Setting Up The Climax & Eventual End of The Story

Question

I've been suffering a lot of problems with my writings recently.

I started off a great story, where a girl is accepted in a prestigious school in a far off city. The story I've written in my head is that she eventually fits in the school, but starts to suspect illicit activities happening there when she sees someone entering a Corridor that is restricted. She gets caught by her teacher, who, eager to test her limits, challenges her to bring the culprit to her and she would reward her.

Now the thing is that although I've decided on what clues she may find, I can't decide on what to do with them. How do I make her stumble upon them and make her eventually find out where the corridor leads, while taking the readers along with her?

Answer 1

You need to know what clues she will find. If she finds for example a paper, it's most likely to be in the trash or stolen from a student's bag. There is always the conversation in the bathroom while she is also in there but they don't know. A lot of teens use the web and smartphones today. A message can be wrongly sent to her, she might find a site or some sort of thing the students made. There are a lot of options to find clues. There are also the changing things, for example if you go to use the bathroom, you turn on the light in the corridor, you enter the bathroom, do what you do, get out, turn on the light and get back to your bed. Someone turned the lights off while you were in the bathroom. Clues can be placed in a lot of ways. It really depend on the type of clue. Further resources: http://www.absolutewrite.com/novels/red_herrings.htm http://www.writing-world.com/mystery/clues.shtml

Answer 2

You have got to try writing these clues/ideas down and then see which ones work. Of course you've got lots of ideas in your head but you won't be able to judge which ones really have legs until you put them on paper so they can run. Some of them might trip over and fall, others will spring to the line, but you can't see which ones will break the tape until you have put them in the race.

I don't think we can tell you how she will stumble upon them. You can.