How To Write Crime Fiction

by Sarah Williams

This book provides a comprehensive overview of all the different kinds of crime fiction, with examples from successful contemporary writers in each of the different genres, and clear explanations and exercises to help the beginning writer hone their craft, and discover the kind of crime fiction, the plots, the themes, the language, that work best for them.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2015

About the author

NOTE: There is more than one author with this name on Goodreads.

See here for the author of "The Old Astronomer", also known as "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil", that begins "Reach me down my Tycho Brahe..." and contains the line "I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

See also: Romance author Sarah Williams

Reviews

[N · Rating 2 out of 5]

One would expect a book titled How to Write Crime Fiction to maybe include guidance on... how to write crime fiction. Which, to be clear, this book does not do. Instead, it provides a decent-enough overview of the market for crime fiction and its various sub-genres.

But, like, where's the rest of it?!?

More than once, I flipped ahead in this book, because I thought surely (surely!) there must be a 'part 2' that actually contains tips and tricks for improving your craft, because otherwise why would it be marketed as a book on how to write crime fiction?!?

Spoiler: there is no mythical part 2. Sarah Williams does sprinkle in a few (repetitive) inducements to 'show don't tell' (revolutionary!) and create a character profile before you start writing (no, really???). Here's my favourite piece of advice: "enjoy your research, enjoy your planning and, above all, enjoy your writing!" (thANKS????)

Though Williams is super vague about most aspects of writing craft, what she does seem obsessed with is etymology and the idea that limiting your writing to words of a certain origin (e.g. Anglo-Saxon) can transform your prose style. Um, okay. But there are probably 1,749 things that a budding writer should concentrate on before that.

Williams' suggested writing exercises are also the most crushingly dull things I have ever seen. As one exercise, she advocates describing what you do in the 30 minutes after you get home from work. Um... I won't. Because I fear I would slip into a coma ("first, I take off my shoes and put on some fuzzy socks...").

Heyyy! Death by boring writing exercise! There's a premise for my next crime novel...

[Ruth Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this. It’s a deceptively simple format - take a passage from a bestseller in each crime sub-genre, use it to explore an aspect of the writing craft. But, lurking beneath the simplicity of the concept, is a wealth of no-nonsense advice and encouragement. I’m also delighted to have been reminded about Lindsay Davis’ Falco novels - I can feel an ancient Roman crime binge coming in!

[Virginia Rand · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay, but I would have liked a bit less general writing advice and a bit more information regarding research. More than, "You'll need to do a lot."

[Rebecca Fung · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best thing part of this book was the part about writing cosies. If I was to rate it on that chapter alone, I probably would have given the book 5 stars. So if you are interested in writing cosies, I think this book could be really good and the chapter devoted to it was excellent.

How to Write Crime Fiction is a slim writing book. I've read a few writing books despite the idea that you're "just meant to do it". Crime fiction is something I'm fairly new to reading - I don't consider myself an expert in reading it and I'm not a writer of crime fiction. But recently I've read a bit more crime fiction. I tend to shy away from some of the more classic crime and read mash-ups, comedies and noir.

I read How to Write Crime Fiction to get an insight into the genre. It was interesting but it was not a terrific how-to. It probably would have disappointed some of those trying to get a good how-to.

The presentation is very simple. First divide the genre into several main types of crime fiction. Then give a sample text of each and discuss some techniques of each genre.

The sample texts weren't bad and indeed, were inspiring and made me want to read some more in the area. Of course, one could argue a different author or text might be a better choice but as Williams pointed out, there are so many good writers in each area,

The first choice is the "cosy" and the explanation is that it's usually about a detective solving a puzzle in a small area. I liked how Williams explained the how-to here. Her focus was on how to lay out the puzzle and how to capture the details, draw up a map, lay false trails etc so that the story came together. I thought that while this might be a bit rigid for some sorts of writers who claim to "just write", it would be extremely useful to have these templates for checking details and planning. While it was formulaic I felt it really was an innovative approach to explaining "how-to" one of the main parts of crime fiction.

After this, though, it does feel that many of the next genres are glossed over more and more. When talking about the consulting detective genre, the focus is only on how to create the character but not on how to work the plot, as if this doesn't matter. When we move to the hard-boiled genre, we simply get an exercise in describing a location, and the exercise doesn't even seem to have much to do with whether it's got anything to do with crime. It's a generic writing exercise.

And so on.

Yes, location and language and so on are important tools in writing but they are tenuously linked to different genres, and not much else is explained about how to deal with the peculiarities of that genre. For instance, how does one deal with writing such intellectually superior characters in the consulting and hardboiled detective genres without making them seem completely unrealistic or absolute pricks? How do such characters connect to their readers (who are not all intellectual giants)?

I felt that some subgenres were missed - for instance children's and YA crime, humorous crime and the blundering detective are not included. Also the short story as an art is not really dealt with well. The exercise, to answer a few questions and then saying "the story will almost write itself" is not very satisfying. Artists of the short story in any genre know there is a lot more to it than that. I've read a fair number of short stories and there is a huge difference between a good short story and a bad one and that's because many people cannot write shorts well. It's not as easy as writing down a few points. You need to work out your language, you need the discipline, you need to understand where to start and how to steer the story and you need to edit.

Also Williams' many references to lexicons of Anglo Saxon, French-Norman and Germanic backgrounds without giving examples but expecting people just to go off and do exercises wasn't very helpful, a lot of people have no idea where their words come from.

I liked reading about different styles and their features, samples, and I enjoyed reading about how to plot a puzzle in a cosy - I think this would be hugely helpful in writing crime. I felt much of the other advice was a bit generic in terms of writing advice.

[Aaron Leyshon · Rating 5 out of 5]

No review will do this book justice. Williams has provided a wonderful reference for writing crime fiction. It is not in the slightest prescriptive and seeks to build craft and conscious thinking about genre. The book is not only one of the most comprehensive books on crime writing craft I have read, each sub-genre only takes up a few pages, but it is the most useful as well. There is no fluff and no filler, and read as a whole there is no doubt it will improve any authors craft to practice and play with the exercises. I can't recommend this book enough.

[Marina Pacheco · Rating 3 out of 5]

As previous reviewers have said this is more a book about the various types of crime genres and how they differ from each other. I was after a more detailed breakdown on how you plot a mystery so as to provide sufficient drama, and a well plotted mystery with sufficient clues that a person would say, "ah so that how it was done'", at the end, without figuring out who done it, halfway through the book.

[Noortje de Graaff · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a guide to which kind of crime genres are out there and then a very brief summery / tips on them. Useful I suppose if you don't know what kind of crime book you want to write. Not so useful if you already know. I feel like this book would've been better if each section had been longer and more detailed.

[Светлана Гусева · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the BEST and helpful books for writers ever. Tons of useful information and tips. I'm writing a crime novel right now and already use many of the ideas. Many many thanks to Sarah!!

[Constantine]

paperback

[Sharon Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

If anyone wants pointers on "how to write a crime novel" this would not be the book I'd recommend. It's not really a "how-to" book at all - in fact, I think it works best as a kind of "primer" on crime fiction for those wanting an overview of the genre. Williams sorts crime fiction into "sub-genres", from cosies (no gore) through to noirs and thrillers (often gory and usually morally uneven). She presents an extract from a representative author of each sub-genre and then proceeds to discourse on the genre itself, rather than analysing the passage. She also sets her readers a task, such as making an "event grid", drawing a location map, building character, etc. It's not that these exercises mightn't be useful in themselves, but I would think you'd need to be a whole lot further into your own crime novel to be able to use them.

One thing missing from this book is a truly adequate list of the most prominent writers in each sub-genre - where the hell is Ruth Rendell? or Agatha Christie - how can you even mention "cosies" without Christie! So many others are left out I can't be bothered naming them! My advice: just write the damn novel yourself and don't worry about "how to do it" books!

[T.O. Munro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book - struggles at times to meet the demands of two audiences. At times it seems aimed at those new to writing covering pretty basic concepts like point of view. Yet it also strives to offer insights into the nuances of genre and subgenre and to deliver all of this in a pretty slim volume.

Attempting such a breadth of challenge in such a brevity of context is ambitious with the risk of patronising as often as it illuminates.

Nonetheless, it is easily consumed (readable enough to devour in a single sitting if you were so minded) and not without its thought provoking moments. A bit like the world of speculative fiction, with its Tolkienesque worlds of imagination, crime fiction is a genre that has to convey a lot of detailed information to enable the reader to make sense of the story. Coming up against the old admonition of "show don't tell" Williams points out that sometimes the author does have to "tell" and admitting that enables you to explore how different ways to tell and to transition from tell to show. It helps also that the work is illustrated with references to and extracts from a variety of writers within the genre - such as the telling example of telling where Patricia Cornwell has her first person protagonist Kay Scarpetta introduce herself and her qualifications to the reader.

The section on "fiction in exotic places" also has resonances for the speculative fiction author as Williams celebrates the opportunity for an author to make revel in the foreign and unfamiliar, but also highlights the obligation to do the necessary research to accurately convey key details of geography, taste and texture to these strange places. There is, perhaps a greater obligation on crime fiction writers than speculative fiction, in that the ludic core of crime fiction requires a forensic focus on plotting.

Williams also makes interesting references to linguistic roots and the scope for using vocabulary with Anglo-Saxon or Norman roots if you want to give character or dialogue a different kind of register. While the allusions are lightly delivered the idea hints at scope for further study.

The final sections of reference include convention and resources where the would be crime writer might get further useful advice including a Bristol based crime writing convention www.crimefest.com - which now gives me a second reason to revisit my youthful stomping grounds (after the fantasy/sci-fi convention of Bristolcon of course.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are so many other books out there that provide guidance on how to write crime fiction and though titled as such, this isn't one of them.