❶ How To Write A Detective Story: 20 Golden Rules

To write a good detective story, you need not only to overcome laziness, but also to work out a schedule, to get rid of everyday affairs. It is not easy to create a work that any book publishing company will gladly publish, but it is quite possible if you follow certain rules. Location: Location: 1. Having started writing, come up with a sonorous nickname. If your real last name doesn't match the detective genre, create a fake name. This is especially true when the narration is in the first person.

2. Be sure to write a plan. List the main characters, define their relationships, draw a clear storyline. This will greatly facilitate writing a detective story, so you can finish all the chapters without forgetting anything.

3. Do not create many names in order not to confuse the reader. Enough 3-5 main characters, the same number of minor and 10-12 episodic. Immediately decide which of them is a negative character, in order to periodically withdraw or strengthen suspicions about them during the presentation.

4. Carefully choose the names and surnames of the characters. The heroes of detective stories have a clear division into positive, negative, neutral and comical. Based on their qualities, give them a surname, which should either emphasize their dignity, or keep the intrigue until the end of the work.

5. Do not fix anything in the already completed parts until you describe the outcome. At the end of the process of writing a detective story, a revision begins, during which it turns out that the work is too short, and the beginning will have to be rewritten, or an additional plot line, etc.

6. Include the dialogues of the characters in the text, they are perceived by the reader more easily than a continuous presentation. Try to keep the volume at least 50-70%. At the same time, the heroes should not always have conversations about who killed whom and who is to blame for what, you can choose other topics for conversation.

7. Don't neglect details. Any little thing can matter, even curtains on the window, rust on the gate, smells and much more. As if by the way, describe all the evidence as you describe the plot.

8. Introduce love and sex into the story. This is interesting to many, only there should not be many such inserts, yet this is not a love story and the readership of these genres very rarely coincide.

9. Do not victimize children. People are sensitive to such stories. In addition, most of the readers themselves are parents and it will be extremely unpleasant for them to read such a work.

10. Write daily, otherwise you will get bogged down in work forever. Determine the minimum that needs to be worked out, even if the neighbors staged a flood in the apartment.

11. Submit the full text of the work. The chances that someone at the publishing house will be interested in the detective part is slim.

12. Study the rules for accepting manuscripts, observe the required format. There are publishers that accept text only on paper or in electronic form.

13. Submit your work simultaneously to several publishers. This increases the chances that your detective will be released in the near future.

14. Write a short cover letter, which will often make the editor-in-chief read your detective first.

15. Having received a negative answer, do not be upset. If the publisher considers the work unsuitable, the review is not written at all. Therefore, a negative answer is also a result.

16. It is not necessary to demand a report from the editors, in addition, it is not necessary to express indignation. Reviewers carefully read everything that comes to the publisher. And if they did not give an answer, then the detective will not be accepted by them, that is, the answer is negative.

17. You can post a detective story on the Internet, there it can be read by an editor from a budding book publisher and contribute to the early release of a limited series.

18. You can contact a literary agent who, while you are writing your work, will look for a way to release it. This has its pros and cons. The good news is that sitting at home, you are not puzzled about the future of your detective. The bad side will be the need to share your own royalties.

19. Having finished the first book, immediately - before the reader and the publisher forget you - start writing the second.

20. Work constantly, so the chances of publishing at least one of your works will increase, and the success of even one book can pay off all the time spent on work.