Ronald Knox: 10 Perintah Dalam Menulis Fiksi Detective

Assalamualaikum. Readers, Belakangan ini aku dapat pelajaran banyak sekali soal membuat cerita misteri setelah menonton anime Hyouka. Salah satu yang disebutkan oleh karakter utamanya ketika menganalisis cerita misteri adalah teori 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction yang dikemukakan oleh Knox.

FYI, Ronald Knox adalah penulis novel misteri yang terkenal di awal abad ke-20. The Viaduct Murder, Double Cross Purposes, Still Dead. Dia tergabung dalam Detection Club yang salah satu anggotanya adalah Agatha Christie.

Kalau kamu ingin menulis cerita detective, maka kamu harus mengingat beberapa hal ini (sengaja nggak diterjemahkan):

• The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to follow.
• All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.
• Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.
• No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.
• No Chinaman must figure in the story.
• No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.
• The detective must not himself commit the crime.
• The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.
• The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.
• Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

Tapi ngomong-ngomong, sebagian poin diatas sudah outdated untuk menulis fiksi saat ini. Terus ngapain diposting? Karena beberapa poin bisa dipelajari.

Semoga bermanfaat.





Sumber:

• Gotham Writers. "Ronald Knox: 10 Commandments of Detective Fiction" https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/tips-masters/ronald-knox-10-commandments-of-detective-fiction (diakses pada 17/11/2017)