Stop Guessing Your Mystery Beats

Writing a mystery isn’t just about dropping a body on page one and hoping the plot figures itself out. Readers expect a puzzle that feels fair, suspects who all could’ve done it, and a final reveal that ties every clue together. If you don’t know when to plant the red herrings, introduce motives, or pull off the reveal, your draft collapses.

The Mystery Novel Builder Workbook gives you a map. Built in Notion, it walks you step by step through 12 proven mystery beats — from the opening crime to the final parlor scene. Along the way, you’ll track suspects, manage clues, and build a timeline that actually adds up.

Why most mystery drafts stall out

• You don’t know where to plant the key twists.
• Notes are scattered across docs, notebooks, and sticky notes.
• Generic beat sheets don’t connect to your suspects or timeline.

The fix: a guided mystery planner

This workbook is designed to keep you moving forward one beat at a time. Each page includes:

• Purpose — why this beat matters.
• Checklist — what needs to happen here.
• Guiding Questions — prompts to shape your scenes.
• Examples — famous mysteries showing how it’s done.
• Trackers — suspects, clues, and timelines that update as you go.
• Scene Notes — a space to outline the scenes for this beat, which all roll up into your full story outline at the end.

Highlights

• 12 Mystery Beats → Know exactly where to set the crime, stack the suspects, and reveal the solution.
• Clue & Suspect Trackers → Log alibis, red herrings, and contradictions so the puzzle feels fair.
• Media Examples → Learn from classics like Murder on the Orient Express and The Hound of the Baskervilles.
• Synced Blocks → Update a suspect’s motive once and it appears everywhere.
• Story Starter Setup → Capture title, theme, victim, and stakes before you write a single scene.

What makes it different

Unlike PDFs or scattered beat sheets, this workbook is interactive. Update a clue once, and it’s reflected across the whole system. Unlike doing it in Google Docs, the beats are built in order with guiding questions, so you don’t stall out.

You're so close to getting a full outline for your mystery

By the time you finish the workbook, you won’t just have scattered notes — you’ll have a scene-by-scene outline of your mystery novel that nails every clue, red herring, and reveal. And yes, you can build the whole thing in a weekend.

📖 Get the Workbook. Write the mystery readers actually finish.

FAQs

“I already have mystery beat sheets. Why do I need this?”

Beat sheets tell you what the beats are. This workbook guides you how to fill them in and connects them to your suspects, clues, and timeline.

“Why a Notion Workbook? How is this different than a PDF?”

Unlike PDFs, this workbook is interactive — updating your notes and structure in one part of your workbook updates it everywhere else you need them. No flipping back through pages wondering, “What did I write for this suspect again?”

“Do I need to be good at Notion to use it?”

Nope. The template is ready to go out of the box, with instructions built in. If you can click and type, you’re set.

Mysteries don’t fall apart because of bad writing—they fall apart because of bad planning. Fix the plan, and the story writes itself.