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Murder in the Library: Writing & The Writing Life

What? You thought I made this all up, or downloaded it all from Wikipedia? Nope. Here are the books that inspired me to create this site, and the books I’ve used to cobble it together over the years, as well as the ones I’ve discovered along the way, broken down into various categories. If you like this site, you may find some of these as fascinating as I do. 

| General Reference | History, Theory, Criticism & Other Agendas | The Pulps & Short Fiction |
| Television | Film | Radio | Comics | The Writing Life | Diversions | True Detectives | True Crime |
The Paper Chase |

Murder in the Library: Writing & The Writing Life

“The reason I switched from writing romance novels to mysteries is because I ran out of sexual positions.”
Janet Evanovich, from How I Write

Writing books. Every writer I know has a shelf of them, probably gathering dust. I have a shelf. The Girl Detective has one. We live in a house of books. Including hundreds on how to write other books.

Anyone who ever seriously dreamed of writing slowly accumulates them without even trying, and we read ’em cover to cover when we start out. And then, as our careers start to chug along, we tend to forget ’em. But don’t despair. Even the most outdated tome (and the following list is full of them) may offer a thought, a hint, a unique piece of advice –it may be just the spark to keep the crazy train rolling. Or give it a push if it seems to have stalled.

     

Sorted by author, then chronologically

  • Beattie, Bryce,editor,
    Pulp Era Writing Tips Paperback | Buy this book  | Kindle it!
    CreateSpace, 2018.
    Seventeen articles on writing, culled from Writer’s Digest and other writing magazines, written by successful (if not particularly well-known) pulp era authors, on plotting, making characters memorable, writing a fight scene, writing a love scene and more. There’s some darn good advice here, practical, pragmatic and perhaps most importantly, professional. The glaring omission is Lester Dent’s “Pulp Paper Master Fiction Plot” (possibly for copyright reasons) but you can find that anywhere, even here.
  • Beinhart, Larry, and Cathy Repetti
    How to Write a Mystery | Buy this book
    Ballantine Books, 1996.
    This one comes highly recommended. Beinhart, an Edgar Award-winning P.I. author, takes a break from writing thrillers to reveal “all the twists and turns of creating the twists and turns of a good mystery.” He uses examples and advice from everyone from Chandler to Spillane. James Ellroy tagged it a “post post graduate course in writing great crime fiction” and even Anthony of Judas E-zine liked it: “This is a great book for both the beginner and the experience writer. It walks you through the process without holding your hand. Outlining the process from start to finish it can help the self-taught refresh their memories and to double check themsleves while providing a start to finish map for the new author to follow. Even for those who don’t need the information contained within its covers, this is a good read that makes you think about the subject.”
  • Bell, James Scott,
    How to Write Pulp Fiction | Buy this book | Kindle it!
    Compendium Press, 2017.
    Yeah, it’s sorta disconcerting that over half the authors books are about writing, and the cover looks like it cost him about twenty bucks (with money left over for a case of beer), but this International Thriller Writers Award winner, blogger and writing instructor actually seems to know what he’s talking about. He coughs up the goods in this little chunk of sound advice and common sense, something a lot of self-styled indie writers who wrap themselves in pulp armor could definitely use. My favourite bit is his his solid take on editing (why, who, how, etc.) in his Conditions for Success chapter. The editorial checklist alone might be worth the price of admission. 
  • Bintliff, Russell,
    Police Procedural: A Writer’s Guide to The Police and How They Work | Buy this book
    Cincinnati, Ohio: Writer’s Digest Books, 1993.
    One of many fine books in Writer’s Digest’s “Howdunit Series.” (see Private Eyes: A Writer’s Guide to Private Investigators, especially). But even those not specifically dealing with private eyes are well worth reading, including this one.
  • Block, Lawrence,
    Writing the Novel from Plot to Print | Buy this book
    Cincinnatti: Writer’s Digest Books, 1978.
    The first of what would turn out to be a long string of books about writing by Block, who by now has written more books about writing than some writers have written, period. Regularly reprinted, and eventually updated in 2015 to include digital publishing, but this one remains a stone cold classic, timeless and absolutely essential.
  • Block, Lawrence,
    Telling Lies For Fun and Profit | Buy this book | Kindle it!
    New York, New York: Arbor House, 1981.
    A collection of Block’s columns from his 14-year stint as a columnist for Writer’s Digest, one of the very best books on fiction writing ever written. Sue Grafton, no slouch herself, says it “should be a permanent part of every writer’s library.”
  • Block, Lawrence,
    Write for Your Life: The Book About the Seminar | Buy this book | Kindle it!
    Lawrence Block Productions, 1986.
    Revised, 2014.
    Sporting perhaps the most cockeyed genesis of all Block’s books on writing, this was a self-published book about his own “Write for Your Life” seminars that he and his wife Lynn presented for several years, which in turn were inspired by his previous books on writing which were based on his columns from Writer’s Digest, but still contains a hefty serving of writing advice, wry asides and pointed examples. Block now feels the original version was perhaps a little too “Gee Whiz” for more modern sensibilities. So he revised it in 2014, and gave it a new subtitle: “The Home Seminar for Writers.” 
  • Block, Lawrence,
    Spider, Spin Me a Web: A Handbook for Fiction Writers | Buy this book | Kindle it!
    New York, New York: Quill, 1988.
    Picks up where Telling Lies for Fun and Profit left off, offering tips on increasing your creativity, setting up a place to write and tons of other insights from one of the true masters of the crime fiction genre.

RELATED LINKS

       

Compiled by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Randal Brandt and Monte Herridge for their contributions to this page. And to The Girl Detective for her guidance and her library (Don’t worry — I’ll put ’em back).

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