Friday, November 18, 2016

The Art and Craft of Writing Crime Fiction

Peggy Lucke asked our Sisters in Crime Northern California chapter for their favorite books on the art and craft of writing crime fiction. Thanks, Peggy, Sisters, and Misters, for contributing to this great list, and thanks Peggy for allowing me to post it here!

Have other titles to add? Comment below.

MYSTERY WRITING: 
Mastering Suspense, Structure, and Plot, by Jane Cleland
How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries, by Kathy Lynn Emerson
Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel, Hallie Ephron
How to Write a Damn Good Mystery, by James Frey
Writing Mysteries, by Margaret Lucke
You Can Write a Mystery, by Gillian Roberts
Don't Murder Your Mystery, by Chris Roerden
Crime and Thriller Writing, by Michelle Spring and Laurie R. King
How to Write Killer Fiction, by Carolyn Wheat

FOR THE MORE PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS: 
Ethics, Evil, and Fiction, by Colin McGinn

EXPERTS’ BOOKS: 
I Love a Cop: What Families Need to Know, by Ellen Kirschman
Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need To Know, by Ellen Kirschman
Police Procedure (and his blogs), by Lee Lofland
400 Things a Cop Knows, by Adam Plantinga

GENERAL FICTION RESOURCES: 
The Plot Whisperer and its companion workbook, by Martha Alderson
The Art of Character, by David Corbett
The Elements of Eloquence, by Mark Forsyth
Write Away: One Novelist's Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life, by Elizabeth George
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, by Stephen King
Steering the Craft, by Ursula LeGuin
The Fire in Fiction, by Donald Maass
Writing the Breakout Novel, by Donald Maass
Story, by Robert McKee
The Sense of Style, by Steven Pinker
Screenwriting Tricks for Authors, by Alexandra Sokoloff
Stein on Writing, by Sol Stein

5 comments:

Molly MacRae said...

Style that Sizzles & Pacing for Power, by Jodie Renner
Writing the Novel from Plot to Print to Pixel, by Lawrence Block
The Sound on the Page, by Ben Yagoda
Seven Steps on the Writer's Path, by Nancy Pickard and Lynn Lott

Peter DiChellis said...

Great list. I enjoy how-to books, am familiar with some of these, and will check into the others. I'll add one of my favorites:

Writing Mysteries, ed. Sue Grafton, with essays on various mystery writing topics by three dozen accomplished authors, including Lawrence Block, Jan Burke, Michael Connelly, Tess Gerritsen, Jeremiah Healy, Sara Paretsky, and many more. (Be sure to get the Second Edition, which includes more essays than the First.)

akhil said...

from where can i purchase or borrow the above mentioned books ?

Janet Rudolph said...

Akhil, many are available on Amazon, but also try ABE Books and Alibris books for used copies.

Dana King said...

A book I refer to time and again for general tips is SELF-EDITING FOR FICITON WRITERS by Renni Browne and Dave King.

In the Experts’ Books category I can’t recommend Connie Fletcher’s books highly enough. She was, I think, the first to gather groups of cops and sit them around a table—possibly with some beverages—and let the tape recorder run. Her books are transcriptions of their stories and they’re fascinating.