Scribblers Retreat

Since I haven't yet gotten all the pieces of my career and life organized, this isn't being updated much, so I'm not sure anyone is reading it. But if you are..wanna play editor?

The setting: Many years ago, I got annoyed because I could never figure out who-done-it in mysteries. I decided to read some books on writing mysteries to understand how clues are hidden. That didn't help, so I decided to write one, just for fun, and to see if I could figure it out that way.

Since it was just for fun, I made it a bit silly, intending to do a light humorous mystery. I made all the suspects stereotypes and then overdid the stereotypes so they were beyond silly. This was supposed to stress-relief. However, I kept the heroine, her family and her friends real, more or less.

So now, years later, I found the manuscript, which never got finished, and decided to type it into the computer, since I'd handwritten it in the car while kids were in meetings and classes. I don't have the talent to really publish a mystery, but once typed in, I'm going to try to finish it and re-write it as if I did, and see what emerges, since I've been studying the art of fiction.

Here's the problem: There is one silly character I actually like. She's an actress, and always practicing by pretending to be a different character every week or so. All her characters are bad stereotypes, since she really has no talent for anything but dressing up and being cute. But I like her, and I could see her being useful in a series, since she can play parts.

However, she first appears a few pages into the story and you don't know she's a bad actress...you just think she's a badly written character. If she emerged later in the story, it might not matter, but as the story stands just now, I need her right away because she works at the scene of the murder.

How would you handle this? Would you make her normal that day...give her a character that seems almost normal that week (although she added a lot of fun to the scene...sigh....) or have someone tell the heroine right away that she's dealing with a bad actress here?

The actual mystery accidentally got too serious to be populated by weird people, and my sense of humor is too quirky. People don't always get it. So I have to tone it down, although if I can figure how the introduction to this shallow little receptionist, I intend to keep her weird and let her lighten things up.

So...advice anyone?