulb moment of the year was when after I'd spent days working on the murderer and his relationships with other people, but just couldn't decide who he'd murdered.

Then suddenly, I realised that I'd made him such a horrible character that I wanted him dead. So I killed him! Now he's the victim, and there're whole stacks of people around him with great reasons for wanting him dead. The whoel story turned around and finally got interesting, so there's a chance I might actually stick with it!

Hah.
Something like that.
I may seem clever now, but when I'm tearing my hair out wishing my charater had a search engine...
^^;

I like your idea, it's very cleverly done :D

My first big light bulb moment was about a month ago.
I had the beginning of my novel all planed out, but then it just died for lack of plot. Then i realized it was the perfect beginning for a novel i tried to write two years ago and gave up on. I'm now looking at an old story from a completely new direction and I love it!

a picture may be worth a thousand words, but no picture can tell a story.

My (first, and hopefully not last) lightbulb moment came when discussing my plot with the person I adopted it from. They told me an idea they had for a comical subplot involving a background character, and it made me go, "...WAIT A MINUTE, that could be my killer!" It was exciting because up until then, I hadn't decided on who the killer would be. And I knew that if I wrote it well, it would be a fantastic surprise ending.

Fopr the record, my lightbulb blew, as I decided the idea outlined above was too complext to survive the gruelathon of Nanowrimo ... So I'm reverting to something more traditional. Only, I don't know what yet. Still, 26 minutes to go until Nano kicks off here in New Zealand. SOmetihng will come up. It always does.

I needed a scene where Jojo (Josephine) my evil, drug-dealing MC tested a new designer drug on a kidnapped bystander, and kept injecting bigger and bigger doses until she killed the victim. In that moment the last of Jojo's humanity dies and she becomes just a money-making machine.

But why that particular victim? Why bother to kidnap someone from London and get them all the way out to China to do the experiment when there are plenty of Chinese easily available? The scene demands that the victim speak English, but the test doesn't need it.

Then light dawned. The victim had seen Jojo's face at an earlier turf war killing and had gone to the police, but since Jojo doesn't have a criminal record (she's too clever ever to have been caught) victim couldn't pick out a mugshot.

But she might recognise Jojo on the street, so she has to vanish, and if she vanishes on a holiday to Hong Kong she'd be very difficult to trace. And that way we get a free test subject.

I had a big light bulb moment late last night. I finally found the mastermind behind the brutal and cold-blooded murder of my victim.
This is a real breakthrough for me, because until now my main baddie has been a small-time criminal without the brains to pull off a job of this magnitude. Now, all of a sudden, it all makes sense.

The prospects for Nano are suddenly looking a lot better :)

My light bulb moment happened when I realized that the first killer wasn't the murderer my MC was pursuing. Turns out he wound up as another victim, setting her back and providing me with an (I hope) original motive.

my most current lightbulb moment came from a nano forum question, describe your murderer and I didn't know who he was or why he was killing then boom, I have his name and his motives

My detective was looking for homeless people in the town but I didn´t want her to find them yet. Then I had the idea to let her pick on a person lying on a bench that she thinks is a homeless alchoholic but who actually is a lawyer waiting for the bus. He gave her a harsh lecture. Maybe this scene can become quite funny for after editing.

Another little idea is about the next victim, who will be strangeled in the bed. I think that if the detective gives the victim sleeping pills before going to bed, the detective will be very ashamed of herself afterwards when she understands that she made the murder easier. That would be fun.