Welcome to Mystery's spring engagement project!

To help our fellow mystery writers, we're scouring this site for the best writing tips of this genre. This time, we'd like to hear from you. Winners will be recommended to our readers and their tips will have a permanent feature in our guidebook!

In 300 words, tell us your best writing tip that you think every mystery/thriller author should know. It could be about the plot, character development, or techniques specific to this genre (such as red herrings/macguffins). For more examples, have a look at our Guide to Writing a Killer Thriller.

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RULES

Your entry should be no more than 300 words (acceptable range is 350 words or under). Anything above 350 words will be disqualified.

Your tips should apply to the Mystery genre. Tips applicable to Mystery's subgenres (e.g. suspense / romantic mystery / thriller) are acceptable too.

Submit your entry in the comment section below. Comment with your ENTIRE ENTRY. Entries submitted as links will not be accepted.

Only one entry allowed per user.

The deadline is 31st May 2019, 11:59 PM UTC/GMT.

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PRIZES

Winners will receive a promotion on Mystery to ~190,000 followers. The winning entries will also be featured in our Guide to Writing a Killer Thriller as part of our guidebook for mystery/thriller writers.

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Good luck!