The Facts of Life…and Death: Writing Crime Accurately with Deborah Ledford
Date(s): Saturdays, 12 p.m. - 2 p.m., April 8 - 29, 2017
Location: Piper Writers House, 450 E Tyler Mall, Tempe, AZ 85281 (view map)
Type(s):
Genre and Form(s): Creative Nonfiction, Crime Fiction, Fiction, Memoir
About the Class
Nothing stirs the blood like a good crime story. For writers, part of the fun is unleashing your imagination and intellect on the page.
Great crime fiction, though, depends upon convincing facts. Nothing jolts a reader out of a story faster than a misplaced detail, an erroneous line of dialogue, an implausible procedure, or an impossible scenario. To write riveting and realistic crime stories, you must know a few things law, forensics, medicine, and other professions that come into contact with criminal activity. And what better way to learn than to ask an expert in the field?
Each week, we’ll introduce you to a person whose job regularly brings him or her into contact with crime scenes and/or criminal activities — police officers, crime scene managers, and others who can tell you what writers often get wrong, what is crucial to get right, what opportunities writers sometimes miss, and where the good stories may be found. Agatha Award-winner Deborah J. Ledford will lead the discussion with each guest, and will guide you through examples and exercises that will help you capture your readers’ imaginations by anchoring them in the real world of crime and forensics.
