Those Meddling Kids

by Toni L.P. Kelner

Like most writers, I claim many inspirations for my work. But this Sunday, September 13, is the anniversary of one of my greatest influences. On a Saturday morning forty years ago, Scooby Doo, Where Are You? aired for the first time.

I can't imagine that many people reading this blog aren't familiar with the tropes of that famous cartoon series, in which four teenagers and a Great Dane with a speech impediment chase ghostly knights, shambling creepers, glowing aliens, and wicked witches. There have been--so far--eleven different Scooby Doo TV series plus TV specials and telefilms, direct-to-video films, live-action films, video games, and even stage plays. 

The plots are pretty simple, particularly in the original series. Something spooky, supernatural, or unearthly happens. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby Doo--the gang known collectively as Mystery, Inc.--arrive in the groovy Mystery Machine and investigate. This requires splitting up to find clues, chase scenes, and a complicated trap that never works quite the way it's supposed to. At the end, the gang unmasks the villain, who is in fact neither spooky, supernatural, nor unearthly.

Now I won't go so far as to say that everything I learned about writing mysteries, I learned from Scooby Doo, but I did learn a lot. Just consider the following lessons:

• Give your characters a reason for getting involved. This is particularly true for amateur sleuths, which is mostly what I write. The members of Mystery, Inc. were dragged into mysteries to help friends and family, to save towns and businesses, and for Scooby's love life. There's always a reason, and I keep that in mind. In Down Home Murder, my first book, Laura Fleming only starts hunting for a killer because her grandfather has been murdered, and everybody thinks it was an accident.

• The longer a series lasts, the more forgiving readers are about characters getting involved in mysteries. After a while, all the gang needed was a chance sighting of something creepy to step in. I've done the same. In Curse of the Kissing Cousins, I had to work hard to get my protagonist fired enough to chase a killer. But it was less tricky in Who Killed the Pinup Queen?, and by the third book, it'll be easier still.

• Don't make it too easy. The Scooby gang always faces setbacks: Daphne gets captured, Velma loses her glasses, Fred's trap catch the wrong person. That's what makes it interesting. I don't want to make life too easy for my characters, either, 

• Give the characters something to work with. The Scooby gang doesn't stumble around until they catch a crook in the act. They hunt for clues and figure out what they mean. I direct my characters to do the same--I sprinkle in clues so they can reason out the mystery.

• Remember that the mystery isn't everything. Shaggy and Scooby particularly recognize that life goes on, and even when things are the worst, they have to stop for a Scooby snack. Or two. While my characters aren't quite so food-oriented, they do turn away from the mystery plot now and then to pay attention to their lives, which makes for richer, more believable characterization.  

• Even small mysteries are important. The Scooby Doo plots didn't involve murders, or particularly violent crimes. Usually it was more along the lines of theft, sabotage, or counterfeiting. Yet those stories are just as meaningful to the people involved. Of course, I generally do write about murders, but I don't need them to be serial killers or world-threatening assassinations to be dramatic.  

• Play fair. In the classic Scooby Doo plot, the villain is always somebody the Scooby gang has encountered before, and the clues are there right in front of you. That's how I plot my mysteries, even if it does risk the reader figuring out the killer before I pull his mask off.  

• Your characters are important. At the end of most episodes, the unmasked villain would bitterly declare, "I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for those meddling kids!" In other words, had the Mystery, Inc. gang not investigated, the bad guy would never have been caught. That's how I want my mysteries to work. I want to convince the reader that if Tilda Harper hadn't gotten involved, a murderer would have killed again.

Forty years ago, I watched that very first episode of Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, and I'm awfully glad I did. No only did I take away all those lessons to apply to my mystery writing, but I always enjoyed those cartoons, and I've had a great time introducing them to my daughters. So to Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and most especially Scooby Doo, I offer my heartiest congratulations. I hope you're around for another forty years. Scooby snacks for everybody!

Comments

[chris]

Do youthat think, if you are brutally honest, you didn't take the lessons "away from" Scooby Doo" but realized you could "apply' them after working through a lot of trial and error?
And one thing that remains to draw a lesson from and apply it to writing is - how come the Scooby Team are intrigued by the mysterious things that go on around them yet never question the fact that a dod talks?

[Toni LP Kelner]

Chris, brutal honesty and Scooby Doo cartoons are just incompatible.

As for the talking dog, it's a fair point. Then again, I've written vampire mysteries and werewolf mysteries. So I guess I allow one impossibility per story.

[Tori Lennox]

Wow. I'm suddenly feeling really old. *g*

[chris]

Yes, sorry - dog.

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[Janet Reid]

Wait---dogs DON"T talk??

[Toni LP Kelner]

Well, my poodle did, but I don't think it was English.