About Us:

The Mystery Guild is just what the name indicates: a place for mystery fans and authors to share tributes and original works with one another.

Very good, but:

What’s a mystery?

Finding a genre for a work can be tricky business, as many pieces can fit into multiple categories. For the sake of brevity, The Mystery Guild will define mystery by the criteria laid down by a small collection of criteria, all of which must be met:

1) The main problem of the story can be phrased in the form of a question. (i.e.: Who did it? Why did they do it? How was it done? Where did it go?)
2) The plot of the story must revolve around the answering of the question. Subplots are fine, of course, but it’s not really a mystery story if it begins with a question, then a lot of unrelated things happen and it ends with the question being answered accidentally without any effort on the part of the characters.
3) The resolution of the story must coincide with the answering of the question – allowing, of course, room for subplots to be resolved.

As an example, let’s say that we have a treasure hunt story: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Is Indiana Jones a mystery? I would say not. Why? Clues are gathered, adventures are had, and it ends with finding a thing. Still, the story is not really about where the Ark is. The story is about beating up Nazis, blowing up planes, and snogging the girl. We knew from the beginning where the Ark was (approximately), why the Nazis wanted it, and what they were doing to get it. It’s a great story, but it’s an adventure, not a mystery.

Take another treasure hunt story: National Treasure. Is it a mystery? I would say that it is. Why? We’ve got clues, adventures, and it ends with finding a thing. There are even bad guys shooting at the good guys, stuff blowing up, and a fair amount of girl-snogging. But ultimately, the point is putting the clues together to find the thing. The questions (Is the treasure real? Where is it hidden? Why did they hide it? Is the Gates family crazy?) are all answered, and the fact that the characters become filthy rich is just sort of a pleasant bonus. The point was discovering an answer.

This probably sounds very subjective, and I agree that it is. The fact remains that some things are mystery and others just aren’t, and there is no simple way to explain which is which.

I would like to make clear, however, that this is not a group restricted to detective fiction. That is to say, the protagonist solving the mystery need not be a detective – except in the broad sense of one who gathers clues to answer a question – and the mystery need not center around a crime.

So,

What do we accept?

-Original stories must be submitted under DA's Mystery category, or else the comments must specify that the story fits into the mystery genre as well as the genre under which it was submitted. This is because lengthy pieces often do not obviously become mysteries until several chapters in. If a piece is a mystery, but doesn’t look like one and doesn’t say that it is one, it will be declined. (Caveat: If a piece is declined, the author is absolutely entitled to ask why. If the answer is that the piece was not considered a mystery, but the author believes that it is, the author may resubmit the piece with a note explaining the “question” of the piece.)

-Original visual art must be clearly mystery-related, or else it must state in the comments that it is a scene/character from a work of mystery fiction.

-Fan art/fiction submissions will be limited to one per day. Anything related to BBC Sherlock (fan art, fiction, icons, etc.) MUST be submitted to the BBC Sherlock folder, which has a submission limit of one per month. Additionally, fan fiction must be categorized as such. The DA Fan Fiction category is a subcategory of Fan Art.

-Literature submissions will be screened for mechanics. I encourage novice writers to submit their work for criticism, but I expect the work to be spellchecked and proofread. If a piece of writing is declined, feel free to ask for suggestions and submit again once those suggestions have been considered.

-Mature content must be limited to language and gore. Sexuality must be at or below a PG-13 level.

-ORIGINAL work is highly encouraged. Only original characters and stories will be selected for the Featured folder.

-Submissions, naturally, must follow DA guidelines.

-Submit to the correct folder. Work submitted to the wrong folder will be declined - but may be resubmitted to the correct folder.

That’s all very well, but:

Who do we accept?

Anyone. Join requests are automatically accepted.

Happy hunting, my sleuthy friends.

About Us:

The Mystery Guild is just what the name indicates: a place for mystery fans and authors to share tributes and original works with one another.

Very good, but:

What’s a mystery?

Finding a genre for a work can be tricky business, as many pieces can fit into multiple categories. For the sake of brevity, The Mystery Guild will define mystery by the criteria laid down by a small collection of criteria, all of which must be met:

1) The main problem of the story can be phrased in the form of a question. (i.e.: Who did it? Why did they do it? How was it done? Where did it go?)
2) The plot of the story must revolve around the answering of the question. Subplots are fine, of course, but it’s not really a mystery story if it begins with a question, then a lot of unrelated things happen and it ends with the question being answered accidentally without any effort on the part of the characters.
3) The resolution of the story must coincide with the answering of the question – allowing, of course, room for subplots to be resolved.

As an example, let’s say that we have a treasure hunt story: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Is Indiana Jones a mystery? I would say not. Why? Clues are gathered, adventures are had, and it ends with finding a thing. Still, the story is not really about where the Ark is. The story is about beating up Nazis, blowing up planes, and snogging the girl. We knew from the beginning where the Ark was (approximately), why the Nazis wanted it, and what they were doing to get it. It’s a great story, but it’s an adventure, not a mystery.

Take another treasure hunt story: National Treasure. Is it a mystery? I would say that it is. Why? We’ve got clues, adventures, and it ends with finding a thing. There are even bad guys shooting at the good guys, stuff blowing up, and a fair amount of girl-snogging. But ultimately, the point is putting the clues together to find the thing. The questions (Is the treasure real? Where is it hidden? Why did they hide it? Is the Gates family crazy?) are all answered, and the fact that the characters become filthy rich is just sort of a pleasant bonus. The point was discovering an answer.

This probably sounds very subjective, and I agree that it is. The fact remains that some things are mystery and others just aren’t, and there is no simple way to explain which is which.

I would like to make clear, however, that this is not a group restricted to detective fiction. That is to say, the protagonist solving the mystery need not be a detective – except in the broad sense of one who gathers clues to answer a question – and the mystery need not center around a crime.

So,

What do we accept?

-Original stories must be submitted under DA's Mystery category, or else the comments must specify that the story fits into the mystery genre as well as the genre under which it was submitted. This is because lengthy pieces often do not obviously become mysteries until several chapters in. If a piece is a mystery, but doesn’t look like one and doesn’t say that it is one, it will be declined. (Caveat: If a piece is declined, the author is absolutely entitled to ask why. If the answer is that the piece was not considered a mystery, but the author believes that it is, the author may resubmit the piece with a note explaining the “question” of the piece.)

-Original visual art must be clearly mystery-related, or else it must state in the comments that it is a scene/character from a work of mystery fiction.

-Fan art/fiction submissions will be limited to one per day. Anything related to BBC Sherlock (fan art, fiction, icons, etc.) MUST be submitted to the BBC Sherlock folder, which has a submission limit of one per month. Additionally, fan fiction must be categorized as such. The DA Fan Fiction category is a subcategory of Fan Art.

-Literature submissions will be screened for mechanics. I encourage novice writers to submit their work for criticism, but I expect the work to be spellchecked and proofread. If a piece of writing is declined, feel free to ask for suggestions and submit again once those suggestions have been considered.

-Mature content must be limited to language and gore. Sexuality must be at or below a PG-13 level.

-ORIGINAL work is highly encouraged. Only original characters and stories will be selected for the Featured folder.

-Submissions, naturally, must follow DA guidelines.

-Submit to the correct folder. Work submitted to the wrong folder will be declined - but may be resubmitted to the correct folder.

That’s all very well, but:

Who do we accept?

Anyone. Join requests are automatically accepted.

Happy hunting, my sleuthy friends.