Creating clues for a mystery subplot
I am working on a story in which the characters must solve a mystery. It's a "team-building exercise" at school, in which they must work together. They are graded on how well they work together and whether they are able to solve the problem.
The exercise is a scavenger hunt where objects are hidden around the school. The teams must use their first clue to find an object which will serve as the second clue, etc. until they find the last clue and turn it in.
The problem is, I have no idea where to start. I can't think of good clues. How should I go about creating clues that will be fascinating and challenging?
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1 answer
Think of your objects first.
Sit down and brainstorm a bunch of things. Things which can be hidden reasonably well in a school. Things which might have thematic links to your characters, things which can advance the plot or character development, things which might be funny. You won't use all the things, but having a list will help.
Once you have your list, you should give your items meaning. Just jot down notes: the ballet slipper means X to Jane (and Y to Dave); the toolbox will be used later by Tanika to get to the notebook which is important to John; the violin belongs to Sebastian.
When you have a list of items and meaning, start creating links. It might help here if you print out your list and literally cut out each item/note so you can shift things around on the table. See if a pattern emerges, or a plot. You can even sketch out a rough map of your school so you can trace the movements of the characters and see if that jogs anything (like they need to find item 3 in order for item 6 to make sense when they backtrack to the band room).
After you have items, meaning, order, and a rough plot, then you should have enough content (and context) to start sketching out clues.
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