Learning to Create Tension from The Comfort of Strangers
One of the key elements of great suspense or psychological thriller stories is a sense of disorientation. When a protagonist doesn't know if they...
Sherlock’s Violin: Humanize Your Sleuth With Hobbies
We all have hobbies and interests, so why shouldn't your fictional detective? Hardboiled crime fiction is rife with private eyes who like booze and...
Use Cultural Taboos to Add Depth and Detail to Your Historical...
In a long article for Lit Hub, Aimee Parkison shares how researching cultural taboos, particularly customs that forbid women from participating in certain behaviors,...
Psychological Thrillers Start Close to Home
In a post on CrimeReads, author Nicci French - a pseudonym for the writing partnership of Nicci Gerrard and Sean French - say that...
5 Tips for Creating an Eerie Atmosphere
While not every reader is a horror fan, plenty love to be scared. A good fright gives us the same natural high we get...
Worldbuilding Lessons from Dune
Writer Chuck Wendig rhapsodizes about the worldbuilding in the new Dune movie.
"Dune as a storyworld has a lot of it," Wendig says. "It’s actually...
Use Character to Get Under Your Readers’ Skins
There's a lot more to horror than simply creating a monster or scheduling a few jump scares. The greatest horror hits your audience in...
Why are the Crazy Ones Always So Hot?
From Lucifer on down, we are culturally attracted to beautiful killers. The list is lengthy, but for many, it starts and ends with serial...
Here’s to Better Sex in Crime Fiction
In writing, as in life, there's nothing like great sex. Unfortunately, after we're done, we often have to admit...that was nothing like great sex. This...
One Writer’s Simple Trick for Brainstorming the Future
Science fiction writers have been predicting elements of the future - and our present - for decades. While we don't yet have holodeck and...
