How to Write a Mystery
- ISBN-10
- 0307776050
- ISBN-13
- 9780307776051
- Series
- How to Write a Mystery
- Category
- Language Arts & Disciplines
- Pages
- 240
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2010-12-01
- Publisher
- Ballantine Books
- Author
- Larry Beinhart
Description
WHODUNIT? YOUDUNIT! So you want to write a mystery. There's more to it than just a detective, a dead body, and Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the candlestick. Fortunately, Larry Beinhart--Edgar Award-winning author of You Get What You Pay For, Foreign Exchange, and American Hero--has taken a break from writing smart, suspenseful thrillers to act as your guide through all the twists and turns of creating the twists and turns of a good mystery. Drawing on advice and examples from a host of the best names in mystery writing--from Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane to Scott Turow and Thomas Harris--plus some of his own prime plots, Larry Beinhart introduces you to your most indispensable partners in crime: *Character, plot, and procedure * The secrets to creating heroes, heroines, and villains ("All writers draw upon themselves and their experience. While the whole of yourself might not be capable of being either a serial killer or an FBI agent, there are parts in each of us that are capable of almost anything.") * The fine art of scripting the sex scene *The low-down on violence ("A crime novel without violence is like smoking pot without inhaling, sex without orgasm, or a hug without a squeeze." ) *And much more! From the opening hook to the final denouement, Larry Beinhart takes the mystery out of being a mystery writer.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2022-04-12
- 336 pages
- Paperback
- Simon and Schuster
-
- 2021-04-27
- 336 pages
- Paperback
- Simon and Schuster
-
- 2021-04-27
- 336 pages
- Ebook
- Simon and Schuster
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