This weeks assignment is to present evidence in a unique way.

• Betty and Frank have items missing from their home
• debit cards
• combs and brushes
• makeup
• pajamas
• kitchen spoons and forks
• They looked everywhere but still cannot find them
• Was it their maid or a guest
• Everyday there is a new item missing
• Betty and Frank notices they have food missing too
• muffins bought for a brunch
• shortbread and Italian cookies for dessert and coffee
• The only evidence apparent is crumbs on the counter where the items were left
• Betty and Frank started blaming each other for taking the food but neither admitted it
• Betty started blaming Frank for leaving q-tips and cotton balls and washrags on the bathroom floor. Frank was getting fed up with being accused of such things
• One day Betty put her coat on, and there was a hole in the coat pocket and her car keys were gone!
• she took the extra set of keys off Franks key ring and went to work
• Betty's friend noticed the tear in her coat pocket and said your cat chewed a hole in your coat
• Betty said, "My cat?" 
• Her friend explained that her cat does the same thing so she has to lock her coat in a closet and not leave it on a coat rack. And she added, "There's cat hair around the area."
• Betty got home from work and went to the bathroom
• There were cotton balls and q-tips everywhere, and the washrags were on the floor again!
• Betty picked the rags up, and there was cat hair on them. There are only two, but there is normally four!
• Betty started investigating
• She looked under the bed
• She looked in the closet
• As she went downstairs she noticed a cotton ball and a q-tip on the stairs
• She checked under the sofa, and behind it
• She looked behind the entertainment center
• She couldn't find any of her missing items
• As she walked around the living room she noticed a q-tip peeking out from the curtains on the bay window. 
• Betty bent over to pick up the q-tip and noticed crumbs trailing to the cat's kitty condo
• One by one, she inspected all the little private cubby holes in the kitty condo.
• At the very top cubby hole, there were all the missing items, and even items they did not know were missing! The cat was laying on all the cotton balls, q-tips, pajamas, makeup, debit and credit cards and kitchen utensils!

In this exercise, the assignment is to outline a story with tension!

• A girl arrives to work with a huge scratch down her face and crying.
• Everyone at work notices and spreads the word to the girl's supervisor.
• The supervisor brings the girl into a private office and intervenes.
• she gets the story from the girl
• calls the police to take the story
• calls a family member to come pick her up from work
• gives her the next two days off to get her life together
• everyone is frightened by the story she's told
• The girl hides out at her father's home
• but she's told everyone he use to sexually molest her
• he don't want her there, she's always too much to handle he says
• The police arrest her boyfriend
• he swears he didn't do it!
• he is issued a court date after being bailed out
• she arrives at his door at one o'clock in the morning with the police
• they told him to hand his daughter over to them
• he sobs as the love of his life is carried away from him
• The girl has been looking for a way out of town, and has been looking for her birth father
• this gets her boyfriend to thinking, and fears she will run away with his daughter in tow
• The boyfriend gets a lawyer to help him prove he didn't do it
• in the meantime she files an order preventing her from leaving town with his daughter
• he compiles witnesses to her lying, and story telling
• The lawyer interviews everyone in the family and discovers the guy's brother was at home sick from school that day
• he claims that her story of a huge fight was false, he didn't even hear an argument, much less her being beaten
• another witness claims he had told the girl about his abusive wife, and how she would injure herself and call the police on him and get him arrested. He told her this two days before her boyfriend was arrested for domestic violence
• another witness claims she had been planning on leaving for a few weeks but needed money before doing so
• another witness claims the girl was in her apartment "hanging out" one night, and the next morning her rent money was missing. This was the day she showed up to work with a scratch down her face
• the lawyer asked the guy to see his hands, she notices:
• he has no swelling or redness
• he has obviously been a nail biter his whole life...his nails were chewed down to little slivers. This is a task that is physically impossible to create overnight
• he wears no rings or watches
• he is right handed
• her scratch down her face is on her right side, not the left
• her scratch slants toward her mouth
• It is methodically discovered that the girl had scratched herself with her ring the boyfriend gave her on Valentines Day
• by studying the scratch, it was more feasible for her to have scratched herself by the direction of the scratch, and the location
• by the witness's statements, laying out her motive, and other evidence
• The girl never showed up to the court date so the charges were dropped against the boyfriend
• The two shared the custody of the little girl from that point forward, separately
• The girl told everyone she was dying of cancer
• her house was broken into
• they stole her rent money
• they stole her and her daughter's Christmas gifts
• Does the story ever end?
• NO! she is still at it, every two years, she replaces boyfriends, steals their money, and makes new stories

This is a true story of someone we know, and keep at a very far distance away!

Talk about tension!

Outline a Plot

In this exercise, we are to outline a fresh, new story's plot....here goes!

• Miniature, perfect replicas of famous pieces of art are appearing all over New York City's swankiest events.
• Political Fundraisers
• Fashion Week
• World Premier Movie Events
• No one knows who is leaving the art at these events. But everyone wants one!
• A private eye reads this on the front page of the New York Times newspaper, and vows to find the artist so he can reveal him or her. This is sure to get the private eye into New York City's elite! Oh the money he can make!
• The private eye gets a job with the catering company who does all the elite events in town.
• He lucked out and got the job of champagne server, this will gain him maximum coverage
• His hopes are to notice everyone, work the floor as much as possible, he's sure to find the artist this way.
• First event, he missed the drop!
• Second event, missed it again! Plan B, use mini cameras set up everywhere!
• Third event, missed it again! Plan C, camouflage himself until he finds the person!
• The perfect, miniatures are still arriving, but now there are many sleuths trying to find the person!
• And now, there are many artists jumping on the bandwagon!
• The NYC police detectives are weeding through the artwork to see which are the originals, and which are copycats, but aren't they all copycats?
• And then a letter to the New York Times arrives, from the real artist of the mini replicas, the person involved in all of the reverse heists! And an answer why!

This is the subject of my next mystery story's plot. 

motive

While developing my own story, motive played a huge part of the creative process. I wanted there to be a surprise, or an unexpected ending. While developing my archetypes and their personalities I had to make sure I placed enough suspects at the scene of he crime, suspects who were shifty, had shady pasts, or who didn't like the "victim."

My victim, is also the villain in my story. She is a wealthy woman who hates everyone, including her husband. She is rude to everyone in her life. When her Renoir paintings were stolen, he blamed her husband, and made him sleep in the guest room. She finally received an insurance settlement for her missing artwork, and disappeared the next day.

In the end, her motive was to collect the insurance and get away from everyone who she hated, and live happily ever after. But it backfired.

I also included a shifty brother in law, who the victim referred to as a loser. The narrator had a clear hatred for the victim and her rudeness. I also placed several contractors in the same room as the crime, and a snooping florist. This was to lead the reader into thinking there could be numerous suspects.

I believe a solid motive helps in the development of a story, but with that said, I held that information to the end.