Crafting crime fiction
Crafting crime fiction

Author: Henry Sutton

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2023-10-17

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 1526160498

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John le Carré said the best place to start a crime novel is as near to the end of the story as possible. But how do you know what the story is? As writers, we all have different experiences and skills to draw upon, and this book will help you identify the right beginning, middle and end for your own crime novel. Whether you are writing a police procedural or a psychological thriller, you will need to consider the basic elements of a gripping narrative. Within these pages, you'll learn to master the art of storytelling, from creating a compelling plot that keeps readers on the edge of their seats to choosing the perfect point of view to bring your characters to life. Dive into the depths of suspense, mystery, and surprise, as you unravel the intricacies of crafting a crime novel that captivates and entertains. This guide will help any new or experienced writer to navigate the writing journey, uncovering the core principles that will make your crime fiction truly exceptional.

Fight Write
Fight Write

Author: Carla Hoch

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-06-11

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1440300739

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Whether a side-street skirmish or an all-out war, fight scenes bring action to the pages of every kind of fiction. But a poorly done or unbelievable fight scene can ruin a great book in an instant. In Fight Write you'll learn practical tips, terminology, and the science behind crafting realistic fight scenes for your fiction. Broken up into "Rounds," trained fighter and writer Carla Hoch guides you through the many factors you'll need to consider when developing battles and brawls. • In Round 1, you will consider how the Who, When, Where, and Why questions affect what type of fight scene you want to craft. • Round 2 delves into the human factors of biology (think fight or flight and adrenaline) and psychology (aggression and response to injuring or killing another person). • Round 3 explores different fighting styles that are appropriate for different situations: How would a character fight from a prone position versus being attacked in the street? What is the vocabulary used to describe these styles? • Round 4 considers weaponry and will guide you to select the best weapon for your characters, including nontraditional weapons of opportunity, while also thinking about the nitty-gritty details of using them. • In Round 5, you'll learn how to accurately describe realistic injuries sustained from the fights and certain weapons, and what kind of injuries will kill a character or render them unable to fight further. By taking into account where your character is in the world, when in history the fight is happening, what the character's motivation for fighting is, and much more, you'll be able write fight scenes unique to your plot and characters, all while satisfying your reader's discerning eye.

Writing Crime and Suspense Fiction
Writing Crime and Suspense Fiction

Author: Lesley Grant-Adamson

Publisher: Hodder Education

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 164

ISBN-13: 9780340648162

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This is an invaluable resource for anyone planning to write any type of crime fiction, from whodunnits to thrillers. It is full of exercises to get the reader writing and includes a range of quotations and tips from a whole host of established names.

Teach Yourself Writing Crime Fiction
Teach Yourself Writing Crime Fiction

Author: Lesley Grant-Adamson

Publisher: Teach Yourself

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780071421300

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"What makes a good crime story and how do I write one?"Teach Yourself Crime Fictionanswers these questions for aspiring writers. It analyzes the elements of crime fiction, including classic detective fiction, comic crime fiction, the feminist sleuth, and more. And it leads readers through the process of crafting a piece, showing them how to recognize a good idea for a novel, set a scene, shape characters, develop a plot, research background, use literary techniques and maintain a style, and dig out when they get stuck. It also includes advice on how to sell a novel.

Now Write! Mysteries
Now Write! Mysteries

Author: Sherry Ellis

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2011-12-29

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 1101553766

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The essential handbook for writers of whodunits, techno- thrillers, cozies, and everything in between-featuring never-before- published personal writing exercises from some of today's bestselling and award-winning mystery writers. Now Write! Mysteries, the fourth volume in the acclaimed Now Write! writing guide series, brings together numerous bestselling authors-including winners of and nominees for the Edgar, Hugo, and Shamus awards,-for the definitive guide to writing mysteries, thrillers, and suspense stories. Now Write! Mysteries teaches you everything you've ever wanted to know about crafting a page-turning mystery-from creating a believable detective hero (or terrifying villain), to using real-life cutting-edge investigative techniques to bring your story to life-with practical exercises taken directly from the pros: Discover the best techniques for seamlessly integrating action into your story with John Lutz, New York Times-bestselling author of Urge to Kill, Night Kills, and Serial. Learn how to fine-tune your sense of place and setting with Louise Penny, New York Times-bestselling author of the Armand Gamache mysteries. Take advice from Lorenzo Carcaterra, author of Sleepers and writer/producer for Law & Order, on how to compose a scene that lives up to your character's backstory. Let Marcia Talley, Agatha- and Anthony-winning author of the Hannah Ives mysteries, show you how to build a memorable, engaging detective. (Hint: It's not about making him flawless.) Others included are: Simon Brett, Hallie Ephron, Meg Gardiner, Peter James, Christopher G. Moore, Michael Sears, and many others. No other mystery-writing guide offers the road tested wisdom of so many award-winners and bestselling authors in one place.

How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery
How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery

Author: Andrea J. Johnson

Publisher: Andrea J. Johnson

Published:

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 173768800X

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Crafting a killer cozy can be perilous. Fans of the genre expect authors to forego explicit gore and violence while at the same time creating a mind-boggling murder mystery with pulse-pounding tension and a twisty plot. But how is writer supposed to satisfy such disparate demands? How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery tackles this exact problem by providing an actionable roadmap for starting (and completing!) a manuscript that will leave readers dying for more. Packed worksheets and questionnaires designed to streamline the writing process, this comprehensive step-by-step guide will help you create compelling characters, vivid settings, and clever storylines. Whether you’re a new writer or just new to the genre, you will walk away from How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery with a checklist for everything you’ll need to start your first draft, and you will also learn… · The history behind the modern cozy and why they’re so popular with today’s audiences · The 13 key reader expectations for the genre · The 10 essential rules every cozy must follow to create a fair play puzzle · The difference between cozies, thrillers, capers, detective stories, and police procedurals · The difference between a premise and a hook—and how to kick-butt writing both · The essential beats for the four-act plot structure · How to effectively hide clues and create plot twists And as a special bonus, How to Craft a Killer Cozy Mystery contains an extensive *GLOSSARY OF LITERARY TERMS* as well as modern and classic examples of commonly used mystery solutions and misdirects.

Anglophone African Detective Fiction 1940-2020
Anglophone African Detective Fiction 1940-2020

Author: Matthew J. Christensen

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 2024-03-19

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 1847013872

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Providing a survey of Anglophone African detective fiction, from the late 1940s to the present day, this study traces its history both as a literary form and a mode of critical exploration of the fraught sovereignties of the African state and its citizens. Since the late 1940s, African writers including Cyprian Ekwensi, Arthur Maimane, Adaora Lily Ulasi, Hilary Ng'weno, Unity Dow, Parker Bilal, and Angela Makholwa have published over 200 murder mysteries, police procedurals, spy thrillers, and other fictional narratives of investigation and discovery in English-language newspapers, magazines, and novels. Distributed widely across the continent's diverse cultural and political geographies, these texts share aesthetic characteristics and thematic preoccupations that reflect transnational networks of production, circulation, and influence. Anglophone African Detective Fiction, 1940-2020 surveys this literary history and examines how African writers have repeatedly harnessed the detective story to interrogate postcolonial realities of selfhood and the state. It argues that African writers have turned the detective story into a highly productive, while at the same time suspense-filled and entertaining, mode of social and political critique, first of colonialism and the independence era and latterly of neoliberal governance. Offering an overview of paradigmatic texts, from Ghana to Kenya and Sudan to South Africa, the book traces the contours of the history of Anglophone African detective fiction that is at once a cultural history of a uniquely African assessment of the ongoing problematics of sovereignty and decolonization.

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes

Author: Graeme Davis

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2019-06-04

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 1643131850

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This masterful collection of seventeen classic mystery stories, dating from 1837 to 1914, traces the earliest history of popular detective fiction. Today, the figure of Sherlock Holmes towers over detective fiction like a colossus—but it was not always so. Edgar Allan Poe’s Dupin, the hero of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” anticipated Holmes’ deductive reasoning by more than forty years. In A Study in Scarlet, the first of Holmes’ adventures, Doyle acknowledged his debt to Poe—and to Émile Gaboriau, whose thief-turned-detective Monsieur Lecoq debuted in France twenty years earlier. If Rue Morgue was the first true detective story in English, the title of the first full-length detective novel is more hotly contested. Among the possibilities are two books by Wilkie Collins—The Woman in White (1859) and The Moonstone (1868)—Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s The Trail of the Serpent (1861) or Aurora Floyd (1862), and The Notting Hill Mystery (1862-3) by the pseudonymous “Charles Felix.” As the early years of detective fiction gave way to two separate golden ages—hard-boiled tales in America and intricately-plotted “cozy” murders in Britain—and these new sub-genres went their own ways, their detectives still required the intelligence and clear-sightedness that characterized the earliest works of detective fiction: the trademarks of Sherlock Holmes, and of all the detectives featured in these pages.

Howdunit Forensics
Howdunit Forensics

Author: D.P. Lyle

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2008-03-21

Total Pages: 490

ISBN-13: 1599634414

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Just because you don't have all the tools and training of a full-time medical examiner, doesn't mean you can't learn your way around a crime scene. In Forensics, award-winning author and TV show consultant D.P. Lyle, M.D., takes each area of forensics–from fingerprint analysis to crime scene reconstruction–and discusses its development, how the science works, how it helps in crime solving, and how you as a writer might use this technique in crafting your plot. This comprehensive reference guide includes: • Real-life case files and the role forensic evidence played in solving the crimes • A breakdown of the forensics system from its history and organization to standard evidence classification and collection methods • Detailed information on what a dead body can reveal–including the cause, mechanism, and manner of death • The actual steps taken to preserve a crime scene and the evidence that can be gathered there, such as bloodstains, documents, fingerprints, tire impressions, and more Forensics is the ultimate resource for learning how to accurately imbue your stories with authentic details of untimely demises.

Detective Fiction Through Ages
Detective Fiction Through Ages

Author: HAMEED

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2023-07-21

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13:

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Embark on a thrilling literary odyssey with "Detective Fiction Through Ages," a captivating exploration of the genre's evolution from bygone eras to the present day. Delve into the minds of literary giants such as Edgar Allan Poe, whose dark and macabre tales laid the foundation for the genre. Witness the psychological depth of Fyodor Dostoevsky's works, where complex characters grapple with the eternal struggle between good and evil. Experience the grandeur of Victor Hugo's storytelling as he weaves intricate plots within the tapestry of historical events. "Detective Fiction Through Ages" pays homage to literary pioneers like Vikas Swarup, Anita Nair, Satyajit Ray, Austin Freeman, E.C. Bentley, G.K. Chesterton, and Melvin Davisson Post as they reshaped the genre with their distinctive approaches, showcasing their contributions to a genre that continues to captivate readers worldwide. From the classic tales that laid the groundwork to the fresh perspectives of contemporary authors, this book celebrates the enduring power of detective fiction and its ability to transport us into a world of intrigue, suspense, and relentless pursuit of truth.