At least half the mystery novels published violate the law that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.
Interpretation
Mystery novels often fail to provide solutions that feel logical or unavoidable to readers.
Raymond Chandler emphasizes that a good mystery novel should adhere to a central rule where the solution must appear inevitable once it is revealed. This implies that authors should construct their plots carefully, leading readers to a conclusion that feels both surprising and plausible, rather than arbitrary or forced.
In practice
A discussion on the importance of plot structure in creative writing classes.
Undoubtedly the stories about them [hard-boiled detectives] had a fantastic element. Such things happened, but not so rapidly, nor to so close-knit a group of people, nor within so narrow a frame of logic. This was inevitable because the demand was for constant action; if you stopped to think you were lost. When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.
There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.
Organized crime is the dirty side of the sharp dollar.
When in doubt, have a man come through the door with a gun in his hand.
The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.
If my books had been any worse, I should not have been invited to Hollywood, and if they had been any better, I should not have come.
Ah yes, the paradox of publicity is that even as we do it, we know it's killing off the chance of another reader happening across our book in the ideal state of innocence.
Sentences must stir in a book like leaves in a forest, each distinct from each despite their resemblance.
There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.
Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you'll behave to other people.
What I am going to write is the last of what I have to say. I will say that literature is the only consciousness we possess and that its role as consciousness must inform us of our ability to comprehend the hideous danger of nuclear power.
She doesn't do the things heroines are supposed to. Which is rather Jane Austen's point - Fanny is her subversive heroine. She is gentle and self-doubting and utterly feminine; and given the right circumstances, she would defy an army.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.