The Dancer's Coded Playbills
A retired ballet dancer inherits a crumbling mansion from an unknown relative and finds a series of coded messages hidden in old playbills and music sheets. Decide what secrets these messages uncover and how she uses her network from her dancing days to solve the mystery.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Start with the confession, and make the story about why it's false.
- Make the detective wrong at the midpoint, for a good reason.
- End with the solution in a single line of dialogue.
Writing mystery books
Who did it? You get every clue and a fair shot at the answer.
A mystery opens with a puzzle, usually a death, and closes with the solution. In between, a detective (professional or not) gathers clues and suspects while the reader tries to get there first. A mystery looks backward, at a crime that has already happened.
What readers expect
- A crime or puzzle early on
- Clues, suspects and red herrings
- A detective the reader follows
- A solution that is surprising but fair
A tip before you start
Play fair. Every clue your detective uses should appear on the page first, ideally hidden in plain sight.
More Female Detective prompts
- The Marathon WarningDuring a high-profile marathon in a bustling city, an elite female detective finds herself caught in a race against time when a mysterious runner…
- Letters from the Hometown PastAfter receiving troubling, anonymous letters hinting at buried secrets in her hometown, a detective returns to uncover the truth. What starts as a…
- The Attic Cold CaseIn a quiet coastal town, a woman detective returns to her childhood home to care for her aging father. She soon stumbles upon old police files hidden…
- The Women's Museum HeistWhen priceless works of art start disappearing from a new women-only museum, an acclaimed detective renowned for her art theft recoveries is brought…
Fifteen minutes in? Keep going.
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