The second step in putting together a successful murder mystery party is to develop overviews of the individuals who are the suspects in the investigation.
At this point, you don't need to have detailed suspect descriptions.
They will come later.
Now, you'll only record basic information about who would want to murder your victim and the possible motives for the homicide.
Don't worry about matching your description to the cartoon character that signifies each one.
The cartoons are simply identifiers that will lead you through the system.
Complete the following information about each suspect on the next three pages: Name - Think of a name for the suspect.
If you prefer, you could do this after you complete the rest of the information.
You might even want to come back and do it when the data about all of the suspects has been finalized.
Depending upon your mystery, you can use either realistic-sounding names or tongue-in-cheek, whimsical names.
For example, in my mystery, "Murder on the Petulant Express," the mystery writer on board the train is named "Christine Agatha" and the baseball player is "Kid Root.
" You get the idea.
Age - Age is significant because it helps categorize who this suspect could be.
For instance, if you have a hidden-twin relationship built into your plot, the fact that the victim and the suspect are the same age would be important.
Relationship - Who is this suspect? This could be a family relationship (spouse, offspring, sibling, aunt/uncle, etc.
), a business contact (partner, assistant, employee, vendor, delivery person, etc.
), a personal acquaintance (friend, club member, golfing buddy, etc.
) or someone who had casual yet significant contact with the victim (newsstand owner, shopkeeper, mechanic, cab driver, etc.
).
It could even be a hidden relationship that eventually comes to the forefront while investigating the homicide (long-lost relative, spouse of a former associate, someone who was affected by a past misdeed of the victim, etc.
).
You'll flesh out the exact details about each suspect later.
Contact with the Victim - This refers to when and how the suspect had contact with the victim.
If, for example, the suspect is the victim's spouse, it could be "live in the same house.
" Other examples would be "buys newspaper from him every day," "gets car repaired at his garage on a regular basis," or "sees her at the office.
" It may be that the suspect had NO contact with the victim.
This would be the case with a hitman or the relative of someone who holds a grudge.
Motive - An essential element of any murder mystery is, of course, motive.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Every suspect must have a motive.
After all, without a motive, this person wouldn't be a suspect.
Don't try to figure out the BEST motive.
Motive is a personal thing.
What seems like a good motive to you might be a bad motive to someone else.
Determine why the suspect would want to do away with the victim from his or her personal standpoint.
At this point, you don't need to have detailed suspect descriptions.
They will come later.
Now, you'll only record basic information about who would want to murder your victim and the possible motives for the homicide.
Don't worry about matching your description to the cartoon character that signifies each one.
The cartoons are simply identifiers that will lead you through the system.
Complete the following information about each suspect on the next three pages: Name - Think of a name for the suspect.
If you prefer, you could do this after you complete the rest of the information.
You might even want to come back and do it when the data about all of the suspects has been finalized.
Depending upon your mystery, you can use either realistic-sounding names or tongue-in-cheek, whimsical names.
For example, in my mystery, "Murder on the Petulant Express," the mystery writer on board the train is named "Christine Agatha" and the baseball player is "Kid Root.
" You get the idea.
Age - Age is significant because it helps categorize who this suspect could be.
For instance, if you have a hidden-twin relationship built into your plot, the fact that the victim and the suspect are the same age would be important.
Relationship - Who is this suspect? This could be a family relationship (spouse, offspring, sibling, aunt/uncle, etc.
), a business contact (partner, assistant, employee, vendor, delivery person, etc.
), a personal acquaintance (friend, club member, golfing buddy, etc.
) or someone who had casual yet significant contact with the victim (newsstand owner, shopkeeper, mechanic, cab driver, etc.
).
It could even be a hidden relationship that eventually comes to the forefront while investigating the homicide (long-lost relative, spouse of a former associate, someone who was affected by a past misdeed of the victim, etc.
).
You'll flesh out the exact details about each suspect later.
Contact with the Victim - This refers to when and how the suspect had contact with the victim.
If, for example, the suspect is the victim's spouse, it could be "live in the same house.
" Other examples would be "buys newspaper from him every day," "gets car repaired at his garage on a regular basis," or "sees her at the office.
" It may be that the suspect had NO contact with the victim.
This would be the case with a hitman or the relative of someone who holds a grudge.
Motive - An essential element of any murder mystery is, of course, motive.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Every suspect must have a motive.
After all, without a motive, this person wouldn't be a suspect.
Don't try to figure out the BEST motive.
Motive is a personal thing.
What seems like a good motive to you might be a bad motive to someone else.
Determine why the suspect would want to do away with the victim from his or her personal standpoint.
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