Digital + printable planner for historical mysteries
The Ultimate Historical Mystery Writing Planner
A crime from another age and a sleuth without forensics
Choose your format
What you get with the Goodnotes & PDF edition
- 89-page digital planner with clickable tabs, contents and back links
- Two designs: Classic and the colourful Pop design
- Printable US Letter versions of both designs
- Recommended Resources for Authors PDF
A hyperlinked PDF for Goodnotes, Notability, Noteshelf and other PDF note apps on iPad or Android tablets. Tap the tabs and contents to jump between pages.
About this planner
Plan your Historical Mystery novel from the first idea to publication day. The Historical Mystery Writing Planner is written for Historical Mystery writers, so its prompts, examples and story structure fit the book you are writing. Its 11 sections cover idea, period, crime, plot, sleuth, cast, world, write, edit, pitch & blurb and publish.
It comes as Goodnotes & PDF, Microsoft Word, Notion template, Scrivener template, Plottr template and E-ink edition, or as a printed, spiral-bound planner, so you can plan in the app you already use.
Sample pages
Take a look inside
Real pages from the Historical Mystery Writing Planner, in both designs. Tap a page to see it bigger.
What's inside
11 sections, 89 pages in the PDF
Idea7 pages
- What if? & premise
- Subgenre & tropes
- Comparable titles
Period5 pages
- Detection in the period
- Real events timeline
- Language & anachronisms
Crime9 pages
- Crime, victim & killer
- Eight-suspect board
- Clues & red herrings
Plot10 pages
- Mystery structure page
- Plot map & tension graph
- Scene lists & scene cards
Sleuth6 pages
- Sleuth profile & voice
- Limits of their world
- Wound & flaw
Cast5 pages
- Supporting cast list
- Six cast profiles
- Relationship web
World4 pages
- Setting: the big picture
- Specific locations
- Research list & notes
Write7 pages
- Plan of action
- Opening lines
- 100-day word tracker
Edit6 pages
- Mystery checklist
- Plot holes & scene changes
- Beta readers & editors
Pitch & Blurb7 pages
- Logline & elevator pitch
- Hooks & taglines
- Blurb workshop & drafts
Publish7 pages
- Book details & cover brief
- Amazon keywords
- Categories & checklist
Section and page counts are for the Goodnotes & PDF edition; the other formats hold the same planning pages, arranged to suit each app.
Highlights
Made for Historical Mystery writers
Bring the period to life
- Pin down the period and what daily life looked like
- Detection in the period: solving crime without forensics
- A real events timeline to plot your story against
- Language and anachronisms to keep the voice in period
A sleuth without forensics
- The crime, the victim, the killer and the killer's timeline
- Suspect boards with room for eight suspects
- Clue tracker, red herrings and the reveal
- Sleuth profile, the limits of their world and a series arc
Plot it clue by clue
- Historical Mystery Structure and three-act structure pages
- Plot map, tension graph, subplots and chapter hooks
- Scene lists and 12 scene cards
- Six cast profiles, setting pages and research notes
Write, edit and publish
- Plan of action and a 100-day word count tracker
- A Historical Mystery Checklist for your edit
- Logline, hooks, taglines and a blurb workshop
- Amazon keywords, categories and a cover brief
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