Who doesn’t love a great mystery?
I’ve loved ‘em for as long as I can remember reading. Whether they were Biblical or sexy or cozies or intellectual or intergalactic—gotta love ‘em. 
I suspect a lot of authors would like to try writing one—including myself. I’ve written books with mystery sub-plots, but I’m talking real, hard-core, body-in-the-room-with-the-locked-door mysteries.
Unfortunately, I often suffer from what a former writing buddy and I dubbed “The Volcano Syndrome”.
Sound strange?
Think back…
Remember all the old cartoons, especially Warner Brothers? Like, Daffy Duck was sputtering out a story, telling how he’d stowed away on a boat to Africa, made his way across the Dark Continent, dodging natives with blow-guns, crossing blazing deserts, fighting lions, etc., until he finally reached the Zowee Diamond Mine, where he found the biggest diamond ever discovered in all the history of mankind?
And just as he’d surmounted every obstacle, was holding it triumphantly in his hand…
SUDDENLY, A VOLCANO!! :shock: :shock: :shock:
Now, the audience had not been told about a possible volcano, nor was there any reason for one to be there, other than to resolve the storyline.
Unavoidably, the volcano would be followed by an earthquake, which would open a tremendous chasm into which the diamond would fall, and Daffy would be forced to retreat by the stream of lava which seemed determined to chase him down the mountain, etc., etc… :yesyesyes:
In other words, Daffy had painted himself into a corner, and had to come up with something from waaaaay out in left field to get out of it.
And I have come up with a volcano or two in my life. 
I’m talking deus ex machina extraordinaire.
What do you do when you’ve trapped yourself in a plotting situation? How much of your story are you willing to sacrifice to resolve it? Do you ever have trouble pinpointing where the problem began? And how lenient are you with the ‘volcanic activity’ of other authors when you’re reading? :smokin:
