The Jiu-Jitsu Witness
The teen prodigy of a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu dojo in a multicultural urban neighborhood witnesses a crime that threatens to expose a local politician's corrupt dealings with international cartels. With the community's safety in the balance, the prodigy must decide whether to reveal what they know and risk their family's deportation.
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.
- Let the most helpful witness be the one with the most to hide.
- Tell it from the point of view of a suspect who is lying about something else.
- Give the victim a secret the reader learns before the detective does.
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 Multicultural Mystery prompts
- Stolen Art in HarlemImagine a story that takes place in a vibrant neighborhood in Harlem, New York, during the Harlem Renaissance. A priceless piece of African art is…
- The Letter and the Stolen ArtifactThe daughter of a Japanese diplomat and a Mexican artist finds an old, cryptic letter in her late grandmother's belongings, pointing to an unsolved…
- The Missing Marrakech CarpetWrite a story set in a bustling outdoor market in Marrakech, where a famous antique carpet goes missing under mysterious circumstances. The…
- The Bayou Pirate ShipWrite about an ex-con turned amateur sleuth living in a small town in Louisiana, who uncovers a connection between a recent string of burglaries and a…
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