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How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths
Note from authors: As our investigations business only operates within the United States, this book is more helpful to those writing U.S. private eye characters. However, there are other topics that are universally applied and useful worldwide, such as the history of the PIs, equipping a PI business, finding people, conducting trash hits, handling surveillances, how a fictional PI might work with a crime scene, homicide or DNA gathering and analysis, culling tips from our answers to writers' questions, and the Gumshoe Glossary.
"I was surprised how much I learned and how much fun this book is. It's a 'what's going on in the field' that's like a pre-write fact checker...It can stand alone as an insider's guide to the world - the real world - of the private detective."
~David Y.B. Kaufmann
"If [this book] had been around when I was fiction editor for THE THRILLING DETECTIVE WEB SITE, my job would have been much easier."
~Gerald So, editor, writer, book reviewer, moderator DetecToday
****BOOK BLURB*****
The private eye genre has come a long way, baby, with new subgenres — from teenage PIs to vampire gumshoes to geriatric sleuths — attracting new readers every year. Unfortunately, most writers are not aware of the state-of-the-art developments that shape today’s professional private investigator, which sometimes leave writers floundering with impossible and antiquated devices, characters and methods in stories. Which is why we wrote How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths, whose material we culled from our combined 14 years as private investigators, and also from our teaching online classes and conducting workshops at writers’ conferences about writing private investigators. How to Write a Dick isn’t about how to write a novel, but what you need to know to write an authentic, compelling 21st-century sleuth character or story.
****END OF BOOK BLURB*****
“Forget Google and Bing. When you need to research PI work, go to the experts, Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman: they live it, they teach it, they write it. How to Write a Dick is the best work of its kind I’ve ever come across because it covers the whole spectrum in an entertaining style that will appeal to layman and lawmen alike. This will be the industry standard for years to come.”
—Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award winner for Best PI Novel of the Year and author of Hurt Machine
“If you want authenticity in creating a fictional private investigator for your stories, then this is a must-have reference book. Its authors, Colleen and Shaun, are living breathing PIs with years of actual experience in the PI game.” —R.T. Lawton, 25 years on the street as a federal special agent and author of 4 series in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
"I was surprised how much I learned and how much fun this book is. It's a 'what's going on in the field' that's like a pre-write fact checker...It can stand alone as an insider's guide to the world - the real world - of the private detective."
~David Y.B. Kaufmann
"If [this book] had been around when I was fiction editor for THE THRILLING DETECTIVE WEB SITE, my job would have been much easier."
~Gerald So, editor, writer, book reviewer, moderator DetecToday
****BOOK BLURB*****
The private eye genre has come a long way, baby, with new subgenres — from teenage PIs to vampire gumshoes to geriatric sleuths — attracting new readers every year. Unfortunately, most writers are not aware of the state-of-the-art developments that shape today’s professional private investigator, which sometimes leave writers floundering with impossible and antiquated devices, characters and methods in stories. Which is why we wrote How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths, whose material we culled from our combined 14 years as private investigators, and also from our teaching online classes and conducting workshops at writers’ conferences about writing private investigators. How to Write a Dick isn’t about how to write a novel, but what you need to know to write an authentic, compelling 21st-century sleuth character or story.
****END OF BOOK BLURB*****
“Forget Google and Bing. When you need to research PI work, go to the experts, Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman: they live it, they teach it, they write it. How to Write a Dick is the best work of its kind I’ve ever come across because it covers the whole spectrum in an entertaining style that will appeal to layman and lawmen alike. This will be the industry standard for years to come.”
—Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award winner for Best PI Novel of the Year and author of Hurt Machine
“If you want authenticity in creating a fictional private investigator for your stories, then this is a must-have reference book. Its authors, Colleen and Shaun, are living breathing PIs with years of actual experience in the PI game.” —R.T. Lawton, 25 years on the street as a federal special agent and author of 4 series in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine
- GenresWritingNonfiction
291 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 30, 2011
13 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Colleen Collins
83 books306 followersColleen Collins is an award-winning author who’s written several dozen novels for Harlequin and Dorchester, including two indie-published mysteries, The Ungrateful Dead and its sequel, The Zen Man, as well as three nonfiction indie books, Secrets of a Real-Life Female Private Eye, How Do Private Eyes Do That? and How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths (the latter co-authored with Shaun Kaufman).
The second edition of the nonfiction book A LAWYER'S PRIMER: FROM CRIMES TO COURTROOMS, co-authored with defense attorney Shaun Kaufman, was released in March 2015. Her most recent fiction release is the romantic-mystery MISTLETOE AND MURDER IN LAS VEGAS, released December 2015.
Her books have placed first in the Aspen Gold Readers Choice Awards, Colorado Gold, Romancing the Rockies, and Top of the Peak contests. Her books have placed in the finals for the Holt Medallion, Best Indie Books 2012, Coeur de Bois Readers Choice, Award of Excellence, More than Magic, and Romance Writers of America RITA contests.
She’s a member of the Mystery Writers of America (MWA), Private Eye Writers of America (PWA), Romance Writers of America (RWA) and Sisters in Crime.
When not sleuthing or writing, Colleen likes to spend time with her husband and their two Rottweilers and three cats.
The second edition of the nonfiction book A LAWYER'S PRIMER: FROM CRIMES TO COURTROOMS, co-authored with defense attorney Shaun Kaufman, was released in March 2015. Her most recent fiction release is the romantic-mystery MISTLETOE AND MURDER IN LAS VEGAS, released December 2015.
Her books have placed first in the Aspen Gold Readers Choice Awards, Colorado Gold, Romancing the Rockies, and Top of the Peak contests. Her books have placed in the finals for the Holt Medallion, Best Indie Books 2012, Coeur de Bois Readers Choice, Award of Excellence, More than Magic, and Romance Writers of America RITA contests.
She’s a member of the Mystery Writers of America (MWA), Private Eye Writers of America (PWA), Romance Writers of America (RWA) and Sisters in Crime.
When not sleuthing or writing, Colleen likes to spend time with her husband and their two Rottweilers and three cats.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 7, 2020
Lots of good info
A little outdated. Shouldn't be too difficult for authors to revise. That said it is very useful to anyone whose main character is a PI.
A little outdated. Shouldn't be too difficult for authors to revise. That said it is very useful to anyone whose main character is a PI.
June 17, 2013
This book was fantastic! It's a (I think) really comprehensive look into the lives of real life Private Investigators, the challenges they face and the real legal issues of what they can and can't do.
I'm not sure how useful it would be to a writer outside of the United States, because it's very American in context. However, it does point you in the direction of questions you would need to ask about the similarities/differences in the various laws of your country of choice.
Ultimately, though, I found it incredibly interesting as a book about PIs, and not so much as a writing resource.
I'm not sure how useful it would be to a writer outside of the United States, because it's very American in context. However, it does point you in the direction of questions you would need to ask about the similarities/differences in the various laws of your country of choice.
Ultimately, though, I found it incredibly interesting as a book about PIs, and not so much as a writing resource.
June 25, 2012
How to Write a Dick has a lot of great info for writers, from the specific expertise a PI specializing in a certain type of investigation should have, to things a real PI wouldn't do, to how to dig around in trash. It's very readable, laid out clearly, and makes it easy to jump from section to section.
August 10, 2015
It drags a bit in places, but overall is a good resource for mystery writers.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews