I was watching the old British Sherlock Holmes TV series, and certain fantastic elements of the story line of this particular episode made me start kicking around the idea of writing a serial fiction for the Blog. It would be quite Holmes like in that it would feature both the 'detective' and a sidekick, but it would be set in a fantasy world.

So far, I only know two things about what the series will contain, etc.

1. The fantasy world will be quite European (except that it will be more medieval), so that it won't seem too foreign, but will still be fantastic.

2. Each episode in the series will focus, in order, on one of the bubbles in Emeth/Jay's World Building System. That way, it will act as a perfect accompaniment for the JoaWB series. (Which, BTW, I have much more time for, now that my NCFCA season is over. Finally.)

So, the first thing I want to accomplish here is to list the Red Herring advantages I have at my fingers.

For some background:

The key to mystery of the kind I describe is to offer almost all of the facts the reader needs to solve the mystery. Then, you late down a set of false clues, the Red Herring. Fantasy affords us some great Red Herring based on people's preconceptions about various fantasy components.

Dragons, for example. Despite being portrayed in many different ways throughout history, if you hint that dragons are famed liars, the reader is likely to believe you. If you hint that dragons are the guardians of humanity, however, the reader is likely to think that any dragons having to do with a given crime are not guilty.

I was wondering if you guys could think of any other Red Herring that fantasy offers.

I am also trying to figure out what the detective actually is. I'm thinking that he is a member of a secret guild of riddle-solvers, finders of the lost, etc., and he specifically fulfills his membership by solving mysteries of the same nature as Sherlock Holmes. This idea needs some development.

Sounds like a good idea there Neil! I am (trying to write) writing a short mystery story set in Ithelak. Fantasy mysteries have a lot of neat advantages, but there are disadvantages as well. From what I have seen, though, you will do great.

The thing with those kinds of red herrings is that they can only be used once.

That's a good point. Of course, then you can use some of the traditional tricks that play with the "back of your mind".

For example, if it is hinted that marine biology is that hobby of one of the suspects, but the murder was committed using knowledge that an entomologist (a scientist who studies bugs) would have, then the reader may automatically and illogically assume that the marine biologist didn't have anything to do with it.

Precisely. Those kinds of things are what make a mystery story good.

So you are planning to use this series to 'unfold' a world piece by piece, as it were?

Indeed!

I am. Of course, there are certain aspects that will have to be revealed early on, but I'll avoid really exploring those until JoaWB gets to that area.

I plan on sitting down a mapping my ideas out tomorrow. Tonight I have my last speech event of the year, on the 29th I have my last debate event, and then I'll finally be free to work on my ideas again....