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Question
WRITING A MYSTERY STORY
Mysteries can be divided into several categories. There are puzzling stories, detective I crime stories, and suspense stories. They all give the reader a chance to become involved in the solution of the story through clues and character descriptions.
Characters
Before you start to write, think about the characters you might put in your story.
• What will each character do?
• Why is he or she important to the story?
• In what ways are your characters alike?
• How are they different?
• What can your characters learn from each other?
• One last thing to remember: your characters don't always have to be human. If an animal plays a part in the story, that animal is a character, too
Setting
A story has to happen in a place.
• The setting might be a place you are familiar with.
• It might even be another planet!
• A setting doesn't even have to be a real place.
Details
• Use your Imagination.
• Details help readers understand how something looks, how it feels, how it sounds - even how something smells or tastes!
Plot
• Your characters have to DO something!
• What they do is the Plot of your story.
• To make the plot exciting add Situations.
Ending
• The Ending of a story is the solution to the conflict.
• Solve the problem, dilemma or conflict faced by the main character.
• Show that your main character has changed or grown in some way.
• Tie up all the loose ends. Readers shouldn't have to choose between several hinted endings.
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Solution
It was summer vacation and I was holidaying with my family at my village. My grandfather is a well built man in his sixties. He is a great example of bravery and courage because of his army background. It became our routine to sit on the rooftop and go to sleep listening to fantastic stories from the grandpa. One night we were in the midst of an interesting story. Suddenly my little sister poked me with her elbows as if she wanted to say something. When I turned to see her, to my great shock, she was sweating profusely. She was unable to speak a word but was trying to wave towards the vast darkness across the garden.
What we saw on the dark horizon was enough to send shivers down my spine. There were seven white silhouettes of men moving at good speed. It looked as if all of them were swimming in mid air. Their hands were still but their feet were making some pedalling motion. I gulped a lump down my throat and stammered to say to my grandpa what I just saw. Grandpa also saw in that direction and gave us a comforting assurance that he would go out and find what it was. By the time the grandpa could find his torch and lathi suddenly all the silhouettes crashed from mid air to the ground with splashing sound.
A cry for help rent the air from that direction. Many people ran in that direction to find out what was going on. To everyone’s relief we discovered there were seven men going somewhere on their cycles. Because of darkness their cycles were not visible. Since they were not carrying flashlights, they could not notice a canal ahead and fell down into that with a splash
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| since | for | |
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a short time |
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• Common points listed by student and his partner in Column A and C - to be put in 'Open Self
• The qualities pointed out by the other person (not the student himself) - to be put in 'Blind Self
• The qualities pointed out by the students (Column A) but unknown to other person - to be put in 'Hidden Self
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| Open Self | Blind Self |
| Hidden Self | Unknown Self |
Adjectives and Prepositions
Look at the table below. Decide which of the adjectives in Column A commonly go with which preposition. Tick the table as shown. (There may be more then one tick for each adjective).
| A | at | to | about | for |
| worried |  |
 |
||
| good | ||||
| bad | ||||
| surprised | ||||
| happy | ||||
| sensitive | ||||
| puzzled | ||||
| married | ||||
| clever | ||||
| suitable | ||||
| curious | ||||
| due | ||||
| qualified | ||||
| famous |
