Chapter 41: Weaving Your Web

In this chapter, we’ll talk about how to interweave your suspect subplots with your main plot—that is, the one in which you’ll catch the killer. This weaving together of plot lines is very important, because it’s what gives your reader that wonderful feeling of an interconnected web of secrets, with your Sleuth as a clever spider crawling along each strand, shining her flashlight into every dark corner.

That feeling is something your reader isn’t likely to think about on a conscious level—but she’s sure to miss it if it’s not there. Without this interconnection, your book will feel a little simple, a little linear. If you want your readers to describe your book as “twisty,” puzzling,” or “deep,” you’re going to have to route your Sleuth from plot line to plot line in her quest for the truth.

We’re going to do this by allowing our clues from one plot line to be dropped in another plot line. I call these clues Hook-Ins, because they hook each plot line into the larger novel.

Hook-Ins, And What They Look Like

To give you an idea of what Hook Ins look like, let’s discuss some that might appear in my circus mystery. In order to do this, we’ll first need a Villain, whose plot line I can braid into my suspect subplots. For my suspects, I chose fairly straightforward motives—but for my Villain, we’ll want something sneakier.