HOW TO WRITE DEADLY CRIME FICTION

To receive your FREE PDF with 95 Killer Tips On Writing Deadly Crime Fiction, enter your email address on the header or sidebar form. Read on for a sample of the first 12. All images are attributed to the TV series ‘The Simpsons’.

Writing crime fiction is like investigating murders. You deal with lies.

Everyone lies to the police. Complainants lie. Witnesses lie. Lawyers lie. Believe it or not, even the crooks lie to the cops.

Homicide investigators get extremely good at detecting lies. They’re human lie detectors. And they know that to get people to co-operate in investigations, there has to be something in it for them. Just like there has to be something in this for you.

To get you to co-operate with me, I’m giving you 95 Killer Tips on how to lie to people. Because as a fiction writer, that’s what you do. You lie to your reader. Your reader signs-up for a pack of lies when she buys into your story and you owe her an excellent load of excrement in return.

It’s called the suspension of disbelief. That’s what your fiction writing has to do. Your reader has to get so immersed in the story that she forgets it’s all lies. The best stories string her along so well that she can’t put it down and that’s the best compliment you, as a writer, can ever get. So you have to be really good at telling lies.

Yes, I do want something from you and I snuck it in one of the tips. You have to read them to find out what I want.

And no, I won’t bullshit you. I used to be a cop, for God’s sakes.

It’s just that I wasn’t a very good one.

Here’s a sample of Dead Write – A No BS Guide To Writing Deadly Crime Fiction.

To receive your FREE PDF with 95 Killer Tips On Writing Deadly Crime Fiction, enter your email address on the header or sidebar form.

Part 1 – The Science of Story

Tip #1 – Understand Story

A story is about what happens (Plot) that affects people (Characters) who are trying to achieve a difficult goal (Conflict) and how they change as a result (Resolution).

Tip #2 – Understand Story-Telling

Story-telling is about communicating what’s happening. Humans are inherently curious creatures and, to keep your reader in the story, you have to keep her constantly wondering what’s coming next.

Tip #3 – Understand Crime Stories

Crime Fiction involves murders. People are fascinated about murders for the same reason they can’t avoid looking at gruesome accident scenes. Like they say in the news business ‘If it bleeds, it leads.’ Being killed is the worst thing that could happen and it’s your reader’s instinct to want to know what might happen.

Tip #4 – Understand Cops & Crimes

Joseph Wambaugh, one of the best crime writers, says “The best stories aren’t about how cops work on cases, but about how cases work on cops.”

Tip #5 – Activate Your Reader’s Brain

Humans are hardwired for story. We think and learn in stories. We have a primal need to know in order to work our flight or fight survival instinct. Stimulating your reader’s desire to know what’s happening subconsciously fires neurons in her brain and this releases dopamine, nature’s crack, which chemically sucks her into the story. She gets immense pleasure from going along for the ride.

Tip #6 – Give Your Reader What She Needs

Stories allow your reader to simulate intense experiences without actually having to live through them. It’s like being shot at – without worrying about getting hit. Stories give vital instructions on how to survive in life, allowing your reader to become the characters without ever leaving the safety of home. She needs to feel what the people in the story feel – for her entertainment – and her protection.

Tip #7 – Balance Right & Left Brain

Stories engage the left side of the brain to process words and sequence of plot. The right brain handles imagination and visualization. The best told stories balance the brain’s natural ability to look for, recognize, and match patterns giving your reader those critical and so-satisfying Ah-Ha! moments.

Tip #8 – Study Neuro-Linguistics

Mind language is an amazing science that underlies story-telling. Neuro refers to what’s happening in the mind. Linguistics is how communicating through words influences the mind. It’s the art and science of communicating. The best form of getting a message across is by stimulating your reader’s senses.

Tip #9 – Apply Neuro-Linguistics

The right words, and the right sequence of words, activate your reader’s neurological system. This affects her physiology, emotions, and behavior. When she makes sense of your story, she believes in its world. She captures and conceptualizes the experience. It’s what makes her say “I couldn’t put it down.”

Tip #10 – Give Pleasure, Avoid Pain

Humans are pleasure-seeking, pain-avoiding animals. We go to extreme lengths to achieve this in life. It’s the same for your reader. She expects a pleasurable experience from your story, even when it opens with blood & guts. If she doesn’t enjoy a pleasurable state quickly into it, she’s going to put-it-down and forget about it. If it becomes painful, she’s going to slam-it-down and then go slam you on Goodreads.

Part 2 – Telling the Story

Tip #11 – Do Not Come Lightly To The Page

Be honest. Be original. Be brutally in their face. Your job is to tell it like it is. To hell with offending anyone. Say what the story’s message is. The best stories challenge social norms.

Tip #12 – Write For One; Publish For A Million

To be authentic, you have to quit giving a shit what anyone thinks of your work while you write. Let it come right from the depths of your bowels as if…

***If you’d like the next 83 Killer Tips in* Dead Write – A No BS Guide To Writing Deadly Crime Fiction, download the FREE PDF by entering your email address in the header, sidebar, or on the form below.**

WHY FEMINISM WILL CHANGE THE WORLD

This special guest post is from my daughter, Emily Rodgers of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. Em gets it. Always has & always will. So proud of her.

Feminism. What do you think of when you hear the word?

Do you think of bra-burning, ball-busting, liberal women complaining that men are jerks and declaring the need to stand by our “sisters”?

Well truth be told this is exactly why women need to fight harder and smarter than men to be respected, understood, and appreciated. Because few take “feminism” seriously.

I will tell you exactly what real feminists think and do. I’m not talking about the man-haters. I’m talking about women who believe in equal rights being just that: EQUAL.

Think of women as the underdog. We’ve been told our whole lives we can’t do things because that’s what men are for, or that men will always do it better… so why bother. Anyone who has actively followed sports knows that there’s much to be learned from the underdog. Fighting through adversity consistently and patiently leads to the development of new approaches and lines of thinking, and eventually to success and achievement.

Feminism on principle wants to eliminate the divide and bring equality to men and women. However, feminism itself certainly has a divide. On one hand, there are radical feminists who want nothing more than to see the male species eliminated entirely. And then there are what I call “moderate” feminists who want the same opportunities for both men and women. Isn’t that after all what “equal rights” means?

This is why I call myself a Feminist.

It’s no secret that women have suffered and still do.

The suffering of not having the right to vote, the right to employment, the right to control over one’s own mind, body and soul, the right to life. But feminism is not about getting back at “men” for the inequality women suffer. It’s about using our empowerment which comes from persevering through the underdog role, to pave the way for equality on every level. Whether it be race, sex, class, age, sexual orientation, or any other reason to judge someone, women have the numbers and the power to make a difference and set the example.

We can use our cause to make the world a better place. And not just play the “blame game” like many of the aforementioned radical feminists tend to do. That’s not what true feminists are about. And the many people involved in the original women’s movement would agree. We can’t have a world worth living in without both men and women.

I recently bought a bracelet for $33.

Thirty of those dollars go to an organization called BraveHeart Women which brings together Israeli and Palestinian women in the attempt to force them to set aside their differences and realize that they are all women. They are raising families, contributing to society, educating their communities, trying to please and appease and doing all of that while being marginalized by their own culture. They have critical roles to play in this world and their religion should not determine their hatred for each other.

If only we could apply this same BraveHeart Women tactic to all other religious, idealistic wars and disputes that have been based on power struggles. Do you see where I’m going with this?

Women are leading the way in modern ways of negotiation and peacemaking. And why? It’s because many women know firsthand what it is like to be discriminated against and therefore have solutions to offer.

I encourage you to put your judgments on feminism aside and just think about what it has to offer this world if properly promoted and applied.

Some people dream about winning the lottery. I dream about a world in which women have implemented systems that no longer tolerate discrimination.

It can’t be done by one person. It takes many people with the same vision. United and committed. Determined and passionate. And for you, it started when you read the first word of my post. Take this perspective out into the world with you today. Make one small effort to change the way things are. Notice what is deemed acceptable and what goes against what I’ve shared with you here.

Women are the dark horses.

Remember the power you hold.

Use it.

And use it today.

Thanks to my beautiful daughter, Emily – a true and thoughtful feminist.

DO YOU NEED A CORONER?

For over three decades I’ve been in the death business.

I was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police homicide detective, served as a sniper on Emergency Response Teams, and finished up my forensic career as a Coroner.

So, I’ve seen my fair share of bodies.

Everyone knows what a homicide cop does and most would rather not be in the sights of a sniper, but there’s a lot of misunderstanding about the role of a Coroner as opposed to a Medical Examiner (ME) and to a Pathologist. A bit of a history here.

All civilized jurisdictions have had a judge of the dead whose duty is to find fact. Not fault. The facts to be determined are the Who, When, Where, How, and By What Means that the deceased expired. Once these facts are determined, the death must be classified into one of five categories; Natural, Accidental, Suicide, Homicide, or Undetermined. This method of fact-finding and classification is universal, whereas the structure of appointing the judge is not.

The office of the coroner dates back to 10^th century England when the Crowner of the King (hence the word coroner) investigated any number of matters, including sudden and unexplained human deaths. This evolved into an inquisitional role where the coroner would conduct simple inquiries, or in cases of public interest, would hold inquests and compel witnesses to testify. Coroner appointments generally went to upstanding citizens of the community, not necessarily to those of a medical, legal, or investigative background.

As science progressed, it became prudent to retain the expertise of medical professionals, particularly in the clinical areas of autopsy and toxicology. This coincided with the massing of population in urban areas. Out of practicality and economics, the cities would employ full time medical doctors as examiners who’d delegate field investigations to lesser qualified persons. The rural areas, having a lower caseload, adopted the reverse where they’d contract out the specialties.

A pathologist, on the other hand, is a medical examiner who’s been specifically trained in the study of death and disease. The term pathologist dates back to ancient Greece; pathos meaning suffering, and logos meaning writing. Taking it a step further, a forensic pathologist signifies a specially-trained medical doctor who’s qualified to testify in court.

I can’t say the Coroner system is any better or worse than the Medical Examiner system. The professionals may have inverse roles, but all are exceptionally well trained. Both speak to the deceased’s interests and that’s what’s important. Death investigations have become more complex as science advances and, regardless of the administrative issues, having the right people doing the right jobs is key to determining the proper cause and classification of death.

Just a note on the personal qualities required to investigate deaths.

First you need an inquisitive mind. Often things aren’t what they seem on the surface, and it’s through attention to detail that the facts rise.

Second – empathy. You deal with those in the world which the deceased suddenly left; families, friends, co-workers, and to them it’s not just another case.