Lazy Bee Scripts
Publishing - it's a Mystery

Types of Murder Mystery

A Murder Mystery with no audience involvement is a play, for which see publishing plays.
 
Here we are talking about "interactive" Murder Mysteries - the audiece members or, sometimes, the participants, have an active role in solving the mystery.

• Murder Mysteries for performance to an audience (generally "dinner theatre" formats), and also
• Murder Mysteries suitable for private parties

In both those headings, we may cover anything from

• Fully Scripted to Fully Improvised (from a narrative arc)
• Modern dress to costumed
• Audience interaction by interrogation to Audience investigation of written clues

Within those categories, there is an enormous variety of style and content.  (Whenever we think we have covered the whole possible range, someone suggests another way of delivering a mystery.)

What are we looking for in a script?

• A credible, consistent plot (no matter how outrageous)
• Something that's feasible to stage
• A complete package (not just the "script" but information about how to stage it)

Formatting

Somewhere between the first idea and publication, a script needs to get into the publisher's "House Style".  Some authors are able to do this from the start, which helps the publication process enormously (and results in a better end product because there are fewer errors in the script).
 
Because murder mysteries cover a wide variety of forms, our house style for them is looser than it is for play scripts.  However, if you have scripted sections, and if you are a disciplined writer, then a look at our house style for play scripts may help you.  (But a note of caution: when you're writing, the most important thing is the content, and you need to deal with that in the way that best suits you.)
 
If you have sent us a query, and we've invited you to send in your mystery, then there are some basic formatting guidelines, including a checklist of things that should be included in your submission.