Creative Writing: Writing Detective Stories for Beginner Writers

1. Introduction to Writing Detective Fiction for Beginners: Hello and welcome to your detective story writing course. Detective stories or a sub genre that have created many icons in literature and film all over the world over the past 100 years, there are characters who are charmed their readers with their keen intellect, the sharp widths, and determined personality, mysteries they encounter and credibly investing to a degree that readers try to work out ministry alongside the main character. Detective stories or mystery novels just like any other during the reader to predict what happens next, We'll stay trapped in suspense. It's one of my favorite genres and most likely one of yours as well. Over the years I've written hundreds of stories, researched many writers, and taught several courses. I've taken what I learned on this sub-genre and condensed it into this one course for beginner writers. In this course, I'll cover all the important elements of detective fiction and Omnia with the tools to create your own with a license on phrases and mannerisms to the comparisons between the realistic and cliche detector. Two important facts regarding crime scenes, the police system and the legal system that can help you build a more realistic story. As an added bonus, I am an active instructor, which means I'm here every day ready to answer your questions, review your writing, and assist you in writing your detective story. This is not just a writing course to help you get started, but also the opportunity to join one of the biggest rotting communities on the platform. And I look forward to seeing you in the discussions. On that note. I'll see you in the very first lesson. For now. 2. Standalone or Series?: Hello and welcome to your writing course. In this lesson, I'm going to be talking about a very important question at all. Rogers consider when they start rotting, or they're going to be writing a standalone novel, or are they going to be writing a series? This is a question I also want you to think on as I'm going to be discussing the pros and cons of writing a standalone novel, series or series of standalone novels. Now what I mean by a series, a standalone novels is that it is a series that has separate stories but a common main character. There are many famous ulcers which I've done this, such as salts are kinda Doyle with a Sherlock Holmes series, which is a series of stories, but they will separate it. Only common factor being Sherlock and Watson and perhaps a few other secondary characters. Then we have Agatha Christie, who's written many different series of standalone novels. Different detectors. One of the most famous being Hercules arrow. These have been standalone novels, but at the same time, common factor between main character, the detect. However, it is becoming the norm for fiction today to have a series of novels which has each and open ending or loose and z will be dealt with in the next null. And it's only really a conclusive ending in a final novel. For example, rotis, we'd like to have their villains resurface all their characters only change of a series of novels. And thus, it is really just one long novel that's being broken up into separate events. If that explained, let me discuss the pros and cons of each. Starting with standalone novels. A single standalone novel is a novel that doesn't require any additional reading before the first page or after the last page. You can pick up the book and start reading without worrying about missing information or references to another book. This is one of the biggest pros of a standalone novel. You don't need to plan out a wandering story that takes several books to tell. Your story is one book for the reader to enjoy, and it makes your preparation much easier as well. The other pro of a standalone novel is that you can put all your focus on that level or you're planning, you're practicing and effort goes into one book. Now while it may not always be the case, this increases the chance of Latina quality novel, you can be proud off. Finally, and perhaps a sort of pseudo benefit is that you can continue your novel if you want to start a series. Sometimes you don't know if you'll first novel is going to be so great that you want to stick with it through several books that sometimes it is. And when it comes to a single standalone novel, you can create a series of standalone levels, much like the Sherlock Holmes series. This always that to fall back on. You don't have to create a story that goes through several novels when you can create a series of different stories. Now when it comes to a series of novels, with each book is interconnected, the pros are very much different. First, it is a well-known fact in the writing community that no matter what genre you're writing, a series of novels gets more attention than a standalone series has a greater fan base as each novel and a series ups the dedication of your fans. Of course, that means that your later books will have less readers. But the criteria series will still increase the number of people attracted to a books. So it kind of balances out. Of course, if it is more popular and they are more novels, a series, it to be a more lucrative option as well. This applies to a series of stand-alones as well. Second pro is that a series of connected novels might require more work, but they often have better develop characters. As you will need to explore many sides of their personalities and their histories. Well-rounded characters are always fun to read. Finally, a series allows for more freedom with the construction of your plot. With a stand-alone, you start to novel knowing how it begins and how it ends. But when starting a series, in most routers have no idea what will happen in the final novel. Show. They may have some ideas, but they don't restrict themselves as to what will happen in a future novel. As details may change depending on how the story flows and their current novel. Now when you are deciding to write a standalone or a series of novels, it also pays to consider your target market, erotic, and create a series of novels in any genre, and it could turn out to be very popular. However, there are some genres which are better suited for writing a series than others. For more serious and dramatic fiction, it helps to have a stand-alone for the reader to be focused on. However, for more lighthearted or epic tales, a series is more beneficial if you are happy with having adults as your target audience, for example, and Hakim and on writing a series, then this is not only a great road to go down, but one that I personally recommend. It gives you the opportunity to rot more stories, play with new characters, and give you a better chance of rotting proficiently if you are interested in doing so. If you're writing a single standalone novels, you still have this opportunity as that gives you plenty of time as well to do some experimentation through redraft and through editing. You might have new ideas along the way which can change the very ending that you have in mind. With that said, you don't have as much freedom as a series, but that isn't just say that your CR restricted by having a standalone single novel. Now to conclude this video as well with mini videos in this series is I want to finish off by separating my professional advice from my personal opinion. I like to provide you for the professional information in the beginning and right till the end. But at the end I wanted to give you what are personally would do. This will help give you some insight into, I don't know, the rotis mindset. What I would do in a situation could differ from what you would do. But it will also give you ideas if you are struggling. Now, when I'm deciding whether to rot a series and not at Assad to wait. And Tom, halfway through writing my first book, by that point, I have an excellent idea of my characters and the world. It is easier for me to decide if I wanted to write more stories with these characters. I might even come up with a few ideas for different stories while our route. This may not work for you, especially if you'd like to plan thoroughly. But if you find yourself unable to decide, Trump putting the question at the back of your mind and just start writing instead. It's great to answer the question right at the start of your planning process. But it's not the end of the world if you only answer it when you are busy rotting. And that brings us to the end of this first lesson. For your exercise. In this lesson, I want you to imagine your characters and your story. Could you see it turning out to be a long winding series with several novels. Perhaps you see your characters being so appealing that they could inspire several stand-alones. Is your story and characters perfectly created for a single standalone novel. And you're gonna stick with that. Just imagine what you would see your characters doing beyond the story that you have in mind. And if you can't really imagine it, and perhaps a single novel is best suited for you. In the next lesson, we'll be discussing the comparisons between a realistic detective and a cliche detective, which top of personality or detective character is best suited for your story. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 3. Realistic Detective vs Cliche Detective: Hello and welcome to your detective story writing course. In this lesson, we are going to be discussing the realistic detector and the cliche detected, the pros and cons of each. First, let's start with the cliche, detective. And that's more fun and ridiculous. What I might be wrong in assuming the cliche detective can't be realistic. I'm simply referring to the top of detective that has its own version of Pulp Fiction. The suave ladies man sitting in a smoky room wondering why everything is in grayscale until he is blinded by the next sock focus damsel in distress with legs for Miles, who comes bolting in through their office door. The cliche detective is old-fashioned, but it's certainly still holds a place on the shelves to this day. Now the cliche detective doesn't have to be a man. In fact, it is probably best to describe the depreciate detective as the superhero genre. Cliche will wear a trench coat and a fedora, smoke profusely, drink into the not in some jazzy bar. And dish on one line is whenever they get the chance to speak. Great examples of this cliche. Detective, **** Tracy, an actual comic book character, and Sam Spade, the protagonist of the classic detective novel, The Maltese Falcon. All these detectives have traits that are synonymous with being a detective. It's a reason that when we picture a detective, We can't help it picture these icons and detective genre. We see them with their trench coats and their 1950s is static. Walking the streets. Mentally monologue in as they try to piece all the clues together. Meanwhile, they're also battling some inner turmoil and pondering or relationship with the victim who knows. These tropes work well within a noir detective story. It work well today. The underlined the darkness of man, which is what Nora is all about. If any of these details appeals to you, whether it be the fashion since mannerisms, the atmosphere, these detectives reveling, then perhaps a cliche detective might work in your novel better than a realistic detected. Speaking of which, let's discuss that top of detective and what makes them so realistic? The realistic detective is overworked, working three cases at once instead of the odd case that crosses their desk. These are most likely police detectives or even private investigators who have their own problems, their own dramas. These are detectives who will most likely keep their professional life separate from their work. No matter how handsome, old, pretty a suspect may be. They are simply trying to get through the week and hopefully get some sleep. These kinds of detectives have their own Trump. First, these kinds of detectives are immediately more relatable while still allowing that feeling of escapism. Anyone who has been swamped with work understands the strengths and pains at detective constantly faces, the boredom of asking mundane questions, the mountains of paperwork that are involved in certain cases, a commonplace in the laugh of a real detective. Now these two types of detectors do have some similarities. They all ask questions, they all analyze clues, follow hunches, or pick up leads as they go along. But they're awesome decided pros of each. First, the realistic detective requires a lot more research, but there is a wealth of knowledge one can find on the Internet, in books, or even by interviewing a detective. The amount of information is a means. And while you weren't include everything, you will definitely encounter some details that will interest your reader and add to the realism of your story. Yet with the cliche detected, you allow yourself the freedom of a story that isn't realistic. Meaning you can create an extraordinary situation and can progress the story in a way that makes no sense in regards to police procedure. Perfect sense in regards to the story itself. It's the closest thing to writing fantasy in the genre. As a route from the start you are establishing a story that's more about the pot and about the realism. This is something you can't really do if you are realistic with the way you write your detective. With that said, you should know that later in this course, I'll be doing lessons in discussing the more realistic aspects of a detective. Discussing the jog and the police Franklin system and mole, which is information you could use to help make your story more realistic. This is the information you can use if you are writing a cliche detective and still want to bring it down to ground level, down to earth, so to speak. With that said, huma, personal thoughts on writing a cliche and realistic detective. When deciding on the kind of detective I wanted to write, I thought that the cliche detective would be the ideal choice. It allows for some extraordinary situations and even some silliness in regards to situations. However, the seriousness of the realistic detected, coupled with the beat and down to Amina had a chomp. I could not resist. Of course, that is a cliche in itself, but one that certainly fits better in real life than many other of the tropes that I've considered. Not for the exercise of this lesson. It's simply to decide the Canada detective you want your protagonist to be. Does the freedom of a cliche to take the appeal to you? The immersiveness of the realistic detective. What happens if your character isn't a license detective? Or if they simply a teenager trying to solve a schoolyard mystery. In that case, your character could still receive some characteristics from these two different types. Yours can be more realistic in the way they approached situations, or there can be more extraordinary. Just depends on how restricted you want to be when you are writing your story. By adding these details that add to the immersiveness, you'll make your story more believable and enjoyable as it's more immersive. However, by creating a story that is more based in fiction with extraordinary situations or silliness thrown in here and the, or even some of the cliche tropes. It would then make for more amusing read and perhaps even a more dramatic and enjoyable plant. With that, this lesson has come to an end. In the next lesson, I'll be going through some of the jargon, the lingo that is often thrown around in detective fiction. These are gonna be some of the more popular terms, such as Alibaba to some more dated terms such as mouthpiece. Find out what these mean in the next lesson. For now. 4. Detective Terms and Phrases: Hello and welcome to detective story writing course. In this lesson, we're gonna be taking a break from more opening the ideas of writing a detective fiction and looking at the more niche details that make it more immersive and realistic, we're gonna be discussing the jargon and terms that are often used in detective fiction. In this lesson, I'll be covering the realistic terms and phrases that are often used by detectives, as well as the cliched terms. You never know which one you might feel like using in your story. It also depends on the situation. If you are creating a motivation top story, then you might use these more data terms. Or you might even use them in a realistic story, but to create more amusing seen. Also before we begin, I'd like to talk about a very important factor to consider when you're using these terms. Jargon is great for adding detail and immersiveness to a story, but it is also something you don't want to overuse in your story as you might start to lose, your reader, might seem cool to have your characters use these slang to use abbreviations and other jogging to make it seem a bit more realistic and damps, but more often than not, a detective will use more common phrases to describe something, then use the official tomb. While it is great to include these terms to add to the immersiveness. Do not overuse them, otherwise you break immersion. Probably one of the base methods for deciding how often you use these terms is to think about it when you approach your own career. How often do you use slang? And how often do you use the official terms? How often do you use simple phrases and common woods to explain something? And then use that when describing situations and you'll novel. That way you will get a more realistic atmosphere and you still get to use these terms along the way. I guess another metaphor to explain this would be to compare it to assaulting a meal. You don't want to over salted. Where do you want just enough to add some playful with that said, I'm going to start going through the terms and their explanations. So let's begin. First, suspect a person who is under suspicion because of their connection to a crumb, a suspect is up and someone close to the victim be at a friend or enemy. More commonly is a person that was present when a crime was committed, such as being in a building, when a crime took place, Alibaba antibiotic excuse or piece of information proving that someone was somewhere else joining the crumb. You might have heard this term used in practically anything involving crime and suspects, beat and officers assigned patrol area. You may have heard the phrase on the beat, which refers to a person on patrol duty. Every officer on the beat means every officer that was out on patrol, perp. Perp is a shortened version of perpetrator, a slang term that is commonplace amongst a uniformed officers. Now, book to erase someone. Again, you might have heard such phrases as books or book The Pope. Next we have Canaan, which simply means dog, as in Canaan, most cities will have a canine division in your police, false POI, or Person of Interest. Person with knowledge or involvement in a criminal investigation might be various POS and a single investigation. It all depends on the case itself. Now, in a conversation talking about a hostile situation, you might have heard the word vase based is another common phrase, referring to the bulletproof vests. Some officers way as protocol or patrolling a dangerous area or put on before entering a firefight. Now you might have versa hood, Cherry. Cherry is the red light that the patrol vehicles have on the roof. This may also be said as berries and cherries, a sum referring to the multiple lots of both rate and blue chain full. A classic phrase often said of a police radio or by truckers through their CB radios, and simply means, I understand. Another one is Miranda or Mirandize. It is a phrase meaning to read someone. They rats, again, a slang term referring to a particular case and situation, but it's also a common one. And Alpha so March request a bus when someone is injured or if there is a strong possibility of someone about to be injured. Bag the evidence, quite literally a balance that has been put in a plastic bag, helps protect any fingerprints, so preventing any other clues on the evidence from being disturbed. Contraband, property that is often unlawful to possess. This can be anything from drugs to illegal firearms. Detectors, often bad contraband as it is evidence that can contain possible clues. Another phrase is Jane Doe or John Doe. And unidentifiable copes, a phrase used in almost every division in a police station, either in hospitals when they receive a copes for the mode that lacks a name in full meant a person who has inside information that proves useful, much like a person of interest, that an informant is generally an officer or someone working with the police. Tempo. When someone alters OA raises evidence, evidence that has been tempered with can lead to the wrong person being put under suspicion or dead end. As far as Leads go. Warrant more is a legal document that allows someone to do something. An officer needs a warrant to search a suspect's home, and we'll go to award opposite to apply for one by the same token or when so-and-so provided if reasonable evidence is provided. There you have it. Those are some phrases that are often used by police officers today. I'm sure you might have heard some of these already, but if there were any that you didn't, I'm glad to have helped provide some of that information. Of course, there are many, many others, but I don't want to read an entire dictionary team is an a. So a lot of abbreviated terms such as RNR, which means records and identification. These sort of phrases and terms are again, quite well-known amongst police officers in the police station. And like I said, when it comes to these more complex terms, especially abbreviations, you'll find that they often use common phrases. It's only really the most official situations when they use terms like these, like when they're talking with a superior officer and so on. I'm a big advocate of doing the research and putting that research into a story. That means that you also need to understand that some information simply isn't necessary. You can add these details to make a seem more realistic or beta in some way. But by creating too much of this information, too many details, you can easily bog the reader down with all these descriptions and everything. You want to give them room to breathe, to understand and to follow your plot. You don't want to lose them in a wave of information that they don't necessarily need to know. This is crammed fiction meaning yet you are more focused on the characters and the story and the details that matter to the story. Then additional information that is more like did you know that anything else? Now your project in this lesson is to do some additional research into these phrases and terms. If there are some terms that you are unsure, be sure to look them up, add them to a list. These are terms that you might want to use in your story. So having them on hand would be a great idea. Write them down on a sheet of paper and a little notebook, something like that. Try and see if you can find them actually being used by police officers. And it could be in recordings. Videos on YouTube, can be in movies or books that are based in reality. That will help me give you a better idea of how these terms and phrases are used and also when they are used. So that covers terms and phrases. Bet. Now in the next video, I'm going to be covering the grim facts and gory details about criminal investigation. In other words, these other effects about how long it takes to draw well, how does a police officer identify the gun that is being used in a crown fund out in the next video. 5. The Grim Facts: Crime Scene Facts: Hello and welcome to a detective story writing course. You join me on a cold gray day where I'm gonna be talking about the ribbon gory effects that make up to take to fiction. These often the effects that we use to describe a crime scene and often the facts that detectives use two piece clues together. Now a crime scenes on Naver, pretty, be it a robbery, be it a murder scene. Perhaps there was a struggle. Perhaps the victim is this, so you can see the wounds. These all have an array of details that can help detect a better construct a scene. Understand what happened, how the crime was committed, how many people were involved, what they used, and so on. The venue of this gram scene is also a very important. It could be that the crime scene is in a forest. There are other factors and elements that influence the clues. Or it could be that the crime scene is in someone's home, in an office building, or even in the criminals very own hideout, which is decorated with all sorts of dark paraphernalia. Venues also introduced their own clues, their own facts that can help add to the evidence. For example, you might have a crime that is taken place by the ocean side. There might even be sad set. The crime scene involved seawater, perhaps even see lamp, character of knowledge on sea lava and how to fix the surroundings and everything could also help piece to get an evidence. Of course, there are many places that a crown can take place, and thus, they are many details that I could talk about. But obviously, there's not enough time to talk about so much. I'm gonna be discussing the general effects that can help you understand the crime scene. And perhaps these artifacts that you detective can use to help piece of chromosome together as well. These are general facts that can be used almost anyway. Let's get into it. First. When a window is broken and losses on the inside, that means it was broken from the outside. Very common fact and any crime scene investigation, the more basic cramps, this is often when it's a breaking and entering case. Now, while I'm in common, I'll lock can be picked with a special toolset leaving no trace. It's more common though for Locke to be forced or picked with a cheap set of equipment, leaving scratches and damage. Next, when a bullet is the gun leaves special markings on the casein and bullet tip is to police get hold of these two things. The ballistics department can analyze the evidence to see if that particular gun fire that particular bullet. Just because gunfire is the same caliber bullet does not mean it was a gun that did often in the old days when it came to convicting someone with murder and came down to simply matching the bullet with the gun that was registered to that person. These are just some common effects on basic crime scenes, but there's some more trigger if there is no sign of forced entry into building, that means the criminal is closely related to the owner of the building. Either they work, they live, they know somebody who does, and they let their criminal or inadvertently gave them access. The criminal could in fact be the owner of the building. Next, if a murder victim has a spouse or significant other, they are normally the first suspect on the list. This is because domestic violence is a very prison thing in society today. And now, depending into a mold gory effect, blood splatters of larger the further they are from the victim. This is because droplets that are propelled of a greater distance will impact more forcefully and spread wider. This helps detectives determine what type of weapon caused certain wounds from the pattern of blood splatters to the distance. Sometimes it can even tell if it's a gun, how powerful that gun is, and thus determine the caliber of the weapon. And by determining the Kaleeba, one can easily then determine what types of gun might've caused the wound. Now we're getting into the mode grizzly facts. The most squeamish of you, this might be an uncomfortable section of the video. And if you don't plan to include any murder, crime scenes or any use of blood or anything like that in your story, that's fine as well. And you can easily skip this section or skip straight to the next video. But now we'll go into the grim effects, grizzly details that make up murdering investigations. If homicide is an important part of your plot, these next factor is going to help you construct your cramps in. Blood is known to smell like copper. Smell that is easy to notice for an experienced homicide detective. Next, blood gets darker of a term. If blood is still light, that means it is fresh. Of course, if it's still wet, it is still fresh. But this is just another way to determine how old blood is just Trump sat alone. Next, blood can take around an hour to draw, but this also depends on the environment and temperature. Cooler temperate environments will keep blood fresh, bob dry, windy environments will not. This goes back to where your crime scene takes place. If it takes place and let us say a desert environment than the dry with a and the humidity will help dry the blood. However, if in a cooler environment, that is, let's say waste, such as a Django situation that keeps a lot longer. Next, large pool of blood requires a lot of time to form or large wound or the victim to still be alive as their heart will maintain blood flow. It requires one or more of these elements to transpire. Otherwise, you won't be encountering pools of blood so often. In most cases, it is often read anyway, to encounter large pools of blood. This is also a very important factor in constructing your crime scene. As in most cases, if there is a small arms used or anything like that, you want to have buckets of blood painting the area you will have to read, therefore more conservative and describing an environment when it comes to goal. So as you can see from this information of blood trail can be as helpful to detect it as a breadcrumb trail. There are many facts about blood that helped detectives quickly determine what state the victim was in, how long ago cramp took place. And if they can get a clear view of the wound, they can even then figure out what kind of weapon was used, such as a gun enough will even a blunt instrument. And now getting even darker with these grizzly facts, we're gonna be discussing the effects that pertain to corpses. Now, I like to think that I'm a pretty thick skin person. I've seen some follow-up movies. I've read some enough books. But even these facts still give me a chill. As your imagination can construct all sorts of situations of how these veins could transpire and then thus create these facts. If you're creating a more darker thriller, desk detective fiction, then perhaps these facts perfect for you when describing these scenes. First, let's talk about body warmth. A body is warm and not stiff. When the person has been dead for less than three hours. This is the most time it would take full body to start losing its temperature. And for rigor mortis to sit in. Of course, this also does depend on the environment. If the body is warm and stiff, that means the person has been dead between three to eight hours. If the body is cold and not stiff. The Thompson stiff is between 836 hours. Finally, if the body is cold and stiff, the person has been dead for more than 36 hours. Having talked about these Grumman greatly effects now, it's time to their usage in a story. Typically are at a lot of horror and thriller. Stories from short stories and novels. And these sort of seen situations come up a lot. Like I said, I'm pretty thick skin when it comes to these things. That being said, the usage, if some of these details is very important, especially if you want your reader to feel tints will scared or curious about a situation. The level of grim imagery plays a big part in this. So it's about finding that balance between something that is incredibly terrifying to something that is gross but interesting. If that can be described any better, it's not coming to my mind now, these details are great when describing a lot of scenes. If there's anything I learned from working with the genres that I do, is that you don't want to overdo it with goal and dark details. If overused, you break the suspension of disbelief yellow to make it seem unrealistic. Or the amount of details too much for your reader to take seriously. Crime scenes. I'm not meant to be pleasant. We can all agree on that. But you can also soften the edge of some descriptions by simply keeping them simple instead of over the top. As for the facts we've covered there, of course a lot more out there that you can collect for your own research. If you want more grizzly facts, then reading thriller detective stories or watching forensic focused crime stories will give you that look into the gory details. Of course, let's not forget the books. There are various books on the subject and even other mystery novels which make greater use of these facts. Whenever you decide to get you a collection of facts, make sure that they are realistic, any use them sparingly. These details should be handled the same way you handle your jargon and phrases. It's an element of your book, but not the whole book. Unless of course it is. Which case? Ignore that last piece of advice and write your story as fact centered as you want it to be. Your project for this lesson is to do some research into the facts that pertain to the plot of the novel. So if you have some crime scenes are already enlightened, perhaps doing some additional research and constructing your clues and evidence for your detective to collect and piece together. The next state with that said, This video has come training. In the next video we will be discussing the legal side of detective fiction. Meaning, what are they important legal facts and procedures that a detective needs to go through to convict someone and also continue to investigation. We've touched upon some details, but not a lot, but we'll be covering a lot more in the next video. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 6. The Legal Side of Detective Fiction: Hello, and welcome back to detective story writing course. This lesson, we'll be discussing the legal side of law enforcement. Now I'm not about to address several years of law for you because you don't need to necessarily is overall to write a book in detective fiction. Don't know, several years and I have collected and learned many facts along the way that helped me rot take to fiction and that can help you rot to take to fiction. I'll be talking about the procedures that I'd take to needs to go through in order to legally convict a suspect. In other words, how they gather gather their evidence, how they questioned people, the stapes, they take everything. Some of these you may already know, and some of them you may not. And it is very important to follow a legal procedure and about gathering evidence. Because if a criminal has committed a crime, and there's a lack of any criminal can easily admit they committed a crime. But unless there's evidence in some way to convict them, the detective is stuck in this situation. If they do go about breaking the law, this is a great defense and often a criminal can use, especially if the detective is unsuccessful in their attempts to gather evidence. And of course, experienced criminals are fully aware of these laws and often use them today advantage, for example, do in order to search the place, a detective needs a reasonable reason to step onto the property, will go inside the building. Otherwise, they need to then apply for a warrant, which can often be refused and is often a lengthy process. So an experienced criminal could have multiple venues and you can simply move contraband from one to the other. Thus, whenever they someone's searching particular building, they might be too late and finding any evidence that can help convict a criminal. Of course, the legal side of any detective fiction is often a fine line, especially when it comes to extraordinary situations. You have those vigilante protagonists who would take the law into their own hands. It's often a desire for most criminal investigators, especially those very passionate about justice, who are hopefully a way that a criminal has committed a crime. They must go and follow the proper legal procedure in order to convict them. And this legal procedure often does get in way, in which case they kind of skirt outside the lines of what is legal in order to get the evidence they need in order to convict someone. And then comes down through a morally gray area where you have an anti-hero sort of character. You've got to understand that these laws are put in place for a reason. So you don't know if you'll character could end up hurting someone in the process. They are of course, some loopholes that can be taken advantage of on both sides, both by the criminals and my little enforcement in order to get through Wayne. And a lot of situations are very time sensitive as well. And so legal proceedings can often get in the way because they do take time. For example, if illegal money has been made or stolen or anything like that. And in order to get rid of them money and at the same time still maintain that value. Often criminals were then do what is known as money laundering, which is when they take money that isn't as legal tender. And they turned it into an asset which they can then turn into legal tend to lose that illegal money in the system. For example, property and jewelry, gold, things like that. Often the entire businesses created false businesses. They use cleaver bookkeeping to turn false money into real linear. It's a whole other realm of criminal investigation that people don't often talk about, but often make for the most interesting stories. It's not exactly a murder investigation, but as a investigation into how corruption can also be a fascinated detective story. I should say that most Illegal facts based in the United States of America, but they are often used all over the world. So you might be able to use these facts in your story if you haven't situated somewhere else in the world, that is not the USA. First of all, as you already know, a warrant is required to search someone's home. It is also required to search any property, such as a building belonging to the person and even a cop, a warrant can be skipped if an opposite spot something within a view without having entered the property. For example, they might spot illegal contraband will see a crime being committed. Which case they will within our legal rots, as a law enforcement officer, to intervene or to investigate. And thus can bypass the whole warrant procedure completely. Next, a suspect, in accordance of their rots can remain silent until they lawyer, personal or provided is present, and then talk through them instead. The tactic is often preferred. The suspect as officers record everything they say and as the rods go, it can be and will be used against them in a court of law. This is why it is often talked about as using a lawyer as a mouthpiece. In other words, the criminal would talk or should I say, the suspect one took was out to use of a lawyer to help important information or to put it in the redwoods to make sure that they hit in the best situation possible. Now this is more a tip down a little bit in order to keep suspects from corroborating their stories. They are kept separate. That way if anyone who is guilty or all of them are guilty, they stories might contradict each other. Next and a coat, a private attorney can be high advised suspect or public defender will be provided private attorneys a lot more effective, but also costs a suspect a lot of money. Private attorneys can save a lot of innocent people, but also sit them back financially. However, experienced criminals don't see that as a downside enough to use effective attorneys to help them get out of trouble with the released, shorten their sentence. Next, the jury must consist of randomly selected members of the community. Biased jury members are screened by the defendants or prosecutors attorney. While it is uncommon, it is possible that a criminal mock Bravo blackmail Jerry members in order to affect the results of the trial. Yet there is an element of risk in doing so as one jury member does not guarantee a positive result. And if any more pressured, it could lead to one reporting the criminal and a new Jerry being randomly selected. Next, jails will hold a person for a short period of time. Usually defendants awaiting trial. Prison is both a long-term customers. It's a small fact, but an important one. Jails are usually looser as the defendant might be innocent invest, not deserving of the treatment that a criminal receives. Finally, the difference between a lawyer and tourney. And Loya can provide legal advice, but cannot represent someone. A coat and attorney can provide legal advice and represents someone who caught, in other words, not all lawyers economies, but all attorneys and lawyers. Finally, a prosecutor's attorney can call witnesses to the stand in a court of law. Witness can provide informational confirm information. The same witness can be questioned by the defendant's attorney and vice versa. Usually an attorney will only cross-examine a witness to counter the prosecutors points or two question witnesses. Honesty, depending on the relation they have to the defendant, those are some legal facts to keep in mind when you are crafting your detective story will construct in your courtroom scene. Of course, there are lock more than one can use, but this covers the basics. There are more laws regarding the use of guns and the way you suspect is erased it. But in most detective story, in case there is more puzzle-solving dialogue and tints, information gathering then gun fats. Now, just because I had all these legal effects doesn't mean you have to use them. Back in the previous lessons. These are facts and information that you can pick and choose which best suits his story. And again, Yoast sudden, use them so often. And now your novel might not even consist of a courtroom scene. Perhaps the crime is investigated and sold. And then from then on it's out of the detector of his hands. But in some cases, you never know when you might need one. For example, a case could start with a courtroom scene with someone innocent is convicted and it's up to detective to prove them innocent and so on. These are just some important facts to keep in mind when you detected. It's going about gathering evidence or interviewing a suspect. And I really hope that these facts are going to be very helpful when you are constructing more important scenes in your novel. In the next video, we'll be discussing the skills and detective my tab from the observations they make to the information they know pertaining to a particular case. So see you then. Bye for now. 7. The Detective Tools and Skillset: Hello and welcome to a detective story rotting course. You're drilling me on another cold and gray day. It's almost as if the width is trying to tell me to do something, but more, Nora, ask with the scopes, Let's see if we can ingest that with a slightly warmer lot. In this lesson, we're gonna be talking about the detectives skillset. Now, I'm sure that you have noticed when it comes to reading any detective story, watching a detective show or movie. The detective has certain knowledge that they apply whenever they doing some mundane task. Well, whenever they're doing something crucial. In other words, they have their habits, their techniques and methods for getting the job done. Now these techniques and methods can vary from Detective, Detective. Some detectors and assertion Tom period will employ different tactics. They often do. They own forensics because they have more knowledge subject. Then a forensic department does nowadays, which is one older detective novels. It comes down to do the tick, to do their own sort of chemical analysis of certainty. Instance. Bet. With today's standards, we have many different roles in a police station st department, which will do these tasks. And it's up to the detective to do other things, such as follow-up, question, people, piece things together, so on and so forth. But that doesn't mean that they don't have their own skillsets. They'll have to have so to knowledge when it comes to interviewing people. Understanding when someone is telling them a lot, things like that. Also picking up information as they go along by making observations on crime scenes and people around them. Now there is of course, an unlimited amount of waste that a detective could observe certain details and use them to solve a case. And it will really depends on your story as well. So I'm gonna be talking about the different skill sets and observations that a detective can make use when they solving a case. You don't have to use all of these in your story, but some of these will be useful, I imagine in some crime scenes and they might inspire some other techniques that you want to use in your story. Let's get into it. The first trick that a detective employees goes back to the good old days of mystery solving. It had only they would when faced with a notepad with a sheet of important information to an offset, and detective can rub pencil shavings on the page underneath it to reveal the indent, the paneled pain slowly and thus uncovering important message. This is a trig countered by the criminal BAD tearing up several pages instead of just one. In these days when we have the benefit of so much technology to help us detect a moment, likely rely on them, then use their widths. That's not to say that it won't, It's just something that's more commonplace. However, it would take to 60 or 70 years ago, would have to use their own knowledge to piece things together. As I've said before, we do rely more on technology today and the same applies to any other Korea. Back then. It was up to them and their MOND to sort things out. So often ingenious methods of uncovering clues were used. Now sometimes these methods would always seem be called into question, especially by today's standards. But this information goes along way back then. Also then helps them to push to fund more concrete evidence that they can use to an onto the criminal. Speaking of a pad and pencil, a detective is constantly writing down their observations, using them to record what a person it says and does. This information can then be taken as a statement and made official, which can then be used against a suspect. Should they confirm? That's what they said. Now, let's say a suspect is having their homes searched and they are simply answering some questions for the detective. If they have something they want to hide from the detective, they'll usually try to get between the detective and the hot in place. The suspect will either do this consciously, sometimes unconsciously. For Kenai detective who can read their nervousness, they can spot this maneuver with their own subtle movements. Thus, a detective can inch their way closer to a hiding spot containing an important piece of evidence. The characteristics of the suspect being Notice can differ from suspect to suspect. You can agood any sort of mannerism or habit that they tend to do whenever they nervous. For example, it could be that they've fidgeting with the ends, touching the face. Anything that shows that they're lacking in confidence and thus may have something to hide. Of course, this can also be contributed to the fact that they might be nervous around law enforcement as most people are nowadays. But like I said, an experienced detective. It can detect if someone is hiding something. At least when they this nervous they can. Speaking of mannerisms, the mannerisms of one's profession tends to stink. For example, a person with a military background often stands with their hands behind their back. And manual worker will have BP hands that either cut, stained localised. A desk worker is likely to have a hunch and so on. If the detective can spot a habit or a physical mocking, they can also then deduce how this habit or mocking came up bound. Which can go a long way to deciding what a character was doing before the detective entered. It's from this information that detective can deduce what a person was doing recently or what they've been doing it for a long period of time. Just as a sub play a big part in how a purse laws, those who are not cool under pressure, will try to avoid just drain as if they do. They will usually look uncomfortable by gesturing. Speaking of line bias tend to have more details in a story than those telling the truth. This is because someone telling the truth will only cover the details they found most important, telling little what happened beyond the highlights of an event. A lie, on the other hand, is more likely to provide more details. They'll making it up as they go. And detective can often use this knowledge of details against the lion, cushioning and knowledge or some details as opposed to ovens. Whereas someone telling the truth, there will be more on Shoal when asked for more details. Well, they will struggle to recall. Next, we have observations regarding a person's affinity for certain hand. A person's dominant ten will be the hand at signs their name. When they close their hands, their dominant hands, thumb will be on top. They will use their dominant hand to chop vegetables. Their dominant hand might even be thicker. They also many ways one can tell the dominant hand of another person. And it is still important today. They are divisions in police departments which can analyze the wound and say whether it was done with a left-hand or rotten, which can then be used as evidence should the need arise. Now you might think that finding out the dominant hand of a suspect is fairly commonplace and property doesn't serve much purpose rather than just having it as common knowledge. But there's a reason it is common knowledge. By finding this information, you could determine a lot of things about assessment as well as the crime scene. While this information can also be called into question, it does go a long way in following leads and determining who is guilty. It's finding more ******* evidence. Depend on the suspect. When it comes to learning more information beyond a crime scene, a detective contain or shadow a suspect's vehicle, which might lead them to a hideout or other criminals involved in the crime. This brings us to another important element of detective work and that is Tom keeping. Timekeeping is incredibly important as this way detective cannot record exactly when a suspect lead to place at how long it would take them to commit a crime before they returned. For example, if a suspect is seen at 05:00 PM and returns at 06:15 PM the same day, then they can't have committed a crime and always drop away as there isn't enough time for them to get there and back. He ain't if the crime is only a 20 minute drive away, they can still be considered a suspect. Let's go along way in debunking ones antibodies. Now the toolkit of a detective can extend to the end of watch a notepad and pencil. And detective will often wave plain clothes to blend in as well as have a civilian vehicle that is unlocked. They might carry a recorder to gather information. We'll take a statement. Camera is not out of place, but they are often used mobile private investigators, a photo or better yet, a recording goes a long way in terms of gathering evidence. Finally, there is more to your professional detective than their widths and their on-hand toolkit. And detective police department has access to many resources, from phonorecords to security camera footage, to a host of scientific and forensic analysts who can gather minute evidence. They can help him Chrome on a suspect from Hey, samples to think of prints. If you plan on rotting a detective stories surrounding a police detective, remember that they are not alone and have plenty of knowledgeable people they had to help them close the case. Of course, these tools and skills and autonomy things and detective has, it often comes down to in the most extreme cases, following one's intuition. When a detective has a hunch, they might follow a leader that doesn't seem to make Saints at immediately. But this is big with subconsciously they have a good feeling about a certain lead. Detective will have a puzzle solving months it meaning when they encounter a challenging case, they will have the month that encourages them to try and solve it. They will have the month that will search for alternative solution and see what fits and they'll try to make things work. Now your exercise for this lesson is to determine exactly what knowledge your detective hats. What tool do they have? What skills do they have in solving the mystery that you have planned for them? And it take to clump know everything. There's always gonna be mistakes, there's always gonna be shortfalls. There are gonna be others, perhaps even suspects, have more knowledge on a subject than the detective. And thus the detective will have to find another way in solving a case. As they simply don't have the skills on hand to follow through with another lead. With that said, it is a good thing that you detect two does not have all the pieces at hand. This simply makes them more human and thus they have more personality. If you can't go into specific strategy, determine what skills they would need to know and what skills they would need to learn throughout your story. And that brings us to the end of this lesson. In the next video, we'll be talking about the American police ranking system. So if you're unsure of what ranks to his son, specific characters. If you are working with a police detective, always the police station in general. This is the lesson for you. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 8. Police Ranks: What Rank Should Your Character Be?: Hello, and welcome to your detective story rotting course. In this lesson, we'll be going through the American police Rankin system. Now this is information that you'll be using if you plan to write a story that's based around a police detective, or if the police station is a core elemental your story. When you are creating characters, you might want to assign the ranks to determine what place they have and the police hierarchy. This can help you to determine who takes orders from, who, who delivers messages, and who gives instructions, things like that. Of course, understanding who reports to who is great. But you also need to understand what roles each rank of fills in a police department. Now, while I'll be talking about the American police Frankin system, most police stations will follow the same sort of ranking system. So if you plan on city and your story somewhere else, it'll probably have the exact same situation as an American police ranking system does. But if you're unsure, then obviously I recommend doing additional research into what ranking system that police station has in that country. If that said, let's begin starting with the lowest ranking officer and working our way up to Chief of Police. First we have the police officer. The very first rank is the common police officer. Their duties include responding to crime, so accidents, interviewing suspects and witnesses, writing reports and other similar tasks. The police officer is around NCAA often assigned two characters, passing a message in the station on patrol and a police car. A standard police officer or petty officer is your standard full policing. They are more of this police officer than any other rank. Next, we had the police detective. The detective is usually assigned to a specific division, from narcotics to rubbery to homicide. They are higher ranks of detectives who act as superiors. They manage the lower ranks are detectives. This is only the second rank in the hierarchy system, but already we're getting into the police detective. Typically a person can start the policing career as a police detective if they meet the requirements. But it's also common for an officer to simply earn a promotion to police detective. The next rank is Police Sergeant. The police sergeant is much like the manager of these lower rank police officers. The sergeant will respond to calls from police officers, handle some more administrative responsibilities, such as coordinating patrols. The lower ranks go to the sergeant and the sergeant keeps the higher ranks and formed black police detectives. Surgeons will also be assigned a specific division and geographical location. If for Latina detective story are normally have a sergeant that a police detective reports to an a realistic story. There is only one Chief of Police for each city and they are often too busy to have detectors and petty officers are pulled to them unless there is some truly special reason. That is why the sergeant is such an important rank that helps bridge the divide between opposites that on the field and those that are more administrative. The rank above sergeant is Police Lieutenant. Much like sergeants, lieutenants are simply imbued with more powers and duties. Lieutenants, depending on the class, can assist tech tos acting as commanding officers, Lieutenants, aw, sound specific divisions and can be called upon to assist in high profile cases in their division. The rank above that is Police Captain. At captain oversees their geographical division, ensuring that all under them are performing tasks in accordance with department policies. The captain managers or the administrative responsibilities such as budget requests and activity reports. The captain is ozone charge of interviewing and swearing in civilian personnel for their division. Captain is much like the mother of any lower rank officers. They watch over the opposite and make sure they play nice. Depending on the severity or sensitivity of a case. A caption will step in to manage things personally. But otherwise, they are the more to manage sergeants, lieutenants were looking for places to trim the fat when it comes to the budget above captain, we have police commander. The command is power in the department is even greater, ensuring the efficiency of the Bureau they are assigned. The command that conducts audits on the operations, make suggestions too high and management on boosting productivity. The command is there to assist and improve the police service while maintaining ripple with communities. The second law strength is the police deputy chief. The second highest rank for police officer. Working with the chief of police. Deputy chief is assigned to specific Bureau from Detective to internal phase. As the commanding officer. The DPT will perform the duties of chief of police in the absence of the chief of police. Which of course brings us to the final rank, which is the chief of police. This is the highest rank and the entire police department. The chief of police is in charge of planning and efficient administration AND operation of the police department under the authority of the board of Police Commissioners. So while the Chief of Police governs over Mini of phase in a police department, there'll also be taking orders from the board of police commissioners who decides if they needs to be some changes made to the policing system that they have in place. Now that I've simplified a lot of these ranks for your benefit. And I haven't even talked about special units such as swat yet. I hope that all I've talked about has enlightened view on the roles of each rank and how they all work together. Such information is important when you are creating characters and you want them all to fit together, to work together. Don't want to refer to every character as other low-ranking officer or a high-ranking officer. If you're unsure rank, they would be simplified. What duties each rank cast as they are many edit make this lesson clot lengthy, repetitive, and confusing now otherwise, if you want more in depth information, you can always do additional research on specific ranks that you tend to be working with in your stories. If you plan to have a police detective and you want to make reference to the various classes. You can do more research into the three different classes of police detective and what duties they each hat. Of course, it doesn't hurt to condense this information down, especially since you are going to be writing a fictional story. Meaning that GOD going to be giving as much information as you feel is necessary for the interests sake of the plot and the reader also about physically recording this information. You could have this little cheat sheet to reference whenever you are writing. With that said, this lesson has come to an end. And the next lesson we'll be talking about the traits that make it a tick to lockable and interesting. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 9. Writing Likeable & Investing Detectives: Hello and welcome back to our detective story writing course. In this lesson, we'll be talking about the traits that will make a detected more likable and investing. Now you can always pick and choose these traits depending on what detective you haven't. That's it. Let's get straight into it. First, the ways in which your detective pieces puzzles together is a great way to show personality. Some writers prefer to keep a detectors thoughts silent only if a revealing their conclusions when it isn't necessary. In this way, the reader is always invested in the mystery more than the character as they try to solve it along with the detective. That is not to say that you should do it only this way. Other artists like to have the detective show. They're ingenious ideas and the way that the piece they're close together as they go. They can do this through dialogue exchanged with another character, or even by having a detective tokens themselves. Next, the ways in which a detective interacts with other characters. This comes down to the personality and the various quirks they might have. For example, you could have a friendly detective who seemed somewhat knowledgeable but more unassuming. And thus they might likely lead something important, slip and watching them closely enough to see if they make this mistake. Or you could have a detective who's not on the inside but rough on the outside, always showing a cold personality, either because they think the force and seriousness helps them get better results. Or perhaps it is a front to protect the mentally and emotionally when dealing with difficult cases. These are classic personality examples that they underline a very important element of detective fiction. Your character is going to be interacting with people sometimes in casual circumstances, sometimes in the interrogation room will even at the scene of the crime, their behavior, the way they treat good and bad characters, needs to be considered if you want to make them more investing and lockable. Now there's more to personality than just the way they interact with other characters. There also has to be other elements, such as mannerisms, common phrases, ambitions, false fears, skills and so on. You have a detective working to solve a case, but they'll still have other problems that make it more interesting, difficult. Perhaps they were assigned a partner who is interfering with the case where they have responsibilities at home. Perhaps they have a personal connection to the case, which results in them being removed from the case, but increases their need to work on it. The number of possible obstacles as many, as well as the number of possibilities for something or someone to help them. For example, the detective could be working in a case surrounding something they are quite knowledgeable. Or perhaps they get along with their partners so well, that work feels easier and more enjoyable. It all depends on the tone you want to sit with your novel. That the addition of an extra element is always advised if you feel your story is too straightforward. Not investing enough. When looking for ideas, a great place to source traits is to look at the people around you. What are they? Mannerisms, their personality traits that make them so interesting. It could be used to make your character interesting. If you get the trans as well to interview a real detective, why not ask them how they approach a case OSC, their partner, how they approach the case for a better perspective. You can obviously source ideas from fiction as well be at characters and books, movies or TV shows. We'll be discussing more fictional examples in the next lesson. So stay tuned for that. Finally, never underestimate the power of a good sense of humor. If you can write an amusing scene to break the tantrum or Latin, what feels like a dark story. And take advantage of that skill. The detective doesn't have to be a comedian. Everyone says something funny once in a while. So should your detective, or at least someone around them, their jokes are the reactions could help to show a more human side of their personality. If you can't tell a joke, then perhaps construct an amusing scene with a detective is clumsy or witnesses something funny. If you have an idea of what to write but struggle, don't fret about it. Take your time. Make it casual by not putting all your focus on it. That way it will read well and have a great chance of working as a seam. I hope this lesson has helped you to see that great characters have their good traits and they are bad traits as well. It is often the case though in most functionalities, to make use of what is known as a blank main character. Meaning that the main character is completely mundane and they simply fulfilling the role that they have to play in the story. It's kind of like creating a hollow shell for the reader to place themselves in. That way they can experience and feel the emotions of the main character but better. But at the same time, what does, does great as a less likable main character? You will find that the reader will then have more interest in the side characters rather than the main character. Now this is not a bad practice. If this is something that you have in mind, then by all means go for it. But a lot of great characters in any fiction will stand out, be remembered. And BSO on the high tier list of characters that are liked and that story, I even have an entire course dedicated to making your main character more interesting, to making them better for your story. You can check out my profile if you wish to see that they have it. This is probably one of the lost very serious lessons in course. As in the next lesson, we'll be taking a breather to discuss some popular examples in fiction that you can take inspiration from, from detectors in the books to the detectives in the theaters. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 10. Great Detectives To Be Inspired By: Hello, and welcome back to a detective story course. In this lesson, we're simply going to take a step back from the serious content and look at some great inspirations for detective stories. Now there are many inspirations to choose from. Inspirations you can find in books, TV shows, and movies. Sometimes these crossover. And I'm pretty sure it all depends on which version of these characters you wish to take inspiration from. With that said, I'm going to be going through the most popular fictional examples of detectives. First, let's talk about the most popular detectives in literature, starting with the classic Sherlock Holmes. Originally a creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes had short stories which appeared in magazines, then Complete Novels. The character was a hit in its Tom and still is today. From the movies to the series, to the paradise which have been created. Of course, there are some more modern takes on Sherlock Holmes as being seen in movies and TV shows, which have done quite well too. And although I haven't familiarize myself with these TV shows, I have heard that they are very popular and great inspirations to take when it comes to Sherlock Holmes and the personality of a highly intelligent but highly strung detective. Sherlock Holmes presented an incredibly intelligent detective, man of science, but also a man with a drug problem and an ego to match his height. These are the faults that sort of balance out these positive traits. And also give you a more realistic perspective on a full human to human. And sherlock Holmes is not without its problems. The second most famous detective. Well, this is not a list of the most famous, but the second in this list is her keopireul creation of Agatha Christie. Tokyo borrow mysteries were mess hit. Although they started very early in the 20th century. They really took off in the 60s and 70s. Like Sherlock Holmes, these stories were turned into movies and even TV series, which explains why they became such a big thing in the sixties and seventies. Borrow, however, remains a detective outcome to this day, as does his mustache. Now I've already mentioned Sam Spade and knees now cliche traits from the novel, The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett. Like all these previous examples, The Maltese Falcon has a plethora of techniques to study when it comes to crafting and investing mystery. Not to mention the Sam Spade radio shows which you can find on YouTube if you wish to listen to some adventures that families listened to in the late 40s and early 50s. Another classic from Agatha Christie is Ms. Model. Like Agatha Christie detectives. Before her, Ms. Mapo is more methodical and brilliant as opposed to a determined detective who's ready to get their hands dirty to solve a mystery. Yet considering that Ms. Model is a little old lady, the chances of that happening ont great. Still this is a character with the mind that is worth looking into. Next, we have **** Tracy. Personally. I'm not too familiar with **** Tracy. I'm away that he started out as a comic book character that got cereal films in the 70s. And other than that, I know that he is big in the realm of detective characters and might be worth looking into. If you're interested in comic book perspective on a detective, I'm told her Classic and the comic industry. Now, if your target audience is younger than there is a host of mystery fiction that might interest you. You have Nancy Drew, the famous file, the secret seven, The Hardy Boys. One of these are still big today, being simple and yet well-written mysteries that anyone can enjoy. Not to mention, these are books that show you don't need to have a killer to make a mystery interesting. Now for the lost on this list of inspirations, I've saved the base velocity at least the best in my opinion. Yes, I am biased, but this is my course. So I present to you Colombo. Colombo started earlier than most think, but these series only became a thing when peta folk took up the role in the late sixties. It was the start of a movie series that went on for four decades. These are reverse mysteries where you are presented with a killer and how they committed the crime right at the start of the show. But the real joy of the mystery was watching Colombo piece it all together and how and the suspect until yet, all you needed to convict them. It's a great show that I'm sure many of you are familiar with. If you're not, I can highly recommend it. There you have it. Some popular examples of detectors that you can look into in your own free time if you haven't already familiarized yourself with these detectives. Now, as I said earlier, a lot of these have made they break into the film and TV industry. Some of them have had several iterations over the years or decades. Even with that in mind, there are many different characteristics that have been. What's the word transposed onto these characters thanks to the actors. So if you want to focus your inspiration on a particular actors rendition of the cacti, you can do so. As I said before, finding these habits, mannerisms, and phrases that often associated with these characters can also be associated with your own. In other words, if you'd like a character's gestures, you can use that. If you'd like the way they speak, you can use that. You can create a Frankenstein of all ideas and thus make it your own, therefore something unique. Now your detective doesn't have to be such an icon of a character and I don't need to stand out. They didn't need all this at an additional emphasis on the personality. All that they really need to be as a character plays the role, they just solve a mystery. And that's really what this course is about, is writing a story with a character whose intent on PC and a puzzle together. With that, uh, Monday or other places that you can take inspiration from. You can go to places like Pinterest and look up artworks created by many talented people are the pictures that can give you inspiration, not only on your protagonist, but you're sad characters, the places where you will be taking place and so on. Also, you can look into music, for example, I've always encouraged my readers when they are lacking the mood to rot, to create it by looking at these images and inspirations, but also listening to the music they feel would be playing in these scenarios. So for many would probably be some sort of smokey jazz music, something that really adds to that sort of nor ambulance to others. It might just simply be music that is played during the tongue. It really gives that feeling of a detective at work. And I really do hope that you also look into these inspirations if you're not familiar with them as they are. Some great examples, at least the ones that I'm familiar with, I believe are great examples of detectives. And that brings us to the end of this lesson. In the next video, we'll be talking about the styles that you can watch, detective stories in the length of the novels, the important details that perspective. So you don't want to miss it. I'll see you then. Bye for now. 11. Basic Elements of Detective Fiction: Hello and welcome back to detective story writing course. In this lesson, we're gonna be talking about the important details and elements of a detective story that you're unsure about. Especially if you're new to writing. You might have no clue of how long your detective stories should be, what perspective to writing or even what style. I'm going to be going through all these details from beginning to end so you can get a better idea of how to start and go about writing your detective novel. However, when it comes to a creative project such as this, it always comes down to what you prefer, the information that I'll be talking about to present to you all the directions you can go. And you'll always find yourself leaning towards one rather than the other. All of these have their pros and cons, but some of them will sound better to you. And those are the ones that I would recommend you tank with that said, be sure to take this lesson with a pinch of salt. You are still the one in charge. You're going to write the way that you wanted to write and do the things that you want to do with you. A story. That's it. I'm still gonna be talking about the pros and cons of these elements. So let's get into it. Every writer has their own style and we're gonna be talking about that first of all. As long as you write like he naturally would, your instincts will ensure that your style is your own. Yet if you want to have a certain field to your book, then creating a writing structure will help you establish a sort of style. You can keep your dialogues brief or make them link to. You could have a complex story or fairly straightforward one. My recommendation, try to write naturally. For many neuritis, it is easy to look at other writers and try to emulate their style with the story. Yet most will end up forcing a rotting in doing so. And it shows in the quality of the writing. If you don't mind the extra time and effort to rot away that isn't your own style then by all means. But don't downplay the significance of your own style. It could be the thing that makes your story great. Now, when it comes to length, I've always talked about lengthen. It comes to certain genres. And I will admit there are some differences when it comes to detective stories. It all comes down to deciding, once you feel comfortable with writing, short stories can range from anything as low as 500 words to 49 thousand words. Novels are 50 thousand words and up for beginner writers or recommend pushing to write a novel over 50 thousand words. 65 thousand to 80 thousand words being a standardized by a bomb. This is a word count that is very popular today. It's long enough to create an interesting story with its own twists and turns. But also it's short enough to cater to most readers nowadays. Of course, by today's standards, 65 thousand words is not the lowest limit you can go. You can go shorter than that and you will still do well. Something that really makes for a quick weekend read or an audio book is ideal. Now perspective, there is the personal perspective where narrated talks about what happens in the story. It could be a nobody Narrator. It could be a character in a novel retelling the events as they saw it. First-person perspective is when the story is told from the perspective of someone in the book, thus giving you insight into their thoughts but not others. The third-person perspective helps you to set the ambiance of a novel, as well as keep the thoughts and feelings. Have some characters hidden unless they express our voice them. The person perspective just as easily can give the reader a look into the thoughts and feelings of other characters. But that depends on how intrusive you want to be as a narrator. In which case it might be better to go with first-person perspective and choose the main character who you feel gives an excellent perspective on the story. Third person works well in this sub genre. As it can give the reader layout of the crime scenes, it can move characters around better to really set the scene as well. Now, first-person perspective is a lot more immersive as you experienced each scene in that character's shoes. There may be the only character who you really have insight into how they feel. But that also helps the reader building attachment to the character, which is why it is often the main character that is in the first-person perspective. Because you want to feel attached to the main character in the story. The protagonist. First-person perspective works well in mystery novels because it allows you to keep some important details are hidden from the reader, either by keeping it out of SO2 earshot toolbar, distracting the main character's perspective with a red herring. When it comes to perspective, found that third person works well with the latter story. And first-person works better with a darker story. The first-person things feel more personal, so grim scenes will hit harder as you convey the emotion through such a close perspective better. Yet in the third person, it's easy to detach as you aren't in the main character's shoes. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't write a hard hitting seen in third person. But first-person will always feel a lot more personal because it is. Finally, let's talk about how descriptive you can be in your detective story. Mystery stories are all about details. You can introduce a clue in many forms. From the physical evidence a detective collects the smells, they smell the conversations they over here. If you wanted to, you could have lots of important details for swamping the reader of paragraphs of information. That tactic is not recommended when it comes to details, treat detective stories as you would any other novel. Sure, you can discuss matters of importance in detail, but don't linger on describing the mundane and unnecessary. Either to just pad your story or to confuse your reader with as many details as possible. This is not recommended by going into the unimportant or unnecessary, you risk losing your reader. The reader ones to stay invested as it is the only way that demand will work along with the detectives. The best way to make it difficult for the reader to solve a mystery is to keep details seemingly unconnected. Yes, a red herring here and there to keep the reader guessing and the detective busy. But otherwise it's simply about making it difficult to connect the dots. Then there you have it. The basics of writing a detective story. This is some information that you can use when constructing the structure of your book, length and the style. Bet with that, instead, I'm not going to be taken a step back from being an instructor in this course to talk into your personally as a writer. The next video I'm going to be giving you my personal tips on writing detective stories. And feel free if you are experienced in this sub-genre to share your own. In the comments below, we want to build a community of writers. So if you wanted to do more than just share your writing, you can do so in the comments below by talking about methods that you've found effective and writing stories. With that, I'll see you in the next video. Bye for now. 12. My Writing Advice for Writing Detective Stories: Hello writers and welcome back to a detective story course. In this lesson, I'm going to be talking to you as a fellow writer, discussing my personal tips, erotic and detective story. And this is a two-way discussion, not a lecture. Meaning if you have any information you wish to share with other students who were with me, you can do so in comments below, I'm an active instructor, which means I'll be there to answer them as soon as I see them. With that said, let me talk about story writing. I have written hundreds of short stories, more website, I've written novels. I understand certain genres better than others, but I've certainly pushed to stick with my guns and Rod want to know based. That's why I've never written any novels in some genres are taught courses and some genres. As I'm just not familiar with them. I struggled to convey certain emotions that those genres are popular for, things like that. That said, from my experience and on my time writing and teaching, I have learned a lot from both writing and from looking with my students. There's always gonna be a chance to learn something new when it comes to writing. Which is why I watch other artists courses, which is why I read at the blogs or watch any YouTube videos and learn more from other experienced rotis, as well as my own students who are also pick up on their own techniques and methods. In other words, they create styles which are unfamiliar to me sometimes. And also methods which are found in genius for telling a story. That said, let me not bore you with a dash of other writers and the students, I have my community. But tell you some personal tips I have for writing this sub-genre. Start with my first step, which is don't forget your main character. It's easy to get sidetracked by the side characters or even with complex plot. If you put more focus on the core of your novel, then it's very easy to let some parts of the story down. And the worst one to neglect is your main character. I want to first started writing. I got invested in parts must story that I felt more interested in. During the writing stage, my interests changed with the days. Some parts appealed to me more than others. When I took the time to read through what I had written, I noticed that my characters have faded into the background. The main character, especially the main character for me, became an uninteresting tool that simply progress the story rather than a character connected with or cared about. Unfortunately, it's a common mistake that I've seen in literature today to have characters such as this. Often they are made blend intentionally that we read this can subconsciously place themselves into the main character's shoes, as I've said before. But my first tip is to watch out for this and corrected a detective and a detective story should be just as important as the mystery. Make them interesting, make them have some quality that says they are the main character for a reason. And not just some empty a role that was filled with whatever name and personality that can be found. That said, my next step is to set limits on the complexity of administering pretty self-explanatory tip. You don't want to over-complicate the story with so many twists and turns that the readers let spinning in the wind. After all, most crumbs on so complex in their execution, that leaves a lot of room for error. Third tip is subtlety is key whenever I'm constructing dialogue. First ask myself if I wanted to be subtle or dramatic. Whenever I need to be dramatic, I can go all out with the emotion from shouting to cursing too harsh back and forth, that might lead to violent confrontation. Yet, when I need to be subtle, I'll make sure the characters on the right frame of mind. Other, they approached the discussion intelligently, listening for clues or being diplomatic. Perhaps the honest situation that doesn't allow them to speak their minds. So they need to choose their words carefully. Thus, I choose my words carefully. Now my next tip is to use inspiration to make something unique. There are many ideas already printed, especially when it comes to mystery. There's so many twists and turns that have been done before. Clever tricks and a genius plots that have been devised and turned into stories. It would be ridiculous to assume that within the scope of the law that there has been a plot or conspiracy that hasn't already been done. But that said, there's still a little uniqueness with each and every mystery you can find in these detective fictions. An author often takes inspiration from other writers when they are struggling to find ideas. Modelling a similar twist or mystery for this story. How they make it unique is by altering some details, perhaps changing the outcome or even the suspect, by adding their own fled to mystery. That doesn't necessarily make it all more special in the sense of complexity, perhaps difference in their elements, but certainly makes it unique. There could be new elements, an array of characters that could've have some involvement in the story. A mystery can turn out to be bigger than expected or smaller than expected. Any idea can be redone in such a way that it is unique to the author. With that said, if you're ever struggling with an idea, I recommend turning to a book author. We're examining some plot points. Now the last step I have isn't really a tip, but more like some friendly advice. It's to simply pace yourself. As I've talked about in larger genre courses. Writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint. You don't want to burn out after working so hard, but you also don't want to take so long that you lose interest about pacing yourself. You keep yourself working, but also you keep your enthusiasm constant. And there you have my tips for writing a detective story. Your project for this course is simply to submit a scene from new story. It can be a rough first draft, anything that really captures your story, you can submit. It'll be reviewed if you wish it to. You can just simply add a comment saying can you please have a look at this or any suggestions or anything like that? I'm an active instructors have seen before, so I'd be more than happy to help if you've hit a dead end. Or if you simply want to have. Another perspective on your style. As I've said in other courses and even articles, you can always look to your friends and family members to get a stick and perspective on your story. Or you can turn to me as I'm always happy to read and review writing. And with that, this course has come training in the next video, I'll conclude to what you have learned and what comes next. So I'll see you then. Bye for now. 13. Conclusion to Writing Detective Fiction for Beginners: Hello, congratulations, you've taken the very first step in writing a first detective story. Watching this course from beginning to end as more than prepared you to start writing your novel. Before I talk about what comes next, I want to give one more piece of advice, one writer to another. When you start writing, focus on moving forward and writing as much as you feel is necessary. Don't linger on all the chapters to edit or rewrite your story as it could break up your writing flow and make it difficult to continue. Save all that work for once you've finished your first draft and then come back to correct mistakes, what to change? Important plot points if necessary. With that said, Where do you go from here? Well, the first thing I recommend is to finish your preparations for your novel. This can be anything from writing your plot structure to writing your chapter summaries a server course on planning and novel, which you can find on my profile. While you're checking up my profile, why not follow me? As I'll be posting several articles all the time, and it will also update you when I post a new course, I have an array of courses that might interest you and I encourage you to check them out. Doing so not only helps me, but hopefully it helps you as well on your writing journey. Speaking of help, if you ever hit a dead end variety new novel, Be sure to leave a question in the discussions below. I'm always happy to help in any way I can and perhaps get you past that little writer's block and to finishing your story. If you want a more private tutor ship on your writing, you can always join my writer's workshop. You can find that at the top of my website, the paint sleuth.com. That way you can show your work with me and more privately and I can help give you more hands-on advice when it comes to tackling these problems. Now I do hope you enjoyed this course and as always, good day, could not. And happy writing.