Mystery story generator
A question planted on the first page and paid off fairly on the last.
- Free, no account
- Editable afterwards
- 20 languages
Write a story
Everything is optional. The defaults already work.
Leave it blank and the generator picks something itself.
A question planted on the first page and paid off fairly on the last.
Your story appears here as it is written. Set the options on the left and press Generate.
A mystery is a contract. You promise a question and you promise to answer it with information the reader already had. Break the second half and the story is a cheat, however clever the solution sounds.
So the generator is told to plant every clue it needs before the answer, and never to resolve the story with a confession that arrives from nowhere. The aim is a solution that is surprising when you read it and obvious when you look back.
What this generator is aiming for
Ask something concrete
"Who has been paying a dead woman's phone bill" is a better engine than "something strange is going on". Specific questions demand specific answers.
Clues in plain sight
The good ones are mentioned while the reader is looking at something else. Hidden clues are not clever, they are just withheld.
The answer costs something
Solving it should cost the character a relationship, a certainty or a job. A mystery where the answer changes nothing is a puzzle, not a story.
Mystery questions
What is the difference between mystery and thriller here?
Mystery is about a question already answered by events you have not seen. Thriller is about a deadline running out in front of you. Both are in the genre list and they produce very different stories.
Can it write a cosy mystery?
Choose Optimistic or Humorous as the tone and give it a small setting: a village fete, a book club, a boat yard. That combination produces the cosy register reliably.
Can I get a whodunnit with several suspects?
Use Medium or Long. Short does not have room to establish enough people for the answer to be a genuine surprise.
Other genres
Same generator, set up for a different kind of story.
Fantasy
Magic with rules, a world that behaves consistently, and people who live in it normally.
Adventure
A journey with something real at stake and a route that keeps closing behind you.
Romance
Two people, a reason they cannot simply say it, and the moment they do.
Horror
Dread built from ordinary things behaving slightly wrong.
Science fiction
One change to how the world works, followed honestly to where it leads.
Children's story
Simple words, a warm problem, and a child who solves it themselves.
Bedtime story
Calm, kind and slow, written to be read aloud and to end with someone asleep.
Thriller
A clock running down and a character who cannot afford to stop moving.
Comedy
A straight face, an escalating problem, and no jokes announced in advance.
Drama
Ordinary people, an unresolved thing between them, and the day it surfaces.
Fairy tale
The old shape, told plainly: three tries, a bargain, and a cost.
Historical fiction
A real period rendered through what people ate, owed and worried about.
Flash fiction
Under 500 words, one moment, and a turn you feel a beat after reading it.
Inspirational
Persistence shown through effort, not through a speech at the end.