How to Outline a Mystery Novel: Clues, Red Herrings and the Reveal

Plot Forge blog · 2026-10-14

Mysteries are the least forgiving genre for continuity. The reader is actively checking your work. If the detective knows something she was never shown, or a clue contradicts the timeline, someone will notice. An outline built for a mystery protects you from that.

Start with what really happened

Before you plan how the story unfolds, write the true sequence of the crime in plain order: who did what, when, and why. This is the chronological story. It is usually short, and you will not show most of it directly. Everything else in the book is a decision about how to reveal it.

Then decide the order of discovery

The reader's order is different from the real order. List the scenes where the detective finds each piece of information. Every discovery should be a scene of its own, so you can see how much the reader learns, and when.

Track four kinds of scene

The checks that catch most mistakes

  1. Can the detective know each fact at the moment she acts on it?
  2. Does every clue have a payoff, even if the payoff is that it was a red herring?
  3. Does the real timeline of the crime hold together, with no one in two places and no one using something that does not exist yet?

Those are exactly the problems that are easy to introduce while revising and hard to see in a long document. In Plot Forge you can enter the real chronology and the reader's order separately, link causes to effects, and let the grid flag a scene that depends on something not yet established. It does not write the mystery for you. It keeps your promises straight.

If you outline by hand, a simple two-column list of clues and where each one pays off is enough to start. Add the timeline of the crime beside it.

Try it on your own plot. Plot Forge is a plot grid for novelists: plots as columns, scenes as rows, with cause-and-effect links and live checks for paradoxes and unpaid setups.

Open Plot Forge, free   See how it works

More from the blog

Mental WorkspaceWhy your mind needs a clear work table, how writing multiplies it, and where a plot grid fits when a story gets too big to hold in your head.How to Catch Continuity Errors Before Your Editor DoesA practical way to find continuity snags in a long manuscript: track what each scene depends on, then check cause and effect on one grid.Setup and Payoff: Keep Track of What You Promised the ReaderEvery setup is a promise. Here is how to track setups and payoffs across a whole manuscript so nothing you planted is left unpaid.Chronological vs. Narrative Order: Plan Flashbacks Without Losing the TimelineThe order you tell a story and the order it happens are two different lists. Learn to track both so flashbacks and reveals stay consistent.What Is a Plot Grid, and Why Novelists Use OneA plot grid lays out your story as columns and rows so you can see every storyline and scene at once. Here is how it works and when it helps.How to Track Multiple Storylines and Points of View in a NovelSeveral plots or points of view make a novel richer and harder to manage. Here is how to keep every storyline visible without losing the thread.