Nonfiction Ink

If you’re a writer, crime does pay.

True crime captivates readers – giving them a glimpse into the forbidden and illicit and safely opening the door to a world and a side of human nature that everyone acknowledges, but few are willing to explore.

Readers have been fascinated by crime stories from the time of the first true crime book collection in 1735.  Probably the most enduring true crime story is a spree of killings that began in 1888 in London’s Whitechapel district.  Today, more than 120 years later, Jack the Ripper remains a popular topic.

What is the enduring appeal of true crime?  The most disturbing crimes seem to elicit a need to find meaning in meaningless acts, a context to explain the unexplainable.

Early true crime works were sensational, lurid throwaway tabloids.  Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood effectively changed that, launching modern true crime writing.  Published in 1966 the book combined fiction writing techniques with investigative journalism, catapulting the genre to respectable nonfiction.

The goal of narrative true crime is:

1. Understanding what drives people to commit the crime – political corruption, corporate embezzlement, kidnapping, rape, insider securities trading, racketeering, hustling, drug running, slave trading, bank robbery, forgery, murder – by examining psychopathic, sociopathic and antisocial behavior.
2. Provoking an intellectual and emotional response in the reader.

ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL TRUE CRIME

• Incorporates layers of detail about the setting, the social fabric and the culture of a particular time period – providing a historical perspective.
• Explores, in-depth, the characters’ minds – victims, perpetrators, and survivors
• Examines the impact on the society and community
• Relates the story to the reader
• Emotionally engages the reader
• Combines literary techniques – vivid characters, dialogue, description, action, metaphor, symbolism, theme, suspense, rising conflict, well-paced plot – with investigative reporting.
• Delves into the factual details of the story: forensics, police procedurals, criminal psychology, judicial practices, the arrest, trial, penalty and aftermath.
• Has something provocative to say about the events (instead of simply conveying a lurid tale of crime).

A brief list of True Crime reading:

In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

Shot in The Heart, Mikal Gilmore

The Devil in the White City, Erick Larson

Killing Pablo: The Hunt For the World’s Greatest Outlaw, Mark Bowden

Public Enemies, America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, Bryan Burrough

YOUR TURN: What do you find so captivating about true crime narrative and do you have any favorite books?

Related posts:

1. Five Steps To Understanding Your Niche (Nonfiction Genre, Part 2)
2. Using Viewpoint In Narrative Nonfiction
3. Framing the Narrative Nonfiction Story
4. Narrative Nonfiction: 7 Research Techniques To Capture A Sense Of Place
5. Book to Film: Adapting the True Story of “Public Enemies”

Tags: nonfiction genre, writing narrative nonfiction, Writing True Crime

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