The Balance of Mystery

You're writing a mystery novel. Even if no corpses or cops show up in your novel, it's a mystery novel nonetheless.

Why do I say this?

Because every good novel is at its core, a mystery. The tension of an hidden affair, an alien ship hanging over the backyard swimming pool, or a set of rare and valuable records vanishing - they're all full of tension. And the main goal of tension is to keep readers guessing. When they keep guessing, they keep flipping the pages.

Your job as a writer is to keep the mystery alive by laying clues down, but not solving them until the climax of the story.

So remember, even if you're writing for children, a literary romance, or a sci-fi stumbler, you have to keep the mystery alive to keep readers engaged.