The characters in your detective story

The characters in your detective story

Grade 7 English

The detective is important in detective fiction!

Often the character of the detective is at the centre of a detective story. This person needs to be interesting for some reason. Is the detective super cool and mysterious? Is the detective quirky and unusual? Is the detective silent but observant? Is the detective nosy and bossy (but always right)?

Poll

What would you most enjoy writing about? A detective who is...

• super intelligent but sort of quirky

• super smart but also very clumsy and strange

• super smart, but also mysterious and cool

• a detective with a history of crime (so this person knows how criminals think)!

• Something else (maybe an idea you have been planning)

How is your detective different from other detectives?

It should be something very simple, but come up with a way that your detective is different from others. Maybe s/he has an animal that joins in on the search, maybe s/he has odd methods... it is up to you! But remember to keep it fairly simple.

Keep it simple

Whatever you do, remember that you are writing a short story (not a novel), so you need to keep it simple! You can write about a detective that has one or two interesting aspects to them (other than being intelligent), but keep it to one or two only.

If you create a detective character who is too complex, you won't have time to focus on the plot development (what happens in the story).

There will be other characters too!

Another reason to keep it simple, is that you will need at least two or three suspects in your story, AND there will be a victim.

That is a lot to pack into one short story! For this reason, keep the characters fairly simple and ensure that they are really different from one another.

Poll

When you are including suspects in a detective story, which kinds of suspects are the most interesting?

• Suspects who have a very clear motivation

• Suspects who are just as intelligent as the detective

• Suspects who are super unexpected

• Suspects who are odd or quirky in some way

Ensure you only include suspects who relate to the crime in some way

As your story is a short story, there is not enough time for your detective to consider lots of different suspects. Choose only two or three interesting suspects to focus on.

Multiple Choice

When creating your detective (for your short story), s/he must be SMART but s/he can also have _?_ other interesting characteristics.

• one or two

• two or three

• three or four

• four or five

Remember...

your short story is SHORT, so you don't have time to develop your detective in lots of detail.

The BEST way to develop your character is to show readers what s/he is like as the action develops. We will practise this in class.

Multiple Choice

You need to have a balance between intrigue and simplicity. As your story is short, there is only enough time for you to focus one _?_ suspects?

• one

• two or three

• three or four

• four or five

Remember...

your short story is SHORT. Two or three suspects should be enough.

Three might make it a little more interesting for your reader (as they will have more people to consider).

Multiple Choice

When developing your characters, it is a good idea to make sure that they are ALL (the detective, the victim and ALL of the suspects) very...

• smart

• mysterious

• different from one another

• good-looking

Remember...

make sure that the characters are all very different from one another so that it is easy for your readers to tell them apart.

Well done!

You have finished this short lesson.