I don’t know many writers who live in a house. Most of the
writers I know live in a library that just happens to have a kitchen, bathroom,
and important furniture like a bed. If you are a writer, you have heard the old
cliché of “write what you know.” If you are a reader you might often wonder
where the ideas and the information for the story came from. They came from the
home and the public library—from the web and from the conversations and
research a writer does.
Crime writing is one of the genres I write and it is the
focus of my corner of The Writers' Lens. As such, I have decided to share on my “For the Reader
Friday” blogs one of the many reference books that I use for my stories.
I am currently working on a Private Investigator (or PI)
novel. While as a high school student I fantasized of being one of those hard
boiled detectives. The real life of a PI doesn’t often resemble the fantasy
world. So, how does a writer learn about the PI life? There are many ways
(books, podcasts, websites, blogs and following the real ones on twitter). One of the resource books I find useful opens
the door on this profession and is writing by writers who are PIs. The book is How
to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of
Real-Life Sleuths, by Shaun Kaufman and Colleen Collins.
About the book (written on Barnes and Noble’s synopsis):
“The private eye genre has come a
long way, baby, with new subgenres – from teenage PIs to vampire gumshoes to
geriatric sleuths – attracting new readers every year. Although it can be
safely said that all fictional sleuths, or private dicks, such as Edgar Allan
Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin and Sara Paretsky’s V.I. Warshawski, are thinking
machines, depending on their powers of observation, analysis and curiosity, the
21st century has opened up a brave new world of investigative technology, tools
and Internet resources that would have made Sherlock Holmes weep with joy.
“Unfortunately, most writers are not aware of the state-of-the-art developments that shape today’s professional private investigator, which sometimes leave writers floundering with impossible and antiquated devices, characters and methods in stories. Which is why we wrote How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths, whose material we culled from our working a combined 14 years as private investigators (and for one of us, several decades hiring and managing private investigators). As a team, we have taught online classes and presented workshops at writers’ conferences about writing private investigators, and we write the blog Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes on a wide variety of investigative techniques and tools. How to Write a Dick isn’t about how to write a novel, but what you need to know to write an authentic, compelling 21st-century sleuth character or story.
“Writers, readers, researchers, investigators and publishing professionals can use How to Write a Dick as an aid for:
• Writing stories/characters in the PI, mystery, suspense and thriller genres
• Understanding the real-world of PIs and their fictional counterparts
• Using the book as a reference resource for writing articles and other research
• Researching the techniques, tools and legalities used by your favorite private eyes in film, books and other media
‘Forget Google and Bing. When you need to research PI work, go to the experts, Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman: they live it, they teach it, they write it. How to Write a Dick is the best work of its kind I’ve ever come across because it covers the whole spectrum in an entertaining style that will appeal to layman and lawmen alike. This will be the industry standard for years to come.’
- Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award winner for Best PI Novel of the Year and author of Hurt Machine
‘If you want authenticity in creating a fictional private investigator for your stories, then this is a must-have reference book. Its authors, Colleen and Shaun, are living breathing PIs with years of actual experience in the PI game.’
- R.T. Lawton, 25 years on the street as a federal special agent and author of 4 series in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.”
“Unfortunately, most writers are not aware of the state-of-the-art developments that shape today’s professional private investigator, which sometimes leave writers floundering with impossible and antiquated devices, characters and methods in stories. Which is why we wrote How to Write a Dick: A Guide for Writing Fictional Sleuths from a Couple of Real-Life Sleuths, whose material we culled from our working a combined 14 years as private investigators (and for one of us, several decades hiring and managing private investigators). As a team, we have taught online classes and presented workshops at writers’ conferences about writing private investigators, and we write the blog Guns, Gams, and Gumshoes on a wide variety of investigative techniques and tools. How to Write a Dick isn’t about how to write a novel, but what you need to know to write an authentic, compelling 21st-century sleuth character or story.
“Writers, readers, researchers, investigators and publishing professionals can use How to Write a Dick as an aid for:
• Writing stories/characters in the PI, mystery, suspense and thriller genres
• Understanding the real-world of PIs and their fictional counterparts
• Using the book as a reference resource for writing articles and other research
• Researching the techniques, tools and legalities used by your favorite private eyes in film, books and other media
‘Forget Google and Bing. When you need to research PI work, go to the experts, Colleen Collins and Shaun Kaufman: they live it, they teach it, they write it. How to Write a Dick is the best work of its kind I’ve ever come across because it covers the whole spectrum in an entertaining style that will appeal to layman and lawmen alike. This will be the industry standard for years to come.’
- Reed Farrel Coleman, three-time Shamus Award winner for Best PI Novel of the Year and author of Hurt Machine
‘If you want authenticity in creating a fictional private investigator for your stories, then this is a must-have reference book. Its authors, Colleen and Shaun, are living breathing PIs with years of actual experience in the PI game.’
- R.T. Lawton, 25 years on the street as a federal special agent and author of 4 series in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.”
This book is a recent addition to my crime library and it
has already taken a prominent place on my desk.
It gives the writer the business side as well as well as an up-to-date
guide that allows a writer to really understand the world of the PI. If you are
a writer writing about PIs and want to take your story across the threshold into
the grit of the real world, I would suggest that you check out this book.
Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com
and www.thewriterslens.com. You can
also follow me on twitter @Owlkenpowriter and the Writer’s Lens
@TheWritersLens. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in
our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.
I applaud you for writing a PI novel--I think these are much harder than people think they are going to be! It sounds like an interesting book. :) Thanks for sharing.
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