Two 'how-to' books:
For an overview and intro to crime fiction, and all its sub-genres, Lesley Grant-Adamson's book in the Teach Yourself series "Writing Crime Fiction" is good. It has a pic on the front cover of some bald guy peering around a shower curtain. Despite this it's still a good helpful overview book, which includes a reading list for each chapter and website links at the end. It also has one 12-page chapter on writing short stories.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teach-Yourself-Writing-Fiction-McGraw-Hill/dp/0071421300/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254937355&sr=1-5
But for the best ( in my view anyway) crime / mystery how-to book get "Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery" by Robert J Ray & Jack Remick. It is THE complete step-by-step approach which starts with creating a victim, then a killer, and thinking about how those two are connected, then it brings in creating the sleuth, the catalyst character etc, and just keeps on getting better and better. It really is a blueprint for the entire process from backstory through to third draft.
Every step in the process is illustrated with examples from other novels and also by using a "write-along" mystery story. Some people may find this helpful, for me it was too much. I wanted to see the process steps, and maybe one example, so I actually cut a fair few pages of examples out of my copy as I got fed up wading through them to find the next piece of process. Never-the-less, this book is one of the very best and the wealth of writing guidance in it can be applied equally well to other genres.
For crime, it is especially helpful and includes some useful charts, timeline suggestions and all you need to write a crime novel. I know I'm going on a bit here, but credit where it's due, this book is exceptional.
I have since also read James N Frey's "How to Write a Damn Good Mystery" which was also very good and covered some of the same ground and I'd score it maybe eight out of ten, whereas for it's thorough step-by-step method the "Weekend Novelist" scores ten out of ten, examples or not.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Weekend-Novelist-Writes-Mystery-step/dp/0440506581/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1254937124&sr=1-1
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I loved "How to Write a Damn Good Mystery"!
ReplyDeleteAnd "Weekend Novelist Writes a Mystery" has proven to be very useful on my current wip. I think the authors/publisher would do well to issue a workbook that parallels this book. More questions, bigger/better charts... I'd definitely pick up a copy! :)
Hello Rebecca
ReplyDeleteThat would be such a help to readers. I hope your WIP's going well.
C