Who is Red John?

Theory #15059 • by bettyboo

Suspect

Thomas McAllister

Thomas McAllister
Suspected in 1k+ theories

ARGUMENTATION

HELLER GO BACK TO WRITING SCHOOL..LOOK HERE ..MYSTERY WRITING 101...THE BASICS....THE BASICS HELLER!!!!!  http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/05/08/25-things-writers-should-know-about-creating-mystery/

LOOK HELLER STEP 13
 

13. THE LONGER THE MYSTERY PERSISTS, THE MORE SATISFYING THE ANSWER MUST BE All that being said, you shouldn't drag out mysteries if their resolution isn't satisfying. You can’t spend 300 pages or two hours just to get to, OMG THE KEYS WERE IN HER SHOE THE WHOLE TIME. *crash of thunder* The longer you let a mystery hang out there, the more satisfying the mystery — and its resolution — must be. How to gauge this? Hey, you just gotta go with your guttyworks.

OR STEP 21 HELLER WHERE WERE YOU THIS DAY, AT HOME PRETENDING YOU WERE SICK WHEN YOU WERE DOSSING HELLER

21 Mysteries and endings. A tricky subject. My essential advice: answer all mysteries by the ending. Every last one of ‘em. The audience wants those answers. The introduction of a mystery is an unofficial promise to answer that question. But. But! Sometimes, that’s just not in the cards. (See: Stephen King’s The Colorado Kid, which is a story as much about the subject of mystery as it is about the mysteries present in the story.) Sometimes it’s good to leave folks hanging on things. Because when you do that it’s like the book is still open. The story is ongoing. They remain a part of it — entrenched and unable to escape. MOO HOO HA HA HA. (But only savvy storytellers need apply!)


STEP 24 HELLER IT WAS METAPHORICAL BREADCRUMBS HE MEANT NOT FECKING REAL BREADCRUMBS........IT WAS AN EXAMPLE HELLER AN EXAMPLE.

24. We begin with a question. We lead with that — because that’s the fishhook in the cheek of the audience. And the way we tell the story is like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs — not whole loaves, just crumbs — for the listener to follow. We say things to get attention, to lead the audience in with us — “Man, Jenkins fucked up bad today!” — and the listener is all like “WHOA WHAT’D THAT ASSHOLE JENKINS DO NOW?” As Admiral Ackbar would say: “It’s a trap!” Oh, but what a wonderful trap storytelling is.

AND FINALLY HELLER....THIS TALKS ABOUT TRUST.....THE TRUST YOU BROKE WHEN YOU FAILED THE MYSTERY WRITING TEST OF ALL TIME. THE TRUST YOU BROKE

25. Being a storyteller  you need to find  the audience — who is willing to trust you with (and stick with me here) a complete lack of trust. They’re willing to say: “I trust that I can’t trust you,” and then they let you perform whatever deviant manipulations you care to visit upon body, heart and mind. Same thing with creating mystery in your story: mystery is one way you show the audience that they can’t trust you but, at the same time, that they trust in this implicit lack of trust. They know the questions you pose will be troubling. They know that the answers will have consequences they did not imagine. But they trust in you to answer these mysteries, to manipulate without making them feel manipulated, to not leave them hanging upside-down with a ball-gag in their mouth and a My Little Pony-branded buttplug up their… well, no need to be redundant. You and the audience have a contract (though no safe-word): they trust that you cannot be trusted. Mystery is one of the sexy tools on your sexy Bondage Batman tool-belt. What? You don’t have a sexy Bondage Batman tool-belt? Amateur.

AND HE DOESN'T EVEN HAVE A A SEXY BONDAGE BATMAN TOOL-BELT :-(

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