This is better than being clever

The Flight of The Condor: The Sunday Strips, week 77

Hey,

In this week’s strip, there is a skyscraper in flames. Or there is only a skyscraper, and a tormented hero who cannot discern reality from the stuff his mind makes up.

In a story, there is always the thing, and, if you like, what the thing means to you.

Unlike The Condor, you, the reader, can ask yourself whether what you see is all there is. You can ask whether the flame is just a flame, or just a hallucination, or one of those things, and something else, too.

To me, it looks like a sword in flames, rising from the heart of the city.

What does that mean?

Does it mean the city is defending itself from something? And why does The Condor want to go in? What does he expect to find inside?

Sometimes, in a story, a good symbol makes you ask a couple of good questions. Questions about the story that might also be questions about the world around you.

And, as someone once said, a good mystery is superior to a clever solution. Maybe it was Agatha Christie who said that, but I’m not sure.

In any case, a good mystery doesn’t necessarily belong only in a detective story. The question “what does this mean?” can work in any kind of story.

Now, how do you write a good mystery?

Now, that is a good question.

.

PS: Lots of strange mysteries collected on paper here.