Hello everyone, it’s not quite so lonely in here today, the wonderful, talented, and generous K.B. Owen is our guest postress today. I can’t tell you how much fun it’s been working with this charming writer. And Just for fun, I’ll be guest posting on her site too, so it’s a two-fer! With no further ado, take it away Kathy B!
I’m thrilled to be here, Rachel! This is probably the closest to Hawaii that I’ll ever get, LOL.
As the true mystery-lovers that we are, Rachel and I have been chatting up the Facebook-verse about the oft-ignored-but-ever-present “MacGuffin.” We finally decided to do something about it – by trading blogs and chatting with each other’s readers! How cool is that?
Many mysteries derive the core of their puzzle and suspense from the pursuit of the “MacGuffin,” with the “Whodunit” part of the story taking more of a backseat.
But, first things first:
What the heck’s a MacGuffin?

The MacGuffin is an object everyone in the story wants, and are racing around to get. Alfred Hitchcock made the term common during lectures and director interviews he gave, saying it originally came from a joke told by his team of screenwriters. For more details about its origins, take a look at the TV Tropes website (which also has a great list of MacGuffin sub-tropes on the same page. Check it out; it’s a riot).
The object in and of itself may not be very important to the plot (the Maltese Falcon is a good example of this), and Hitchcock’s MacGuffins were rarely consequential. However, other MacGuffins have been crucial to a plot’s outcome, such as the cutest MacGuffin ever, Star Wars’ R2D2, or the Ark of the Covenant in the first Indiana Jones film (every MacGuffin in Indiana Jones does something powerful).
You’ve seen more MacGuffins than you think…
Besides The Maltese Falcon, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones films mentioned above, here are other places MacGuffins have been known to lurk:

- Greek mythology, especially Jason and the Golden Fleece, source of oh-too-many low-budget “B” movies.
- Casablanca: characters running around looking for missing letters of transit.
- Nearly every James Bond film has MacGuffins running amok: missing nuclear weapons, missing nuclear subs, missing Russian decoder devices, and so on. One of the Bond films even has a MacGuffin title: GoldenEye.
- The Lord of the Rings: “one ring to rule all the MacGuffins”
- The Harry Potter movies: lots of enchanted MacGuffins, which makes the chase even more challenging.
- The alien world of Pandora in Avatar has that oh-so-aptly-named precious resource, “unobtainium.”

MacGuffins aren’t just for action heroes; detectives join the chase, too:
Favorite fictional detectives from our childhood – Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown – were terrific MacGuffin-chasers, whether it was treasure-maps, old documents, undiscovered antiques, stolen goods, or hidden bombs/weapons. For a young audience in particular, having a concrete object allows readers to more easily assess the detective’s progress (or lack thereof).
MacGuffins are fun for adult mystery readers, too. Sherlock Holmes was kept quite busy tracking pesky MacGuffins all over London and the surrounding countryside. Here are just a few examples: missing jewels in “The Beryl Coronet,” an indiscreet photograph for the King of Bohemia in “A Scandal in Bohemia,” a stolen prize race horse in “The Silver Blaze,” and a missing document in “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty.”
What are some of your favorite MacGuffins? Rachel and I would love to hear from you!
Rachel, thank you SO MUCH for hosting me today – I had a blast! –Kathy B
K.B. Owen holds a Ph.D. in 19th century British Literature, and taught college literature and writing classes for a number of years. Since she has always loved mysteries (cozy, historical and otherwise), she decided to turn her hand to writing her own. She’s finished her first novel in a planned series, set in a nineteenth-century women’s college in Hartford, Connecticut. It’s a world filled with quirky and beguiling characters, a plucky heroine, and mischief mixed with murder. For her historical protagonist, Dr. Owen drew upon her own delightful and varied experiences as a college professor, although thankfully she did not have to conduct her lectures in a bustle and full skirts. She blogs at http://kbowenmysteries.com, tweets/lurks around the twitterverse as @kbowenwriter, and chats with folks on Facebook at her author page: http://www.facebook.com/kbowenwriter2. Come say hello!
Hmmm…I can’t think of a story with an object chased off-hand but could the macguffin be something abstract? Like everyone’s trying to find out who the murderer is so the murderer is the macguffin? I can think of lots of those 🙂
Hi Shannon, I think it works best when a MacGuffin is an object, because then you can have various characters react to the object. In a murder mystery, yes you want to find the killer, but you can have clues that can have several different meanings to the characters in the story. Thanks for stopping by.
Excellent overview of the history of MacGuffins. They’ve become the trope in the fantasy genre. The One Ring was one of the very first and still impressive. Indiana Jones movies are a classic and good entertainment. But the best MacGuffins come from the mythology like Sampo in the Finnish mythology that was a mill pouring out riches.
Hi Reeta, I love the mythological MacGuffins because they are always full of double meanings. From glass slippers, to the holy grail and the ark of the covenant. Thanks so much for stopping by for a visit.
Hi Kathy, Rachel
I like mucguffins – my life’s full of them!
Seriously, I like the stone in Romancing the Stone. I don’t think you even see the stone and although it is what everyone is chasing, the protags are really trying to free this sister.
Cheers
LOL!
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
I will not mis-spell MacGuffin.
Cheers!
Nigel, I’ve actually seen it spelled three different ways: MacGuffin, Macguffin and Maguffin. But I appreciate the self-imposed self discipline.
So cool – I had no idea!! And now looking back I can see it in so many of the stories I read. Lately I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy books and they all have MacGuffins and you are right, it helps the reader connect to the story and want to fight for the hero to get the MacGuffin, and then lose it…and then….OMG…where did it go…will he ever find it again…SQUEEEE! It amps up the intensity!
GREAT post gals….
How cool is the comment love here, guys! I agree with the general consensus about the fantasy genre really embracing the MacGuffin – I wonder why that is? Perhaps in a less-stable-reality, something tangible is easier to identify with? The same is true in children’s mysteries, too, where there are a lot of MacGuffins. I’m thinking it’s because kids can more readily identify with tangibles than intangibles.
Personally, I love MacGuffins (no matter how you spell them, Nigel, LOL), and I definitely like to use one when I can.
Come on over to my blog today and check out Rachel’s guest post for more MacGuffin goodness! http://kbowenmysteries.com/posts/more-macguffin-shenanigans-guest-post-by-rachel-funk-heller/
Thanks again, Rachel, for hosting me!
I think what makes the fantasy genre fertile ground for the MacGuffin trope is the possibility of magic items. Come to think of it, I wonder if there’s a family of science fiction stories in which the MacGuffin is an invention …
LOL Nigel! He is histerical! But no sweat Nigel. I think MucGuffin might work, especially if your character is in the muck!
Kathy, wow, you have quite a background for this historical mystery stuff. Can’t wait to read your novel! And thanks go to both you and Rachel for putting this together! 🙂
Hi Karen, that Nigel cracks me up every time. Ain’t Kathy great??? She has so much patience to do the real research, I just fly by the seat of my pants. Thanks so much for stopping by dear one.
Kathy’s blog first introduced me to MacGuffins. Fun to learn more here! Useful tools in writing, for sure. Plus, the word practically rhymes with McMuffins, so it’s great if you’re writing a McDonald’s poem.
Hi August, thanks for stopping buy and bringing the McMuffins… and my spellcheck still thinks it should be McGuffin. Sigh. Hope all is well with you.
I always use the Casablanca example because it illustrates the fact that the MacGuffin isn’t really the point. If you keep the MacGuffin in its proper place, you can let your character development stay in front.